Was Mike Sullivan The Right Choice for the New York Rangers?

The New York Rangers unsurprisingly made a coaching change after a season the entire organization wants to forget. General Manager Chris Drury removed Peter Laviolette as the head coach and inserted Mike Sullivan as the new bench boss. It was the worst-kept secret in the NHL. However, was it the right move?

Drury and Sullivan have been linked for years. The Rangers tried to court Sullivan two previous times, but the two-time Stanley Cup winner did not want to leave Pittsburgh. This time, it was all but academic once the Pittsburgh Penguins and Sullivan parted ways. He was the first and only choice for Drury and the Rangers.

Based on Sullivan’s history, getting this Rangers roster to play at a certain level is a good fit. However, despite what the owner wants, the roster is not ready to win now. Not to mention, is Sullivan the right guy for this job?

General Manager Chris Drury makes you believe he is the guy to get the Rangers over the hump. However, if you look at Sullivan’s track record, you will see that he has not won a playoff series since 2018. That was in the first round before the Pittsburgh Penguins lost to the Washington Capitals in the second round. Those back-to-back Stanley Cup victories came in 2016 and 2017. That is eight years ago.

Now, Sullivan did a heck of a job coaching the Penguins to those championships, considering the Penguins were missing Kris Letang in 2016, and it was a makeshift defense. In 2017, he had help with Matt Murray and Marc-Andre Fleury, and he got the Penguins to buy into a defence-first system that had an offensive firepower with Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, Phil Kessel, Jake Guentzel, and others.

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But that group could not hold leads defensively when it mattered most, come playoff time. The Penguins lost in the first round in 2019, 2021, and 2022. Not to mention, at their height, they lost to the Montreal Canadiens in the 2020 Stanley Cup Playoffs Bubble Play-In round, failing to qualify for the playoffs.

Mike Sullivan was outcoached in those situations and outcoached when the Penguins held three multi-goal leads in Games 5, 6, and 7 against the Rangers in 2022. In addition, in 2023, under Sullivan, the Penguins lost to inferior competition and failed to make the playoffs. He also backed management in re-signing Tristan Jarry in Pittsburgh after he left via free agency.

There is a chance his best days are behind him. Now, Sullivan did get Team USA to buy into playing a defensive system, but he made a mistake scratching a goal scorer in Kyle Connor over Chris Kreider in the Four Nations final against Canada. That mistake cost Team USA the victory.

It just feels like the Rangers are heading down an Edmonton Oilers path, hiring coaches because they previously had a history with the club. Not to mention, the general manager has worked with the coach before. And that history could come to bite Drury and the Rangers in the butt.

How many more coaches can Chris Drury go through before his job is in jeopardy? While Drury got a new extension, did he deserve it? More on that at another time. But the Rangers can’t continuously be in a cycle of hiring and firing coaches every two years. Eventually, they need to win, but this roster is not ready.

It will be interesting to see how Mike Sullivan’s second act as a head coach differs from his first. He is a good coach, but his best days could be behind him. Only time will tell. For the New York Rangers sake, they better have made the right choice.