After mutually parting ways with the Washington Capitals hours after the regular season ended, Peter Laviolette has found a new gig 60 days later. And he’s staying in the Metropolitan Division.
The New York Rangers hired Laviolette to be their 37th head coach in franchise history on Tuesday after dismissing Gerard Gallant in May.
News about Laviolette’s pending hiring was first reported by Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman on Monday.
Officially official.
Welcome (back) to Broadway, Coach! https://t.co/KxNbgd6q47 pic.twitter.com/gwCSIMXY4X
— New York Rangers (@NYRangers) June 13, 2023
Laviolette’s contract is reportedly for three years at $5 million per season.
“We are thrilled that Peter will be the next Head Coach of the New York Rangers,” general manager Chris Drury said in a statement. “With Peter’s extensive experience as a Head Coach in the National Hockey League, as well as the success his teams have had at several levels throughout his career, we are excited about what the future holds with him leading our team.”
“I would like to welcome Peter to the New York Rangers,” added James Dolan, executive chairman, Madison Square Garden Sports Corp. “Peter’s impressive resumé, which includes winning a Stanley Cup and advancing to the Final with three different teams, has made him one of the most respected coaches in the league. As we move forward in our goal to consistently contend for the Stanley Cup, I am confident that Peter is the right head coach to lead our team.”
Laviolette has some history with the Rangers, too. He played his only 12 career games in the NHL with the Rangers during the 1988-89 season, posting a stat line of 0 goals, 0 assists, 0 points, and 6 PIMs.
Laviolette was on the Rangers’ shortlist for a while, reportedly traveling to New York earlier this month. He was apparently the favorite for the position as early as the end of May, with rumors speculating that he could be hired by that following week. However, the team’s hiring process stretched out once former Predators’ head coach John Hynes hit the market. There was also speculation that the team was interested in hiring John Quenneville, who would have needed to petition the NHL to be reinstated due to his role in the Kyle Beach scandal.
In a press release, the Rangers explained Laviolette’s hiring by pointing to his Stanley Cup championship in 2006 and his two other visits to the Cup Finals with different teams — something the Capitals did three years ago.
During the 2022-23 campaign, Laviolette led the Capitals to its worst full season in 16 years. The Caps hired Laviolette to push the veteran club deep into the postseason but the team did not win a single playoff series during his tenure. The Capitals, who scuffled through injury, missed the postseason altogether in 2023 and were the eighth-worst team in the NHL.
Laviolette posted a 115-78-27 record with the Caps from 2020 through 2023, but the team got worse every season under his leadership, seeing its points percentage drop from .688 (his first season) to an abysmal .488 this year.
Laviolette exited DC as GM Brian MacLellan was forced to answer questions about how little the head coach utilized and developed the team’s youth, such as Aliaksei Protas, Connor McMichael, and Alex Alexeyev, as the Caps’ core struggled to produce and stay on the ice.
Laviolette shifted the blame to the Capitals’ prospects on his way out the door, saying the young players didn’t “take” or “earn” those minutes. The Hershey Bears, under Todd Nelson’s leadership, are currently playing in the 2023 Calder Cup Finals.
Laviolette arrives to the Rangers at a pivotal moment in the team’s development. Exit interviews with players was reportedly was a factor in the Rangers’ moving on from Gallant. The team lost in the first round to a young and talented New Jersey Devils team after acquiring both Patrick Kane and Vladimir Tarasenko at the 2023 Trade Deadline.
Gallant struggled developing the Rangers’ younger players such as Kaapo Kakko, the number two overall selection in the 2019 Draft, and the highly-touted Alexis Lafreniere, the number one overall selection in the 2020 Draft. Neither player posted great results under Gallant or progressed beyond middle-six forwards. The two high-end draft picks had zero combined points in this year’s postseason. Kakko was a healthy scratch during the 2022 playoffs.
“Trying to win a hockey game,” Gallant said of the decision then. “And just dressing my lineup. So when we sit down and talk about our lineup, that’s what we do. We love the kid, he’s a good player. He’s a good, young player, but we just thought [that was] the best lineup for trying to win that game.”
The Rangers are hoping that Laviolette’s leadership skills and system (which past statistics suggest “severely” harm his teams’ offense) will help push them to their first Metropolitan Division title since 2014-15.
*grabs popcorn*
Headline photo: Alan Dobbins/RMNB
