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Rangers name full coaching staff, Vesey does it for two more years in NY
July 18, 2018, 12:47 PM ET [118 Comments]
Jan Levine
New York Rangers Blogger • RSS • Archive • CONTACT
The Rangers finally announced their coaching staff, adding two new names to a pair of carryovers from the prior regime. In addition, one of their four remaining restricted free agents signed a two-year deal, leaving three remaining. For the next two weeks, until the arbitration period is over, our focus will be on seeing where those RFAs land contract-wise, but I do have an idea for a new blog recommended by one of the readers in a comment to a blog last week that I am exploring. If no new news, I hopefully will roll out that idea later this week or early next week.

Coaching Hires:



Connections are the key here and the Rangers twitter thread goes into several more:




As seen from the tweet above, for Quinn and Oliver, Lake Erie is the connector. That link also connects Quinn to Kevin Shattenkirk, and as seen below Shattenkirk to Oliver. New York has a more direct connection to Oliver, as he suited up for 14 regular season games and three playoff contests with the Rangers during the 1996-97 season, tallying three points (two goals, one assist) in his 14 regular season games as a member of the Blueshirts.




Oliver has moved up the ladder in his career, filling several different roles. Player; GM, Assistant Coach and Director of Hockey Operations in the AHL; and for the last four years, Director of Player Development at the parent level. He checks the boxes of of someone who has progressed up the ladder and can bring experience from each role to the team.

I discussed Brown in my blog last week when the rumored hiring was first announced (https://www.hockeybuzz.com/blog.php?post_id=93903). Like Oliver, connections abound for Brown, both with Quinn and the Rangers. Here are those connections again taken from the prior blog:

Brown was a teammate of David Quinn's on the 1985-86 USA World Junior team.

He played at BC for three seasons in the late 80s and played 94 games in the NHL with the Sabres, Penguins and Jets (so he has NHL experience).

Brown has been with BC since 2004-05 and was promoted to associate head coach under Jerry York in 2012-13. He was at BC for all of Chris Kreider and Kevin Hayes' time there (giving him connections to current Rangers).


Quinn touched on these connections in Larry Brooks' column today:
“It was important for me to have people I could trust, have confidence in and have had relationships with, but it’s not like I just hired a couple of buddies,” Quinn told The Post on Tuesday. “In David and Greg, we have two guys who are extremely well-respected throughout the hockey world, even if they don’t have that kind of NHL experience. They’re going to be major factors in helping us become the team we want to be and can be."

“David has a tremendous amount of experience working with NHL players,” said Quinn. “And I think Greg is as well-respected as anyone at any level for his ability to develop high-end players.

“We’re not talking about kids here. These are two guys who are accomplished in the game and are going to have great influence on what the New York Rangers become.”


James Dolan told the NY Post (https://nypost.com/2018/04/18/rangers-owner-reveals-what-he-wants-in-the-next-coach/) in April what he wanted in a coach. From the construction of the staff, in terms of a new head coach and two assistants, GM Jeff Gorton and his management team have brought in individuals that meet the mandate. Time will obviously tell if successful, but at first blush, the pieces to hopefully extract the max from each player looks to be in place.

We’re looking for someone who can develop players and develop a team,” Garden executive chairman Jim Dolan told The Post during a conversation at his MSG office on Wednesday. “We want someone who is going to be able to work with young players — all of our players, really — so that they and we improve from one stage of the season to the next and we’re better at the end of the year than at the beginning.

“We need a coach who is going to be able to coordinate with the assistants and the training staff in putting a program in place. He’s going to have to be able to delegate authority in identifying deficiencies and fixing them. Scolding a player doesn’t fix the problem. He can’t try to do everything by himself. The job is just too big.”


Kudos to Quinn, Gorton and Dolan for not going the retread route. These two coaches should bring fresh blood and ideas to the team. Of the two holdovers, Benoit Allaire has the respect of all and we all wanted him back. Lindy Ruff, as I wrote in the past few months, was the questionable return, largely because the defense showed no progress last season. Plus, a look at the below graph indicates that his team have underachieved defensively.




When the formal announcement of the Oliver and Brown hirings came out yesterday afternoon, the key question - which has been asked the past two months - was what would be Ruff's role? Would he be an eye in the sky or on the bench? Larry Brooks answered this in his column:

The plan calls for Oliver and Ruff to accompany Quinn behind the bench while Brown will be upstairs. Brown and Ruff will work with the defense. Ruff, who along with goaltending coach Benoit Allaire survived the purge that cost Vigneault and assistants Scott Arniel and Darryl Williams their jobs, will be responsible for the penalty kill, while Oliver and Brown will share responsibility for the power play.


As I tweeted, this is not exactly the direction we wanted the team to go. But AV had three defensive coaches the last three seasons and blame also has to go to system rather than coach, why I am not going ballistic over this decision, which is something I wrote about when the news came out that Ruff was staying. I would have preferred Ruff as the eye in the sky and Brown on the bench. Same with having Brown, who worked extensively with the special teams at BC, handle the PK in New York. The penalty kill was mildly better last year, though there were stretches where it struggled. The one saving grace is that if it isn't working, I believe Quinn will make a change immediately.

In what became other news. Jimmy Vesey signed a two-year deal with an AAV of $2.275 mil ($2.2 and $2.35 mil in each of the two seasons). I wrote yesterday that I expected a deal in the $1.85-2.25 mil range, so more than play with this contract. My rationale was presented in yesterday's blog (https://www.hockeybuzz.com/blog/Jan-Levine/Vesey-Skjei-Hayes-and-Spooner---my-contract-predictions-what-say-you/89/93973). With Vesey, who was scheduled for arbitration on July 30, now inked, the remaining arbitration dates are July 31 for Brady Skjei; August 2 for Kevin Hayes and August 4 for Ryan Spooner.




The Hat Trick:



The dollars may be slightly high and Vesey will be a UFA after this deal ends, but Vesey now has two years to prove he is worth a bigger contract and New York minimizes the downside risk. Since the Rangers and I think the fanbase are not sure Vesey is definitely part of the future plan, the organization gets a chance to further evaluate him in the new system without overpaying. Vesey gets the opportunity to show he can be a second line winger, or at worse, a true scoring third line winger and be set up for free agency after the 2019-20 season.

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