Mike Sullivan’s staff is going to be finalized shortly, with David Quinn, Joe Sacco, and Ty Hennes set to be the new Rangers assistant coaches. The news comes a day after Dan Muse, the final assistant from Peter Laviolette’s regime, left to take Sullivan’s old head coaching spot in Pittsburgh. The Rangers lost two solid assistants in Muse and Michael Peca, so this new trio has some big shoes to fill. Jeff Malcolm is the only hold over as the team’s goalie coach.
Sacco was most recently the interim head coach in Boston, taking over in mid-November. With Marco Sturm announced in Boston, Sacco comes over to the Rangers after 11 years with Boston, mostly as an assistant coach. Hennes was with Sullivan in Pittsburgh for the last two years as an assistant coach.
Naturally, the glaring name is David Quinn, who was unceremoniously fired as Rangers head coach after exit interviews with many players still with the team forced Chris Drury’s hand. Quinn was not a good head coach, fired by San Jose after two seasons as well. Hopefully he has a better run as one of the Rangers assistant coaches, but it’s a hard sell to a fan base that blames Quinn for Kaapo Kakko’s failed development and Alexis Lafreniere’s slow start to his career.
