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NYR close to naming Mike Sullivan as new Head Coach UPD: Named

Tawnos said:
That team wasn't much better on paper until the deadline, but a lot this season will depend on what happens with some of their younger players. At forward, does Cuylle take another step forward? Do Berard, Othmann, and/or Perreault establish themselves as contributors? On D, every single defenseman took a step back in the last two years under Laviolette/Housley. Does Fox (although not quite as young) get back to Norris Trophy form? Does Miller take a step forward? Does Schneider take a step forward? Both under the new coach, plus I'm not convinced Fox was completely healthy this year and we know that Schneider was dealing with a torn labrum for all of the last 2 seasons.

The offseason moves are a question too. Does Kreider get moved? There's a good chance. Does Drury convince Zibanejad to be willing to waive his NMC? And what are the subsequent moves that happen from that cap space being opened up?
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Unless Sullivan actually humbles himself, good luck seeing improvements in the young forwards under him. He's been notorious the past few seasons for opting to over use useless grinding veterans in favor of playing the kids (unless injuries force his hand).

It's one of the (many) reasons I'm glad he's gone from the Pens. I didn't want him anywhere near being in charge of the rebuild, when the Pens go full youth movement and Sullivan instead will just play these random 30 year old 4th liners all the time instead of developing the youth.
 
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Sidney the Kidney said:
Unless Sullivan actually humbles himself, good luck seeing improvements in the young forwards under him. He's been notorious the past few seasons for opting to over use useless grinding veterans in favor of playing the kids (unless injuries force his hand).

It's one of the (many) reasons I'm glad he's gone from the Pens. I didn't want him anywhere near being in charge of the rebuild, when the Pens go full youth movement and Sullivan instead will just play these random 30 year old 4th liners all the time instead of developing the youth.
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Matt Nieto!
 
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Tawnos said:
That team wasn't much better on paper until the deadline, but a lot this season will depend on what happens with some of their younger players. At forward, does Cuylle take another step forward? Do Berard, Othmann, and/or Perreault establish themselves as contributors? On D, every single defenseman took a step back in the last two years under Laviolette/Housley. Does Fox (although not quite as young) get back to Norris Trophy form? Does Miller take a step forward? Does Schneider take a step forward? Both under the new coach, plus I'm not convinced Fox was completely healthy this year and we know that Schneider was dealing with a torn labrum for all of the last 2 seasons.

The offseason moves are a question too. Does Kreider get moved? There's a good chance. Does Drury convince Zibanejad to be willing to waive his NMC? And what are the subsequent moves that happen from that cap space being opened up?
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You just asked 10 questions in that one post. There's probably a bunch more as well. Unlikely to think all of these or even a good majority all go in a favourable direction. Team is getting older. Key players getting worse. Young guys might step up but they would have to take massive strides to off-set the decline of the top players and get to the level of when they were contributing at their highest levels.

Also, while they are not necessarily right at the cap, they definitely don't have as much to work with compared to most of the league.
 
With Philly, Islanders, and Pens all in and around rebuilds. The top 4 of the division is all but guaranteed.

This current Rangers roster still struggled to stay out of the bottom. I would say a better start helps, but they had a great start last year.

Maybe avoid putting your players on the rumor mill. (Oops, that is all ready happening).
 
Sidney the Kidney said:
Unless Sullivan actually humbles himself, good luck seeing improvements in the young forwards under him. He's been notorious the past few seasons for opting to over use useless grinding veterans in favor of playing the kids (unless injuries force his hand).

It's one of the (many) reasons I'm glad he's gone from the Pens. I didn't want him anywhere near being in charge of the rebuild, when the Pens go full youth movement and Sullivan instead will just play these random 30 year old 4th liners all the time instead of developing the youth.
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At the moment, the Rangers don't really have much in the way of grinding veterans. They definitely need to look at addressing a hole at 3C though.
 
GIN ANTONIC said:
You just asked 10 questions in that one post. There's probably a bunch more as well. Unlikely to think all of these or even a good majority all go in a favourable direction. Team is getting older. Key players getting worse. Young guys might step up but they would have to take massive strides to off-set the decline of the top players and get to the level of when they were contributing at their highest levels.

Also, while they are not necessarily right at the cap, they definitely don't have as much to work with compared to most of the league.
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They don't all need to go perfectly, but this team was just 6 points out of a playoff spot without any of that, without the veterans playing hard and focused, and with a season that was off-form for Shesterkin, separate from the defensive issues (he was still good, but he can be better). They also played the least number of overtimes, because they only had 1 multi-goal comeback all season and scored 0 6v5 goals at the end of the game, which is related to the unfocused play.

I'm not saying this team is going to win another President's Trophy, but while you point out that those questions need favorable answers, I'd argue that this past season was one where basically EVERYTHING went wrong. That's not going to happen again.
 
