Laviolette Out as Rangers Head Coach

Peter Laviolette (Westfield State) was relieved of his duties last week as head coach of the New York Rangers after just two years at the helm. He is the only coach in NHL history to take six different teams to the Stanley Cup playoffs. 

Laviolette, 60, led the Rangers to a 55-23-4 overall mark in 2023-24 and the President's Trophy as the top NHL team in the regular season. New York then fell to eventual Stanley Cup champion Florida in the Eastern Conference final. This year, the Rangers dropped to 39-36-7 and missed the postseason.

A Franklin, Mass. native, Laviolette began his NHL head coaching career in 2001-02 with a two-year stint with the New York Islanders. He then spent five years with Carolina, leading the Hurricanes to a Stanley Cup championship in 2006. He has also helmed Philadelphia, Nashville and Washington in his 23-year NHL tenure, fashioning a record of 846-562-25 in regular-season play and an 88-82 ledger in the Stanley Cup Playoffs. He is also the all-time winningest American-born head coach in NHL history.

A member of the 1988 U.S. Olympic Team, Laviolette played 11 years professionally after skating for four years on defense at Westfield State, including 12 NHL games with the Rangers, before retiring after the 1996-97 campaign. He then began his coaching career in 1997-98 with one year with Wheeling (ECHL), and then spent two years with Providence (AHL), winning a Calder Cup with the P-Bruins, while serving as head coach with both organizations. He then joined the Islanders after serving as an assistant with Boston in 2000-01.

Laviolette Returns to Rangers as Head Coach

Peter Laviolette (Westfield State) will give the NHL another try.

Laviolette, 58, has been named the new head coach of the New York Rangers. It is his sixth stop in an NHL head coaching career that began in 2001-02 with the New York Islanders. He has also mentored the Carolina Hurricanes, Philadelphia Flyers, Nashville Predators and Washington Capitals, and spent the last three years in Washington before partying ways with the Capitals in April. He coached Carolina to a Stanley Cup title in 2006, and also guided Philadelphia (2010) and Nashville (2017) to the Stanley Cup Final.

A defenseman on the 1988 U.S. Olympic Team, Laviolette played four years in college at Westfield State, and 10 full seasons professionally in a myriad of locales. He also skated in 12 career NHL games, all with the Rangers in 1988-89. He retired as a player in 1997 and then spent one season as head coach in Wheeling (ECHL) before serving two years as head coach with Providence (AHL), winning the Calder Cup in his first season with the P-Bruins. He then worked one year as an assistant with the NHL's Boston Bruins before embarking on his head coaching career, all with NH organizations.

Laviolette, from Westfield, Mass. has posted an NHL career regular-season record of 752-503-25-150 in 1,430 games, and is 78-76 all-time in the Stanley Cup Playoffs. He is also the winningest American-born coach in NHL history.

ADDENDUM: Anaheim recently hired Greg Cronin (Colby) as its newest head coach, his first head coaching position at that level. The Arlington, Mass native spent eight seasons in all as an assistant coach with Maine and Colorado College, before helming Maine for two abbreviated seasons as a temporary replacement for the then-suspended Shawn Walsh. He later served as head coach at Northeastern for six seasons (2005-2011), in-between stints as an AHL assistant with the New York Islanders and Toronto Maple Leafs. Previously the head coach of Bridgeport (AHL) from 2003 to 2005, Cronin, 60, spent the last five seasons as head coach with Colorado (AHL), winning 164 regular-season games in all.