The Rangers have hired Jay Leach as the new head coach of the Hartford Wolf Pack.
The Rangers fired Grant Potulny after two seasons as the head coach in Hartford earlier in the offseason.
The Rangers interviewed Leach to be their head coach when they hired Peter Laviolette.
Leach was an assistant with Boston the past two years and when the Rangers interviewed him he had been an assistant with Seattle. Prior to that he had coached Boston’s AHL team for four seasons.
Mike Sullivan hired Leach for his first coaching job when Sullivan was the AHL coach with Pittsburgh before he was promoted to join the Penguins.
He played 70 NHL games across five seasons and 499 AHL games across 11 seasons.
Adam Rotter: This seems like a good hire for Hartford as the Rangers try and also get that team out of the bottom of the AHL. Leach had been a popular candidate and interviewed with a few teams, including the Rangers, over the past few seasons but hasn’t seemed to be as popular of a name during this coaching cycle. Returning to being a head coach is likely a clearer path for Leach to eventually become an NHL head coach and he’s likely hoping to follow Kris Knoblauch’s path. Hopefully Leach can bring about change in Hartford and hopefully better development and more wins with it.