New York Rangers Fire David Quinn
The Rangers also fired assistants Jacques Martin, Greg Brown, and David Oliver.
It news that isn’t all that surprising to anyone who listened to or read Chris Drury or James Dolan’s words over the past week, the New York Rangers have fired head coach David Quinn after three seasons.
OFFICIAL: #NYR President and General Manager Chris Drury has announced that Rangers Head Coach David Quinn and Assistant Coaches David Oliver, Jacques Martin and Greg Brown have been relieved of their coaching duties.
— New York Rangers (@NYRangers) May 12, 2021
BREAKING: Rangers have dismissed David Quinn, Post has learned. Assistants other than Benoit Allaire also let go by Drury. Search will begin immediately.
— Larry Brooks (@NYP_Brooksie) May 12, 2021
Jacques Martin, David Oliver, and Greg Brown were also relieved off their duties, with Benoit Allaire and Mark Ciaccio the only coaches that will remain with the organization.
Most of Quinn's coaching staff will be out with him.
— Vince Z. Mercogliano (@vzmercogliano) May 12, 2021
Only coaches who will remain are goaltending coach Benoit Allaire and skills coach Mark Ciaccio, per source. #NYR
Quinn was hired on May 23, 2018 after leading the Boston University Terriers to a record of 105-68-21 over five seasons. In his introduction to the team James Dolan remarked, “David brings a diverse and successful coaching resume that includes extensive work in developing young talent. I am confident he is an excellent fit for our team, and know he will work tirelessly with Glen, Jeff and our entire organization to execute our plan to build the next Rangers Stanley Cup contending team.”
At the time of his hiring, Quinn was an outside the box hire with some promise. It was a much welcomed decision as opposed to hiring yet another NHL retread, and Quinn’s experience at both the collegiate level, the AHL level as a head coach, and his stint as an NHL assistant with Colorado meant that he wasn’t just a nobody coach.
The Rangers pulled the ripcord early with John Davidson — and to a lesser extent Jeff Gorton, who had been with the organization since 2007 — and in some respects the same could be said with Quinn. He had one full season with a bad team that just started a rebuild, a second season shortened by COVID, and this 56-game season as a result of the pandemic.
His decisions at times were baffling, especially when you consider some of the better lineup changes that occurred were a result of injury, but it would be wrong to ignore that there were some positives. That said though, Quinn was by and large an average coach, and average isn’t going to cut it for this team if they have true Stanley Cup aspirations.
According to Larry Brooks, the team will be looking for an experience coach to replace Quinn.
Gerard Gallant, Rick Tocchet, Bob Hartley, John Tortorella, Mike Babcock and Patrick Roy are among the early candidates to follow Quinn, who came to New York three years ago after a successful stint behind the bench at Boston University.
There certainly will be a time and place for a longer look of what went wrong, and what went right, but for now we know Quinn is out and the team will need a new head coach, and some assistant coaches. This summer was always going to be an interesting one, and the moves of the last week just ensure that things are going to be even more interesting.