5 coaches Rangers should hire to replace David Quinn

The New York Rangers have fully cleaned house after getting rid of head coach David Quinn.

It’s been a heck of a season for the New York Rangers, and not in a good way. Just in the past two weeks, they’ve had more drama than a soap opera. After parting ways with general manager Jeff Gorton and team president John Davidson last week and replacing them with Chris Drury, the Rangers announced today they are parting ways with head coach David Quinn.

Along with Quinn, they are also letting go of most of their coaching staff. Only long-time goaltending coach Benoit Allaire, who has been with the team since 2004, wasn’t shown the way out.

For years, the Rangers have been the team that majority owner James Dolan doesn’t care about. Those days are over. For some reason, Dolan has decided to be chaotic and swap the Knicks and Rangers in his pecking order.

With Quinn gone, there’s a huge vacancy on Broadway. The Rangers, despite not making the postseason this year, have a pretty attractive situation on the ice. They’ve got Pavel Buchnevich, Artemi Panarin, Mika Zibanejad, and Norris Trophy favorite Adam Fox, just to name a few players. Dolan’s the ultimate wild card, but let’s take a look at who the most likely candidates to replace Quinn are.

Who will replace David Quinn as the Rangers head coach?

The Best Option – Gerard Gallant

The best candidate, objectively, is former Vegas Golden Knights head coach Gerard Gallant. He led the Golden Knights to the Stanley Cup Final in 2018 and posted a point percentage of .601% with them. Even with the Florida Panthers, who he coached from 2014 to 2017, he posted a .583% point percentage. Considering what he was dealing with in Florida, that’s not too shabby.

If Drury and Dolan want to change the culture, the best way to do that would be by hiring Gallant. He gets the most out of his guys and is by far the biggest name on the market. Of course, one has to wonder why Gallant has been unemployed since early 2020. Maybe he’s waiting for the Seattle Kraken? Even if that’s the case, it never hurts to ask.

The Safe Option – Bruce Boudreau

Bruce Boudreau hasn’t won a Stanley Cup, but few coaches have his regular season resume. The former head coach of the Washington Capitals, Anaheim Ducks, and Minnesota Wild has 567 career wins, good for 22nd all-time among coaches. His point percentage of .635% ranks third all-time among coaches with at least 300 games coached and second all-time among those with at least 10 years of coaching experience.

Boudreau’s lack of postseason success is a bit of an eyebrow raiser, but Bruce has a history of winning and making teams better. He’s proven he can win with an offense-first team like the Capitals and a defense-first team like the Ducks and the Wild. Boudreau’s currently retired, but a head coaching job on Broadway might be enticing enough to persuade him to come out of retirement.

The Meh Option – Rick Tocchet

The Rangers are likely going to be looking for an experienced coach after Quinn couldn’t translate his impressive college hockey resume to the NHL. While there are more experienced candidates than Tocchet, he has six years of NHL head coaching experience, with the last four years coming as the Arizona Coyotes head coach.

It’s hard to gauge how good of a job Tocchet did in Arizona considering he was constantly dealt a bad hand with the Coyotes, but it’s worth noting he ended Arizona’s postseason drought last season and he finished two of his four seasons with the Coyotes with a point percentage of over .500%.

The Bad Option – Mike Babcock

Mike Babcock has a history of winning, but at the same time, it’s hard to ignore his teams’ lack of success over the past decade. Since losing to the Pittsburgh Penguins in 2009 with the Detroit Red Wings, Babcock’s teams haven’t made it past the second round once and have lost in the first round more often than they have advanced out of the first round.

There are also numerous allegations regarding Babcock. Even if you ignore the Mitch Marner situation, it’s hard to ignore what he did to Johan Franzen. People absolutely deserve second chances if they prove they are deserving of them. It’s up to Babcock to prove he’s deserving of one.

The Hilarious Option – John Tortorella

Darryl Sutter came back to coach the Calgary Flames. Randy Carlyle came back to coach the Anaheim Ducks. Even Ken Hitchcock came back to coach the Dallas Stars! Anything is possible in the NHL. If Dolan is truly in charge, he’s going to want a big name. That’s the way he rolls. Fewer names are bigger than John Tortorella. And oh boy, if the Rangers want a culture change in the locker room, bringing in Torts would certainly be a fascinating way to do that.