What The Rangers Need In Their Next Head Coach

The playoffs are going hot and heavy but – then again – so is your Friday Favorite, Ask The Maven. This week's question comes from Joe Carro in Albany. Take it away, Joe:

IN THE LAST FEW YEARS THE RANGERS HAVE HAD A COLLEGE COACH, A HARD-NOSED COACH AND LAID BACK PETER LAVIOLETTE. WHAT KIND OF NEXT COACH IS BEST FOR THIS TEAM?

The Maven Replies: A lot depends on how many players are retained from the current club and how many younger players – like Brett Berard – make the varsity. 

Peter Laviolette miserably failed this season with a mostly veteran team and kept using and re-using slumping vets at the expense of the kids. Eventually, those same vets tuned out the coach.

By the time younger players such as Gabe Perreaut and Brennan Othmann were given a chance, the coach used them sparingly. That made It impossible to judge their worth.

I believe that the team will undergo major changes on defense and up front. In camp prospects such as defenseman Drew Fortescue and Adam Sykora up front will have a better chance to make the big club than last Fall.

The accent will be heavier on youth which means that more Hartford farmhands should make the big club. With that in mind, the new coach – whoever it may be – must be better tuned in to youth than Laviolette. 

With that in mind, the choice should be someone from the university level or one – such as Jay Pandolfo – who has had experience on both the collegiate and pro levels and was a Cup-winner playing for the New Jersey Devils.

All things considered, at this moment, Pandolfo would head my list!