New York Rangers: Greg Brown and David Oliver added to coaching staff
The New York Rangers rounded out first year head coach David Quinn’s staff with Gregg Brown of Boston College and David Oliver from the Colorado Avalanche organization.
In David Quinn’s first year behind the New York Ranger’s bench will be joined by a pair of coaches from his past. In addition to Lindy Ruff who was retained from last year’s team, Brown and Oliver will take up positions behind the bench. As far as the specific roles, that was not yet announced. But, the assumption is that Ruff will serve as an eye in the sky coach, Brown will run defense and Oliver will run the power play.
First, Brown, age 50, joins the Rangers after spending the prior 14 years as a member of the Boston College coaching staff. At BC Brown was in charge of the team’s defense as associate head coach. During his time with the Eagles, Brown was a coach while Kevin Hayes and Chris Kreider played in college. In addition to his time in the NCAA, Brown also served as an assistant coach with Team USA at several international tournaments including the World Juniors.
As a player, Brown spent three seasons at BC including one season as captain and was named the Hockey East Player of the Year as well as a member of the All-American team in both the 1988-1989 and 1989-1990 seasons. Brown also played as a member of the USA 1986 World Junior Championship team with Ranger legends Mike Richter, Brian Leetch and the team’s new coach David Quinn.
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Brown also played parts of four seasons in the NHL and nine seasons in Europe before becoming a coach.
David Oliver
The Rangers also hired David Oliver, who has served as a variety of different roles within the Colorado Avalanche organization. The past four seasons he was the organization’s Director of Player Development. In addition to his role in the Avalanche’s front office Oliver served three different roles in the AHL. At different points he was the G.M, assistant coach and director of development for the Lake Erie Monsters.
Oliver was directly responsible for the development of current Ranger Kevin Shattenkirk who was originally an Avalanche draft pick. In addition, Oliver also hired David Quinn as the Monster’s head coach for the 2009-2010 season. The following year, Oliver served as an assistant under Quinn with the team.
Before his post-playing career, Oliver played 13 seasons of professional hockey including part of nine seasons in the NHL. This includes 14 games as a Ranger during the 1996-1997 season in which he tallied three points. Oliver played his collegiate hockey at the University of Michigan, he was a Hobey Baker finalist for the 1993-1994 season.
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The Rangers now have their coaching staff set after a long offseason. It makes sense that the organization would hire two coaches who have ties to Quinn. In addition, holding onto Ruff as an assistant as the only one with NHL experience is just a precaution.