Elliotte Friedman Thinks the Rangers Are Waiting for Sheldon Keefe

We have all wondered what is going on in the New York Rangers coaching search. With the likes of Peter Laviolette and John Hynes being available now and both having extensive interviews with the organization already, there’s been a lot of concern and questioning as to what the hold up in the next appointment of the New York Rangers head coaching slot is. And for the moment, Elliotte Friedman seems to think it’s a different candidate.

I want to reiterate, this is not something that Friedman was concrete about. This was speculative on the 32 Thoughts podcast, but suggesting that there’s a third candidate out there that the Rangers are waiting for seems to make sense as to why they have not already unveiled one of Laviolette, Hynes, Knoblauch, and the coach he thinks the Rangers are waiting for is kind of unique. What if it’s Sheldon Keefe?

Sheldon Keefe is currently the head coach of the Toronto Maple Leafs, but after the change of general manager in Ontario this summer, there’s been questions looming over the job security of the players and coaching staff on that roster currently. If the Maple Leafs are going to let him go, which is still uncertain as of now, he’d have a lot of interest and it seems Drury wants to wait to make sure he’s not an option before appointing a new bench boss.

Personally, I have some reservations about Sheldon Keefe. He’s been outcoached a lot during the postseason and as it has gone on, he doesn’t seem to be used to addressing the issues on a roster. With a continually underperforming Toronto Maple Leafs roster, Keefe broke a 19-year drought of getting past the first round and now it has seemingly taken a lot of GM’s interest in the league’s youngest active coach.

That is something to remember. A lot of people will view this as a retread, but until Carbery was hired in Washington, Keefe was the youngest guy at his job. Perhaps a new experience in a new city with a new roster will change the results, but there are people with concerns about this move. If this is to be the case, it would make for some interesting Leafs-Rangers games moving forward.

A lot of people were speculating about it being Joel Quenneville the Rangers are waiting for, but Larry Brooks of the New York Post has been adamant that the Rangers have no interest in waiting for him. Quenneville would need permission from the commissioner, Gary Bettman, to re-enter the league after the Kyle Beach scandal in Chicago. I won’t talk too much about this here, but if you want to do your own research, please know the details are disturbing.