The Rangers are heading for their fourth coach since the 2020-21 season.
Peter LaViolett was released from coaching duties on Saturday, the team announced after the Rangers failed to qualify for the playoffs in his second season at the helm.
The Blues Shirts became the sixth team to fire a veteran coach who finished the New York tenure with a 94-59-11 regular season record and a 10-5-1 playoff record.
Associate Housley coaches have also been fired, and assistant coaches Dan Muse and Michael Peca will have the opportunity to interview the next coaching staff, according to sources.
“Today, I told Peter Laviolet and Phil Hughesley that we are making changes to our coaching,” President and General Manager Chris Dolly said in a press release. “I am grateful to both of them and hope for the best they and their families in the future. Peter is a top notch professionally and personally, and I am truly grateful for his passion and dedication in his time as a head coach.”
This is the second consecutive Rangers coach to be fired after two campaigns, and Rabiolet coincides with the timeline of his predecessor, Gerald Gallant. Before Gallant, David Quinn (2018-2021) was the last Rangers coach to be on the Rangers’ bench to continue for more than two seasons.
It seemed that everything was right in Rabiolet’s first season with the Rangers.
Not only did the Rangers set a franchise record for victory (55) and points (114) in a single season, but the club also won the presidential trophy and won two wins from their final appearances in the Stanley Cup in the final defeat of the Eastern Conference.
The Rangers led the entire NHL with a comeback victory (28) under Rabiolet in 2023-24.
Laviolette became the first head coach in NHL history to lead six different teams to the Stanley Cup Playoffs.
Everything seemed wrong for the Rangers this season. The Rangers took a big step in every aspect of the game as they missed the postseason for the first time in four years.
There wasn’t much Laviolet could do about the outside noise hovering into the Rangers locker room from the beginning of the season, but the 60-year-old made dramatic changes to the lineup and system to effectively pull out the blues shirt from the funk.
Laviolet often got stuck with his veteran players and, despite having little success with it, kept his faith in what he had worked in the past. But it appears that most of the blame for this disastrous season doesn’t rest on Rabiolet’s shoulders.
It belongs to the roster construction by President and General Manager Chris Drury, with insufficient effort from marquee players.
