The 38th head coach in New York Rangers history will be assisted by the 35th next season. David Quinn, who coached the Rangers from 2018-21, will join Sullivan's staff along with Joe Sacco and Ty Hennes, the team announced Thursday.
At first blush, this seems like an odd decision. You may remember that Chris Drury's first move after being named Rangers general manager in the spring of 2021 was to fire Quinn . And Quinn didn't exactly internalize his anger afterward, speaking out publicly before moving on and becoming coach of the San Jose Sharks in 2022.
But clearly his relationship with Sullivan trumps whatever ill will Quinn has, or had, against Drury and/or the Rangers organization. He and Sullivan were teammates at Boston University in 1986-87; and Quinn was an assistant under Sullivan with the Pittsburgh Penguins this past season.
Quinn interviewed for several coaching jobs this offseason, including to be Sullivan's replacement with the Penguins. However, in a somewhat ironic twist, the Penguins hired former Rangers assistant Dan Muse to be their new coach Wednesday. That freed up Quinn to rejoin the Rangers and continue working with Sullivan.
The 58-year-old was 96-87-25 as Rangers coach, guiding them through a rebuild and two seasons shortened by the coronavirus pandemic. The Rangers played three postseason games in 2020, swept by the Carolina Hurricanes in the Stanley Cup Qualifiers, and didn't make the playoffs in Quinn's two other seasons behind the bench.
Quinn coached Mika Zibanejad , Chris Kreider , Artemi Panarin , Adam Fox , K'Andre Miller, Alexis Lafreniere and Igor Shesterkin during his run as Rangers coach and will be reunited with each in New York as of today.
In two seasons with the Sharks, Quinn was 41-98-25 with one of the worst rosters in the League. He also coached the United States at the 2022 Beijing Olympics, was an assistant under Sullivan for Team USA at the 4 Nations Face-Off in February, and was head coach at BU from 2013-18.
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Sacco was teammates with Sullivan and Quinn at Boston University, and went on to play 738 games for five teams in the NHL. He was an assistant for 10 years with the Boston Bruins , and finished last season as their interim coach after Jim Montgomery was fired. The Bruins were 24-30-6 under Sacco, and failed to qualify for the Stanley Cup Playoffs. They hired Marco Sturm as coach Thursday.
The 56-year-old also was Colorado Avalanche coach for four seasons from 2009-13, making the playoffs his first season. Sacco was 130-134-30 with the Avalanche and was a finalist for the Jack Adams Award as top NHL coach in 2009-10.
Hennes has worked under Sullivan his entire coaching career, beginning as Penguins skills coach in 2018-19. The 44-year-old was promoted to an assistant role under Sullivan ahead of the 2022-23 season.
Jeff Malcolm was retained by Sullivan as goalie coach with the Rangers. Associate coach Phil Housley was relieved of his duties when the Rangers fired Peter Laviolette as coach in April.
Michael Peca, a Rangers assistant under Laviolette, joined Jeff Blashill's staff with the Chicago Blackhawks last week.
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