No, I do not believe that the delay in the Rangers hiring a head coach is connected to Joel Quenneville any more than I did the first two times I wrote that the three-time Cup winner wouldn’t be a candidate for the job.
But I get the theory. Information abhors a vacuum. And there is a whole vault of nothingness other than identifying John Hynes and Peter Laviolette as front-runners and eliminating Patrick Roy, Mike Babcock, Kris Knoblauch, Jay Leach and Spencer Carbery as possibilities.
It is difficult to imagine that Chris Drury, the president-general manager who began this search two days after parting ways with Gerard Gallant on May 6, is going to learn more about Hynes and Laviolette at this point, though Hynes did not become a person of interest until he was dismissed by Nashville on May 30.
Several sources who have history with Hynes have told The Post that the 48-year-old coach is as prepared, structured, detail-oriented and tactically adept as anyone they have encountered in the NHL. In their exit interviews with Drury, those are the very qualities that many of the veterans said the team lacked under Gallant.
But in eight seasons behind an NHL bench, four-plus with the Devils and three-plus with the Predators, Hynes has never won a playoff round. The mandate for the next Rangers coach is to win four rounds next year. Is that giving Drury pause? That is impossible to answer with the multiple-titled executive having set up residency in a SCIF (Sensitive Compartmented Information Facility).
Truth is, Drury is in Buffalo at the scouting combine with most of the player personnel staff. That might be delaying a decision or an announcement. Perhaps there is a timing issue as relates to chairman Jim Dolan’s availability to meet with the lucky winner.
Part of the delay relates to the Pittsburgh situation that was only resolved June 1. Mike Sullivan was always a Hail Mary, but the Rangers were waiting to see if the Penguins’ two-time Cup-winning coach would become available if Kyle Dubas took over Pittsburgh’s hockey operations. The answer became no.
Drury also would have wanted to interview Sheldon Keefe had he been let go by the Maple Leafs and incoming GM Brad Treliving, but it appears as if Toronto is retaining its head coach. That’s another reason there was no rush to judgment.
The Rangers do not need a coach today. But soon. They probably need one in place by the draft that will be held in Nashville on Jun 28-29. And they surely need one by the July 1 opening of free agency. You think anyone — and that includes impending restricted free agents K’Andre Miller and Alexis Lafreniere — would commit to the team without knowing the identity of the coach?
This is the practical reason I do not believe Quenneville is a factor here. Though Gary Bettman, who placed the coach under indefinite suspension in late October 2021 for his failure to act responsibly in connection with the Kyle Beach sexual assault issue in Chicago, did say he would meet with Quenneville after the final to discuss possible reinstatement, the commissioner did not target a specific time frame.
I cannot imagine a scenario under which Bettman would meet with Quenneville and grant him clemency before the draft, or even before July 1. I have previously been told by industry sources that the expectation is that if he is reinstated, it would be later in the summer and past the current coach hiring cycle.
Bettman likes to control the news. In what universe would Bettman want Quenneville’s hypothetical (and controversial) reinstatement and hiring by the Rangers to dominate the discourse in Nashville and make Connor Bedard into an afterthought? Because that’s what the draft would become, even in Chicago.
I could be wrong. That’s even happened a handful of times over four decades in the business. But I do not believe the delay in naming a coach has anything to do with Quenneville.
Maybe it is logistics. Maybe there is one more “I” to dot and one more “T” to cross for Drury. There is no urgency in making a choice. No urgency in making an announcement. Not yet, anyway.
The urgency is getting it right.
