In the middle of his 3rd season with the Rangers, the David Quinn situation needs to be addressed. His 69-64-14 record screams mediocre. It was very exciting for many fans when he was hired. He coached at Boston University, was a first-rounder when he played and seemed like he could be an awesome replacement for Alain Vigneault after he was fired.
Quinn’s first year wasn’t great but the team was brutal at the time so the blame wasn’t on him. Last year, the only real team issue was the lack of commitment in the bubble. The Canes dominated the Rangers in every aspect of the game and showed that the Rangers weren’t worthy of making the playoffs.
College Isn’t The Pros
Quinn was responsible for many of the dominant Boston University teams in recent memory. He coached superstars like Jack Eichel and Clayton Keller. So if he can handle star players, why does Mika Zibanejad struggle? The goalscoring may ramp up at some point but it’s still outrageous that he isn’t dominating. It doesn’t help that the Rangers’ two young studs, Alexis Lafreniere and Kaapo Kakko have not been producing at all.
Lafreniere is still 19 so fans should not press the panic button on him yet but there is a legitimate reason for concern regarding Kakko. It’s obvious he has the ability to play like a top 3 pick but he can’t seem to produce like one. He was picked in-between Jack Hughes and Kirby Dach who have both had significantly more success than Kakko thus far.
Chris Drury Promotion
David Quinn’s time in New York needs to come to an end. The movement of forward lines and defensive pairings on a game-to-game basis is showing the panic of the team right now as well as the fact that Quinn can’t get anyone to build chemistry. Chris Drury is the best man to replace him. Drury coached well in Hartford and he just got promoted to a job with the pro team. It was also reported that Ryan Callahan could join a Chris Drury-led coaching staff.
Any Ranger fan should be ecstatic if these two were to take over the coaching staff. Both former captains showed up every night to grind and win. Drury was a candidate to be the new Penguins GM which led to the Rangers promoting him. Not all players make great coaches but Drury has already shown that he can coach to win while maintaining a good locker room environment.
David Quinn Future
It is respectable that Quinn gave NHL coaching a shot. However, he should stick to college hockey. There are a ton of differences between the college and pro level and it just seems like Quinn can’t command these guys the same way he used to with the Terriers. Quinn should go back to college hockey and reclaim his identity as a successful college hockey coach.