Jacques Martin will be responsible for the New York Rangers defense
The New York Rangers ended the speculation very quickly, hiring Jacques Martin as the Assistant Coach in charge of molding the Blueshirts defense. Martin replaces Lindy Ruff and will assume the role of the veteran NHL coach behind the Rangers bench, providing his experience and guidance to Head Coach David Quinn.
OFFICIAL: The Rangers have named Jacques Martin as an Assistant Coach.
— New York Rangers (@NYRangers) August 31, 2020
Welcome to New York!
The Rangers snatched up Martin just three weeks after he was let go by the Pittsburgh Penguins, who purged their coaching ranks after their speedy departure from the Stanley Cup Qualifier at the hands of the Montreal Canadiens.
Penguins General Manager Jim Rutherford did not renew the contracts of assistant coaches Martin, Mark Recchi and Sergei Gonchar, while retaining Head Coach Mike Sullivan. According to Dan Rosen of nhl.com, it was David Quinn’s friendship with former Boston University teammate Sullivan that led to the Rangers hiring of Martin.
Quinn told Rosen “With my relationship with ‘Sully,’ he and I talked, and it just steamrolled from there…Mike said basically ‘[Jacques] wasn’t my assistant coach, we were co-coaches.'”
A lot of experience
Jacques Martin is one of the most experienced hockey coaches in the NHL. He spent the last five years as an assistant coach for the Penguins, responsible for the team defense and penalty kill. Before that he spent 17 years as a head coach for the St. Louis Blues, Ottawa Senators, Florida Panthers and Montreal Canadiens.
The 67-year-old has coached a total of 1,294 regular season and 111 playoff games. His career winning percentage is .551 with 613 wins. While coaching Ottawa in 1998-99 he won the Jack Adams Award as top coach and was a finalist for the award three other times.
In his tenure running the Penguins defense, the team was never among the best in goals against, but were always competitive and more near the middle of the pack. As for penalty killing, the Penguins were the 10th best in the NHL this season and ninth best the season before.
Martin has taken some heat from the Pittsburgh fanbase for the team defense, especially his deployment of veteran Jack Johnson. It’s worth noting that it wasn’t Martin who signed Johnson to a five year, $16 million contract.
Martin never won a Stanley Cup as a head coach, but he did win two Cups with the Penguins in 2016 and 2017. He had his greatest success as coach with the Ottawa Senators, leading them to three first place finishes in nine years with a trip to the Conference Finals in 2003.
What does it mean for Quinn?
As soon as the Rangers announced the hiring, there was immediate speculation about Martin potentially replacing Quinn. Quinn really dispelled those rumors in his description of the hiring process. From his interview on nhl.com he made it clear that Martin was his hire and it came about on the recommendation of Sullivan and after several lengthy conversations between Quinn and Martin.
Still, whenever there is a veteran presence with a successful track record added to a staff, there will be speculation. Add in the fact that Quinn will be going into his third season as Head Coach with the average life span of a current NHL coach about 2.3 years. 20 of the 31 coaches in the NHL have been on the job for two years or less.
Needless to say, after the success of this season, there will be expectations for the New York Rangers next season.
A Lafreniere connection
David Quinn is the first member of the Rangers’ brain trust to acknowledge that Alexis Lafreniere could be their draft pick in October. He told nhl.com that the fact that Jacques Martin is French Canadian could be an asset in the future if they draft you know who.
Quinn told nhl.com “It’s not only just because of the language and where they’re from, it’s because of Jacques’ experience,” Quinn said. “To me, the French Canadian thing is a bonus, but I think the benefit will be Jacques’ coaching experience and how much time he’s spent in this league.”
With the hiring of Jacques Martin it means that Gord Murphy will return to a similar role with the Hartford Wolf Pack. Murphy had temporarily replaced Lindy Ruff during the Stanley Cup Qualifier.
As for Martin, he will be taking over a blueline corps that has a wide range of experience and skill with more prospects on the way. He will have a key role in the development of defense prospects like K’Andre Miller, Nils Lundkvist, Zac Jones and Hunter Skinner as well as current Rangers Adam Fox, Ryan Lindgren, Tony DeAngelo and Libor Hajek.