The New York Rangers have long been trying to find a way to make it back to the Stanley Cup Final. The last time they did so was back in 2014, but it only resulted in a five game loss to the Los Angeles Kings. The team has tried over the years to build a strong enough roster to make it back, but to no avail.
Since 2014, when Alain Vigneault coached the Rangers to an Eastern Conference Championship, the Rangers had two other head coaches after his departure in 2018. David Quinn took over to oversee the Rangers' rebuild, only to be let go in 2021. Then, the Rangers brought in Gerard Gallant, who coached the Vegas Golden Knights to the Stanley Cup Final in their first year of existence. Gallant brought the Rangers to the Eastern Conference Finals in 2022, but after a first-round elimination at the hands of the New Jersey Devils in 2023, Gallant was fired.
That left the Rangers in a position where they could promote Kris Knoblauch, who made a name for himself as potentially the next great young head coach. Or, they could pick a retread coach with experience, despite having a laundry list of stints across the league. Instead of taking a chance on their minor league coach, they hired Peter Laviolette instead. Let's just say that some fans knew how the tenure would pan out before he even coached his first game for New York.
Rangers ignored Peter Laviolette's coaching trajectory
One trend in the NHL that fans have become accustomed to is seeing the same veteran coaches get hired for other opportunities over and over again. Laviolette is one of them. The Rangers were obviously enamored by the Stanley Cup title on his resume. The thing is, that happened back in 2006. There were three other coaching stints after that championship.
With Laviolette, he has shown to bring immediate success to the team he's coaching. But, overtime, it's as though he overstays his welcome, and the team begins underperforming, thus leading to him being let go.
In 2009, Laviolette was hired to coach the Philadelphia Flyers. He helped lead the Flyers to the playoffs, by way of defeating the Rangers for one of the final spots in the Eastern Conference in the final game of the regular season. The Flyers then went on a miracle run as the No. 7 seed, and made it to the Stanley Cup Final, where they lost in six games to the Chicago Blackhawks. Laviolette would lead the Flyers to the playoffs the following two seasons, where they got nowhere near close to the Stanley Cup Final. After missing the playoffs in the 2012-13 season, Laviolette was fired just three games into the following campaign.
Laviolette then took over behind the bench for the Nashville Predators. In the first two years, Nashville made it to the playoffs, but never made it past the second round. But in 2017, Nashville won the Western Conference title, earning their first trip to the Stanley Cup Final. However, they lost in six games to the Pittsburgh Penguins. Nashville never got close to making it back in the following three seasons, resulting in his firing.
Finally, there was his stint with the Washington Captials. The Capitals made it to the playoffs in each of his first two seasons, but the team failed to make it past the first round. In 2021, they lost in five games to the Boston Bruins. In 2022, the Capitals lost in six games to the Florida Panthers. After missing the playoffs in the 2022-23 season, Laviolette was fired.
So, as you can see, Laviolette starts off strong, but then enters a downward trajectory. Yet, after that Washington tenure, the Rangers said that that was the coach they were looking for, and hired him.
Petere Laviolette had immediate success with Rangers, only for it to come crashing down one year later
Much like in his previous stints, Laviolette shined in his first year with the Rangers. In the 2023-24 season, the Rangers went 55-23-4 on the year, good enough for first place in the Metropolitan Division and to win the President's Trophy for best record in the NHL. In the playoffs, the Rangers swept the Capitals in the first round, while narrowly escaping the Hurricanes in the second round. But in the Eastern Conference Finals, the Rangers ran into the Panthers, and had no real answers for them, dropping the series in six games.
Surely, the Rangers would rebound the following season? Actually, the exact opposite happened. The Rangers fell off of a proverbial cliff, failing to make the playoffs altogether while finishing fifth in the division and 11th in the conference with a 39-36-7 record. The team looked completely unmotivated throughout the season. It certainly didn't help that the team had a public divorces with team captain Jacob Trouba and Barclay Goodrow, as general manager Chris Drury tried to get both of their contract off the books in brutal ways, and it did take a toll on the players in the locker room.
Perhaps the most telling thing was that usually, it's up to the coach to motivate them to break out of their bad spell. Laviolette simply had no answers, and the players never truly responded to him. FOllowing that collapse, the Rangers fired Laviolette after just two years.
It felt like a short stint was inevitable for Laviolette, given his previous tenures across the NHL. Yet, the Rangers thought it would be different for them. That never happened.
What would have happened had the Rangers promoted Kris Knoblauch instead?
The Rangers were always taking a risk hiring any other free agent head coach instead of promoting Knoblauch, who was going to end up with a job in the near future. As it turns out, he got one shortly after the Laviolette hire, ending up with the Edmonton Oilers. That's right, his first NHL head coaching gig would be on the team with two of the sport's greats in Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl.
Rangers fans watched Knoblauch from afar, and he looked like he was the answer to ending the Oilers Stanley Cup drought,. He brought them to the Stanley Cup Final in his first year on the job. Even though the Oilers lost in seven games to the Panthers, Knoblauch helped the Oilers overcome an 0-3 series deficit to force a Game 7. The following year, the Oilers once again won the Western Conference title and made it back to the Stanley Cup Final. They ended up losing again to the Panthers, this time in six games.
This past season, the Oilers were eliminated in the first round by the Anaheim Ducks. The season was ultimately a disaster for the Oilers, but Knoblauch may not have been the main reason for that. It had to do with the roster that general manager Stan Bowman constructed. Yet, Knoblauch was the scapegoat, as he was fired.
Regardless of how his stint ended, it's hard to look past back-to-back trips to the Stanley Cup Final in his first two years as an NHL head coach. Could he have had similar success if he received the same opportunity with the Rangers. We'll never know, as the Rangers decided bringing in Laviolette was a better move. That decision backfired.
Now, we'll see if the Kings learn that same lesson, as they hired Laviolette to be their head coach this offseason.
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