On June 14, 2021, the New York Rangers found their new bench boss, former Jack Adams Award winner (coach of the year) Gerard Gallant. He became the 35th head coach in franchise history after New York let David Quinn go at the end of the 2020-21 season.
The Rangers have never had a Jack Adams Award winner, however, Gallant becomes the sixth man to win the prestigious award and then sign with the team. He joins Fred Shero (1979-81), Mike Keenan (1993-94), Glen Sather (2003-04), John Tortorella (1999-20, 2008-14), and Alain Vigneault (2014-18).
Many coaching changes happen within a particular season, so the new guy usually steps into a situation where he has to fix someone else’s problems while implementing a new system.
Gallant becomes just the 22nd coach in franchise history to start with a new season and a clean slate. Most of the time, it’s a losing record that causes a coaching change, but in Gallant’s case, he takes over a team that had a winning record (27-23-6) under Quinn. Let us look back at the end-of-the-season coaching changes to see how the Rangers responded in those situations.