On one hand, Mike Sullivan bringing his top assistant and longtime friend with him to the New York Rangers makes complete sense. The fact that David Quinn returns to the Rangers after he was fired as their head coach four years ago, though, raises a some eyebrows.
Semantics aside, NHL insider Pierre McGuire believes Quinn's return in a support role behind the bench will be a great benefit to the Rangers , when they try and rebound from a dismal showing this past season.
In particular, McGuire sees the Rangers defense corps benefitting greatly under Quinn's supervision next season.
"David teaches defense really well. David teaches puck movement very well. David's really good at communicating with players," McGuire told Forever Blueshirts on the RINK RAP podcast. "Sometimes when you're the head coach stuff gets lost in the wash because of stuff you say to the media or the way you discipline a player, the way you sort out ice time. He doesn't have to worry about that any more. He doesn't need to talk to the media any more. He doesn't need to worry about the ice time he's doling out to the forwards because his expertise level is working with defensemen.
"So, he's going to be much more comfortable there. I think David is going to fit in really well."
As he did last season working under Sullivan as an assistant with the Pittsburgh Penguins , Quinn will be in charge of the defensemen with the Rangers. That's his sweet spot and comfort zone, being a former defenseman himself.
Quinn is well respected for his ability to teach and should be able to do more of that in this role as opposed to when he was the Rangers head coach from 2018-21 — though it should be noted that he did help bring along many young players during that time when the Rangers were in the thick of a rebuild. Adam Fox , for one, won the Norris Trophy as top NHL defenseman in 2020-21, his second season in the League, under Quinn's watch.
To be blunt, the Rangers defense was a complete mess this past season. The mind-numbing turnovers and mistakes and blown coverages were too numerous to count and a major reason why the Rangers missed the Stanley Cup Playoffs for the first time in four years.
Perhaps it was the man-to-man defensive system. Perhaps there was a disconnect between coach Peter Laviolette, assistant Phil Housley and the players themselves. Either way, McGuire sees Quinn as one who can help fix what ails the Rangers defensively.
"Something happened in New York last year where guys didn't get better," McGuire said. "K'Andre Miller didn't get better. Braden Schneider didn't get better. Adam Fox, for Adam Fox, had a pretty pedestrian year. … Something happened and the Rangers need to fix that. And I think David Quinn can be that guy."
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Of course, there's that small detail that Chris Drury fired Quinn in his first major move after he was named general manager in the spring of 2021. And Quinn was not shy about going public with how pissed he was by the decision.
"That was a crazy year, there was so many things going on behind the scenes," Quinn revealed at the time on the Cam and Strick Podcast . "That being said, in my conversations with the Rangers before I got let go I asked one question, 'Did we overachieve, underachieve, or do what we should've done this year,' and the answer I got was, 'We probably overachieved a little bit.'"
"Then I said, 'What the f*** are we talking about!'"
Clearly, Sullivan is the buffer here. He wanted Quinn, his college teammate at Boston University, on his Rangers staff and Drury, another BU alum, didn't stand in his way.
"Mike's got a lot of power there," McGuire noted.
As for the Quinn – Drury relationship? Who knows where it stands. And perhaps it doesn't matter in the big picture. Everyone's got the same goal here. Though, from the outside, it does feel a bit uncomfortable. But, as stated, that's from the outside.
"It's going to be a difficult line for David to walk, but if you take stuff personally in the National Hockey League, you're not going to last very long ," McGuire explained. "You have to have a pretty strong mind and be resilient, and if you are strong of mind and resilient, you can flip the switch and be a very competent person at the position they've given you.
"I've known David 40 years, he's as mentally strong as anyone I know. He's an amazing hockey resource … He was a phenomenal coach wherever he went. I think he'll be a great assistant coach for the New York Rangers, I really do."
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