The Rangers have officially hired Mike Sullivan as their next head coach.
Chris Drury said in a statement, “Mike Sullivan has established himself as one of the premier head coaches in the NHL. Given his numerous accomplishments throughout his coaching career – including two Stanley Cups and leading Team USA at the international level – Mike brings a championship-level presence behind the bench. I’ve gotten to know Mike very well over the years, including as teammates in the 1997 World Championships, when he coached me as a player in New York and through our shared time working together with USA Hockey. As we began this process and Mike became an available option for us to speak with, it was immediately clear that he was the best coach to lead our team.”
James Dolan said in a statement, “I would like to welcome Mike back to the Rangers organization. Mike’s track record and success in the NHL and internationally speaks for itself, and I look forward to seeing him behind the Rangers bench.”
Sullivan was let go by Pittsburgh on Monday morning.
Sullivan was a Rangers assistant under John Tortorella from 2009 through 2013.
Emily Kaplan tweets that it’s believed to be a five-year deal and has the highest annual salary for a coach in NHL history.
Adam Rotter: Sullivan was let go by Pittsburgh around 9AM on Monday and he is hired by the Rangers at 9AM on Friday. Once Sullivan became available this was the only option for the Rangers and Chris Drury.
This hiring, along with Chris Drury’s extension, also firmly entrenches who will be leading the Rangers. There was hope it would have been Gerard Gallant but there were always questions about his longevity after his short stints with Florida and Vegas. Peter Laviolette only signed a three-year contract and so that would be easy to get out of if things went sideways, which it did this year. Sullivan and Drury are going to be here for a while and that will be a message to the players that they need to buy-in or they will be moved out.
The big question now is what comes next and if Sullivan’s presence changes how the Rangers go about their offseason. Is Sullivan enough change for the Rangers, with some tweaks on defense, to run back a good chunk of the same team next year? Does Chris Kreider, who Sullivan definitely had a say in bringing to the 4 Nations tournament, get to stay? I think there is a better chance of that now than if the Rangers had hired someone different, but if the Rangers believe that Kreider’s injuries will heal, and he’ll go into next season healthy, I think there is now a chance that he stays. Up front Kreider is really the biggest question mark unless the Rangers take a much bigger risk in moving Alexis Lafreniere, but I gotta think that Chris Drury will want to see Lafreniere under Sullivan and hope that everything with last season drove his play down and that he is ultimately he is the player we saw in the playoffs two years ago. The Rangers didn’t hire Sullivan to take another step backwards, they hired him because they think he can bring them back to being contenders and so I don’t know how many more subtractions they will make. Gabriel Perreault, Brennan Othmann and Brett Berard should all have bigger roles and if Mika Zibanejad is staying and a winger, the Rangers will need someone to be a third line center. Ultimately the Rangers can mostly stay the course at forward or they can try and subtract Kreider and be creative to present a different look.
Defensively it’s a different story as the Rangers need to make a decision on K’Andre Miller and find a partner for Adam Fox. Extending Miller could answer both of those questions and then leave the Rangers looking for more depth on the left side than a top-guy.
We’ll see what ends up happening, but Mike Sullivan becoming the head coach of the Rangers is the first big change in what will hopefully put the mess of this season behind them.