Rangers closing in on hiring B.U.’s David Quinn as coach
The foggy conditions have lifted.
David Quinn, the B.U. coach who two-plus weeks ago told friends that he would remain on campus in the aftermath of interviewing for the Rangers job, over the last 48 hours all but flashed a lantern from the steeple of the Old North Church to send the message: “One if New York.”
The message was received by Jeff Gorton, even as the Rangers general manager was in Denmark scouting the IIHF World Championships. And barring an unexpected breakdown in contract negotiations, Quinn will in fact be on Broadway as Alain Vigneault’s successor behind the Blueshirts bench next season, multiple sources have told The Post.
It is unclear whether Quinn, who is believed on board with a contract in the neighborhood of $2.4 million per for five years, would meet with Garden executive chairman Jim Dolan before the hiring is made official. Gorton is due back in New York on Monday, though that could change.
Quinn, by the way, has/had two seasons remaining on a five-year extension he signed with B.U. in June of 2015. It is not known whether the Rangers are chipping in to buy Quinn out of the deal.
Quinn, 51, would become the sixth coach to go from a U.S. college program to an NHL head coaching position, following Ned Harkness (Cornell to the Red Wings in 1970-71); Herb Brooks (from the U. of Minnesota and the U.S. Olympic Team to the Rangers in 1981-82 after a season in Davos); Bob Johnson (from Wisconsin to the Flames in 1982-83); Dave Hakstol (from North Dakota to the Flyers in 2015-16); plus University of Denver’s Jim Montgomery, this year in Dallas.
The legendary Jack Parker, who preceded Quinn at B.U., was on the verge of accepting an offer to coach the Bruins in 1997-98 but changed his mind and stayed at school through 2011-12. Parker coached Blueshirts assistant GM Chris Drury for four seasons and defenseman Kevin Shattenkirk for three years.
Given the composition of the roster, the Blueshirts might be the most receptive team in the league to a coach out of college. Thirteen players with NCAA backgrounds — Shattenkirk; Chris Kreider (B.C.); Kevin Hayes (B.C.); Brady Skjei (Minnesota); Jimmy Vesey (Harvard); Neal Pionk (UMD); Brendan Smith (Wisconsin); Rob O’Gara (Yale); John Gilmour (Providence); Steven Kampfer (Michigan); Boo Nieves (Michigan); Vinni Lettieri (Minnesota); and Ryan Lindgren (Minnesota) — will compete for spots on Broadway this season.
Management did not leap into the pool of recycled NHL coaches in the wake of Vigneault’s dismissal, which took place hours after the season finale in Philadelphia. Meetings with the likes of Bill Peters, Darryl Sutter, Dan Bylsma and Dave Tippet were eschewed. Instead, the search focused on finding a “developmental coach,” in Dolan’s words.
Quinn and Montgomery (who would accept an offer from Dallas after interviews with the Rangers and Stars) were immediately identified by The Post as candidates. The Blueshirts’ ongoing interest in Quinn was first confirmed by a source on April 20, when he was named coach of the 2019 Team USA World Junior squad (a role he of course will have to relinquish) and then again on May 3 when The Post learned that he had told friends that he would remain at B.U.
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But Quinn never pulled himself out of the running for the Rangers job. Thus, New York management never took him off its short list. As of late in the week, The Post had been told that Gorton was interested in talking to one or two more candidates whose teams were either recently eliminated or still participating in the playoffs (AHL or NHL), but that dynamic shifted when Quinn finally sorted through his emotions/priorities and mounted the steeple.
Quinn has coached B.U. for five seasons following one year as assistant coach of the Avalanche and three years as head coach of AHL Lake Erie. So he does have some experience, albeit limited, behind an NHL bench. He took the Terriers to the 2015 NCAA final before losing to Providence. He has also been part of the coaching staff for the U.S. National Development team.
He is hands-on and promotes a straight-line, puck-pressure game with a physical bent to it. He has coached Buffalo’s Jack Eichel, Boston’s Charlie McAvoy, Arizona’s Clayton Keller, Minnesota’s Jordan Greenway and draft-eligible Brady Tkachuk.
Quinn will be expected to develop players in New York. And even if it goes without saying, he will be expected to develop a winning team, too, before not so long.
From winning the Cup, to losing his job as No. 1, to becoming a (contributing) backup on another couple of Cup winners in that same city nearly a decade later, then going to an expansion team and taking that first-year club on at least a deep playoff run, Marc-Andre Fleury’s career arc seems unprecedented, but it is not necessarily unique.
Presenting Chris Osgood, who was backup for Detroit’s 1997 Cup winners, won it as No. 1 with the Red Wings the following year, lost his job to Dominik Hasek and was sent to the Islanders in 2001-02, bounced from there to St. Louis and then back to Detroit, where he was first backup to Manny Legace before winning back the top job and the Cup in 2008 — against the Penguins’ Fleury.
If a team of almost entirely perceived third-liners and fourth and fifth defensemen advanced to the conference finals (with a 3-1 lead, no less), would everyone be raving about the general manager (and scouting department) who constructed the club, or the coach instead?
Because honestly, has there ever — ever — been a better coaching job in the NHL than the one Gerard Gallant has turned in this year for the Golden Knights?
Fred Shero with the Flyers in 1973-74, maybe?
That GM George McPhee was able to find so many undervalued assets around the league —honestly, the Rangers did as good a job as anyone in the expansion process in losing Oscar Lindberg without fuss or muss — should place every GM on notice that there are undervalued assets to be mined this summer.
And use of the offer sheet, where there is zero compensation for Group II free agents receiving deals up to $1,339,575, and only a third-rounder attached to contracts then up to $2,029,659, would represent an effective way to procure one or two.
That is, assuming they are identified.
Either the use of video review is limited by the rule book, or it isn’t. Except not in the NHL, where the league makes up rules on the fly.
If they “wanted to get it right” in Game 4 of Washington-Tampa Bay when Yanni Gourde rather than Victor Hedman was mistakenly sent to the box for tripping T.J. Oshie before the officials corrected their mistake upon checking video, will everyone be on board with getting it wrong in the final?
Or will we find out, much like with Brett Hull’s in-the-crease 1999 Cup winning goal, that a memo had been sent out weeks earlier?