Peter Laviolette was fired as coach of the New York Rangers on Saturday.
No replacement was named.
Laviolette coached the Rangers for two seasons after being hired June 13, 2023. He was 94-59-11, but New York failed to reach the Stanley Cup Playoffs this season after winning the Presidents’ Trophy and reaching the Eastern Conference Final last season.
New York is the fourth team to miss the playoffs the season after winning the Presidents’ Trophy, joining the 2014-15 Boston Bruins, the 2007-08 Buffalo Sabres and the 1992-93 Rangers.
Associate coach Phil Housley was also fired.
“Quite simply, we fell short across the board,” Rangers president and general manager Chris Drury said on a conference call Saturday. “Nobody here takes it lightly. We know our fans are frustrated and they deserve a better season than this. It starts with me.”
Drury was asked if he has received assurances from owner James Dolan that his job is safe.
“I’m not going to get into personal private conversations I have with Mr. D,” he said. “I can tell you my focus is on doing what I think is right to make this organization better. We’re obviously all frustrated and disappointed with how things ended and not being in the playoffs. My focus is on doing everything I can to make sure we’re a playoff team next year.”
The shock of the Rangers failures this season is a result of how it compares to last season, their first under Laviolette, when they set team records with 55 wins and 114 points.
This season, they went 39-36-7 and were eliminated from playoff contention April 12 following a 7-3 loss to the Carolina Hurricanes. They finished fifth in the Metropolitan Division, six points behind the Montreal Canadiens for the second wild card into the playoffs from the East.
Their power play finished 28th in the NHL this season at 17.6 percent, including 10.8 percent in their last 30 games. It was third last season at 26.4 percent.
New York did not win a game when trailing by at least two goals until rallying from down 3-1 in the second period to defeat the Panthers 5-3 at Amerant Bank Arena on April 14.
The Rangers led the League with 28 comeback victories in 2023-24, including five in games they were down by two or more goals.
They were 12-4-1 through their first 17 games but went 4-15-0 from Nov. 21 to Dec. 30. They were in a playoff position after defeating the Columbus Blue Jackets 4-0 on March 15, but went 4-8-1 in their next 13 games, which led to their elimination.
Along the way, the Rangers traded captain Jacob Trouba to the Anaheim Ducks on Dec. 6 and forward Kaapo Kakko to the Seattle Kraken on Dec. 18 for defenseman Will Borgen, who signed a five-year, $20.5 million contract on Jan. 25.
They acquired forward J.T. Miller from the Vancouver Canucks on Jan. 31, sending center Filip Chytil to Vancouver as part of the trade.
They traded defenseman Ryan Lindgren and forward Jimmy Vesey to the Colorado Avalanche on March 1, bringing back defenseman Calvin de Haan, forward Juuso Parssinen and two draft picks.
The Rangers also got defenseman Carson Soucy from the Canucks on March 6.
“There’s a lot of moving parts throughout any season and certainly this season had many moving parts,” Drury said. “We’ve been looking at a lot of different things since training camp started with regards to the team, with regards to changes, personnel. Eyes wide open to try to figure this out and what this team will need moving forward.”
To replace Laviolette, Drury said the Rangers will conduct an expansive coaching search and will not limit themselves to looking at only coaches with NHL experience.
The list of the currently available veteran NHL coaches they could interview includes John Tortorella, Jay Woodcroft and Joel Quenneville. The list of potential first-time NHL coaches that could get jobs before next season includes David Carle (University of Denver), Jay Leach (Bruins assistant), Nate Leaman (Providence College) and Jay Pandolfo (Boston University).
“My eyes are wide open,” Drury said. “I’m not going at this with any preset dispositions. If it’s a first-time coach and it’s the best fit, great. As far as what the team needs, we’re just trying to find the best fit we can to do what we need to do. Obviously, our goal is to try to be back in the playoffs next year. We’re looking at a lot of different scenarios and a lot of different candidates.”
As for roster changes, Drury said he first has to get through a full evaluation of what happened this season.
He is expected to meet with the players one-on-one Monday.
“Certainly with the extra time of not being in the playoffs we’re going to continue to look up and down the roster, up and down the organization to see what we need to do to be back where we want to be next year,” Drury said.
“We’re going to look at every single aspect of this and certainly I’m always critical of myself and trying to figure out ways to be better. It starts with me and I will continue to do that.”
Laviolette, 60, previously coached the New York Islanders, Carolina Hurricanes, Philadelphia Flyers, Nashville Predators and Washington Capitals.
He won the Stanley Cup with the Hurricanes in 2006 and went to the Stanley Cup Final with the Flyers in 2010 and Predators in 2017.
His 846 regular-season wins are the most among United States-born coaches in League history, third among active coaches behind Paul Maurice (916) and Lindy Ruff (900), and seventh overall.
“I have a ton of respect for ‘Lavi’ and Phil,” Drury said. “I played for ‘Lavi’ twice. I know how hard he worked and poured his heart and soul into this organization. I don’t have a Hall of Fame vote but I’m pretty sure he’s going to be a Hall of Fame coach someday. We all tried different things throughout the year and looked at different things and ways to spark the team, ways to try to get us more points, and it just didn’t come together. So, I’ll leave it at that.”
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