11:33 AM: The Rangers have confirmed that Quinn, David Oliver, Jacques Martin, and Greg Brown have been relieved of their coaching duties.

Chris Drury said in a statement, “I would like to thank David Quinn, David Oliver, Jacques Martin, and Greg Brown for all of their efforts and dedication to the Rangers. I wish each of them the best in their future endeavors. We will begin our search for a new head coach immediately.”

10:44 AM: David Quinn has been “dismissed” as head coach of the Rangers, according to Larry Brooks. (Brooks)

Quinn has been the Rangers head coach for the past three seasons and still had two years left on his deal.

The rest of the coaching staff, except for Benoit Allaire, have also been fired. (Brooks)

Quinn had a record of 96-87-25 as coach of the Rangers.

Adam Rotter: The next phase for the Rangers started when John Davidson and Jeff Gorton were fired and Chris Drury’s first big move of this next phase was firing David Quinn. It was believed to be a lock that Quinn was going to remain as head coach for next season under the JD/Gorton regime, but things have changed and Chris Drury will begin putting his stamp on the Rangers by choosing the next coach.

I think that David Quinn did a pretty good job as coach of a team that was still tearing things down in his first year, in transition with some rookies coming in his second year and then this year with the youngest team in the league for most of the year and one that had jettisoned nearly all of their veteran leaders. He was hired because of his ability to develop NHL-ready players at BU and because of his skills as a communicator. Players always knew where they stood with Quinn and it’s believed that even though he was demanding as a coach that he still had good relationships with pretty much all the players. I don’t think it’s right to give the coach all the credit when players take big leaps, but Mika Zibanejad became a superstar under Quinn, Ryan Strome and Pavel Buchnevich became consistent top-six players, Tony DeAngelo had ups and downs with Quinn but he reached his offensive potential last season, Ryan Lindgren became a top-four defender and Adam Fox has also become a superstar. Artemi Panarin was a star before he came to the Rangers, but his two best seasons came under Quinn. Even someone like Colin Blackwell went from AHLer to top-six forward at times under Quinn. Again, was Quinn solely responsible for all of that? No, but he and his staff definitely played parts in it.

Not everything was a hit, Lias Andersson was a big-time miss, but that seemed to be a bigger organizational miss than one that can be attributed to Quinn. The Rangers had too many games where they started really slow, couldn’t hold late leads, and played a stubborn style that played right into how their opponents wanted to play. Some of that falls on the players as they are the ones actually executing on the ice, but a lot of that falls on Quinn and his staff as well.

Overall, I liked Quinn and think he deserved next season, or at least the start of next season before his fate was determined. Chris Drury, Glen Sather, James Dolan, and whoever else was involved with this decision feel differently and someone else will be behind the bench for the Rangers next season.

It will be interesting to see what is next for Quinn. My guess is that he remains in the NHL rather than go back to BU. He could join any number of teams as an assistant, with his biggest connections being Pittsburgh and Mike Sullivan, Nashville, and John Hynes and the Devils, if he keeps his job, with Lindy Ruff. If he is a head coach again it will probably be with another rebuilding team.