As Rangers go young, Quinn must connect with new core

The new trend in the NHL is to hire a coach directly from behind the bench in college, and it is largely because the league is getting younger. The Rangers embraced that idea, with a roster chock full of college men who now are going to be led by David Quinn, coming right from being the head man at Boston University for the past five years.

“I think college hockey has certainly made more of an impact on the NHL,” Quinn said at his introductory press conference at the Garden on Thursday. “We practice four days a week, every week. So at the collegiate level, you’re always developing.”

That is exactly what the Rangers are looking for, a coach who can develop their young talent as they try to reboot the franchise. For most of the past decade, the Blueshirts have been a veteran group that continued to add older talent, with winning the Stanley Cup a legitimate goal. Despite a handful of great seasons, including three runs to the conference final and one to the Stanley Cup final over the past six years, they always came up just short.

But general manager Jeff Gorton made a clear declaration of the rebuilding process, trading away veteran players to add young prospects and draft picks as they missed the playoffs this past season for the first time since 2010. Gorton then fired coach Alain Vigneault after five mostly successful years behind the bench, hiring Quinn with all his young players in mind.

“I think it’s pretty well documented, our team, we had a pretty good run for a long time,” Gorton said. “We got to a certain point where our franchise needed a change to go in a different direction. So the number of trades we made, the transactions, that led to where we are now.

“But it’s an exciting time. When you go through something like that, it’s an eye-opening experience. It’s a hard experience, but it’s really exciting as we look forward to some of our young players coming. And we have a lot of good players on our team still, too, and we’re adding a coach that obviously we think a lot of to lead us in the future.”

As of now, the Rangers are going to have 13 players in training camp competing for roster spots who have played college hockey: Kevin Shattenkirk (BU), Chris Kreider (Boston College), Kevin Hayes (BC), Brady Skjei (Minnesota), Jimmy Vesey (Harvard), Neal Pionk (Minnesota-Duluth), Brendan Smith (Wisconsin), Rob O’Gara (Yale), John Gilmour (Providence), Steven Kampfer (Michigan), Boo Nieves (Michigan), Vinni Lettieri (Minnesota) and Ryan Lindgren (Minnesota).

A handful of them already know Quinn either from being around Boston hockey or from playing in college, and that at least gives them an idea of what to expect.

“I don’t think it hurts,” Quinn said. “It’s beneficial I know six or seven of them rather well.”

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Quinn actually picking the roster is quite far away, and the draft that starts June 22 in Dallas also could have quite an impact. The Rangers currently have three first-round picks, along with two apiece in both the second and third rounds. Gorton might bundle them to move up in the first round or might find a trade for a financially reasonable NHL player who is too good to pass up.

Either way, Quinn is likely to get a young team, which is a big reason Gorton hired him in the first place. Vigneault had a rather short leash with young players, but it remains to be seen how Quinn deals with players who are in the midst of a developmental curve.

“It’s all different, it all depends who they are as a player, what has gone on previously,” Quinn said.

“To me, that’s a big situation in how they develop. You can’t develop every guy the same. Everybody’s different. It all depends on the situation.”