I'm not sure that the Rangers are the best fit for Sullivan. Their core is old, but not too old to make the playoffs like the Penguins' core is, so it's possible that their age might not be as much of an impediment. Also, they do have some great younger players, such as Fox, Shesterkin, and Lafreniere, so if they can re-tool around them, they might be able to do something. With that said, it won't be easy, as they have difficult contracts to move and not a whole lot of assets to use to try to acquire new players.
 
SML2 said:
I want Torts to scream "shoot" at Fox non stop.

My mistake. Weren't they on some crazy dry streak?
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I want to say it got better as the season went on without looking at any numbers, but the PP was absolutely brutal under Todd Rierden the previous season. Rierden was replaced by Quinn last off-season.

I'm not going to say Quinn did a masterful job this season, he was responsible for the defensive unit and that was a total shit-show all season, but once he broke the Penguins top unit up the Pens had one of the better power plays. There certainly were some ~5 game spans where the PP didn't do much, but that was a far cry from the PP being a liability the entire season. That 23-24 PP only scored 28 more goals than they allowed, tying for the league lead with 12 SHGs against. The 24-25 Pens were a +52 on the PP this season, scoring 17 more and allowing 7 fewer than the previous season.

No clue where Quinn coaches next season as he was given permission to interview for other jobs.
 
Tbh it remains to be seen if Sullivan's system is still effective even with a roster capable of playing it. It worked in 2016 and 2017 because that speed game caught a lot of teams by surprise. In 2025, every team is fast.
 
Sully to NYR couldn't have been more obvious than it was.

The bigger question is are any of his favorite players going to be "acquired".....
We have a slightly used Noel Acciari available ;).
 
Good luck rangers fans. I've long been over Sullivan shit here in Pittsburgh ...

But if I'm not mistaken, since his second cup, he has won a single playoff round. That's one playoff round since 2018. The man was handed stacked rosters for consecutive years and under produced.

Not only has his teams been bounced in the opening rounds in four straight years following his second cup, he hasn't made the playoffs in the past 3.

Everyone throws around "winningest coaching in franchise history". But dude coached some generational talent for ten years. I think having. The most wins in franchise is a low bar when taken in that context.

Everyone points to his back to back cups, but his record after that is, in context to the rosters he has had, a record of failure.

He has for a while now come across to me as arrogant, egotistical, inflexible, unwilling to work with young players, and 100 percent guilty of drinking the Kool aid serviced to him by the hockey media/hockey culture.

And isn't there a rumor they are going to reunite him and torts floating around?

Jesus that coaching staff pairing could not be more toxic to any player under the age of 27.
 
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Big McLargehuge said:
I want to say it got better as the season went on without looking at any numbers, but the PP was absolutely brutal under Todd Rierden the previous season. Rierden was replaced by Quinn last off-season.

I'm not going to say Quinn did a masterful job this season, he was responsible for the defensive unit and that was a total shit-show all season, but once he broke the Penguins top unit up the Pens had one of the better power plays. There certainly were some ~5 game spans where the PP didn't do much, but that was a far cry from the PP being a liability the entire season. That 23-24 PP only scored 28 more goals than they allowed, tying for the league lead with 12 SHGs against. The 24-25 Pens were a +52 on the PP this season, scoring 17 more and allowing 7 fewer than the previous season.

No clue where Quinn coaches next season as he was given permission to interview for other jobs.
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He's going to New York too, sully, torts, Quinn: the Boston boys take Manhattan by storm...

And by storm I mean create a porous defensive structure, ruin any and all prospect development, over play washed up vets, and use weak sauce platitudes and cliches about playing the right way, when the loses start to pile up.
 
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Bishop7979 said:
He's going to New York too, sully, torts, Quinn: the Boston boys take Manhattan by storm...

And by storm I mean create a porous defensive structure, ruin any and all prospect development, over play washed up vets, and use weak sauce platitudes and cliches about playing the right way, when the loses start to pile up.
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Sooooooo....same old same old for the Rangers?
 
Sidney the Kidney said:
Unless Sullivan actually humbles himself, good luck seeing improvements in the young forwards under him. He's been notorious the past few seasons for opting to over use useless grinding veterans in favor of playing the kids (unless injuries force his hand).

It's one of the (many) reasons I'm glad he's gone from the Pens. I didn't want him anywhere near being in charge of the rebuild, when the Pens go full youth movement and Sullivan instead will just play these random 30 year old 4th liners all the time instead of developing the youth.
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You're either this coach, or coach long enough that you become this coach. If you're not currently a fan base that complains about this, you will be.
 
rags have to find a way to make their vets effective or annoy them so much they waive nmc/ntc to leave. this could be a good hire to achieve one of those goals.
 
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