Rangers fire Laviolette after missing postseason

Once again, the New York Rangers are in search of a new head coach, with the club announcing Saturday that it has fired Peter Laviolette.

The dismissal of Laviolette, who had a year remaining on his contract, comes just days after the Rangers failed to make the playoffs in what became a trying season that ended Thursday. New York reached the Eastern Conference finals last season.

In addition to the Rangers moving on from Laviolette, associate coach Phil Housley is also out.

The Rangers are now searching for their fourth coach since 2021, with Laviolette joining a list of fired bench bosses that includes David Quinn and Gerard Gallant.

“Today I informed Peter Laviolette and Phil Housley that we’re making a coaching change,” Rangers general manager Chris Drury said in a statement. “I want to thank them both and wish them and their families all the best going forward. Peter is first class all the way, both professionally and personally, and I am truly grateful for his passion and dedication to the Rangers in his time as head coach.”

Laviolette, who won a Stanley Cup as Carolina Hurricanes coach in 2005-06, was hired at the start of the 2023-24 season. He guided the Rangers to a 55-win season that also saw them lead the NHL with 114 points. They would advance to the Eastern Conference finals, where they lost to the eventual Stanley Cup champion Florida Panthers in six games.

Entering this season, the Rangers were once again expected to challenge for a Stanley Cup. They catapulted to a 12-4-1 start only to lose five straight games, which started them down a path of struggling to find consistency.

By December, the Rangers made it known they were open for business. They traded captain Jacob Trouba, who had one year remaining on his contract, to the Anaheim Ducks. Less than two weeks later, they traded onetime prized prospect forward Kaapo Kakko to the Seattle Kraken for defenseman Will Borgen.

On Jan. 31, the Rangers signaled their intent for a playoff push when they reacquired J.T. Miller in a trade with the Vancouver Canucks. The Rangers kept going with their roster reshuffle as the trade deadline drew closer. They traded defenseman Ryan Lindgren to the Colorado Avalanche and forward Reilly Smith back to the Vegas Golden Knights while getting defenseman Carson Soucy from the Canucks.

Even with those changes, the Rangers would lose four straight in early March before having two more stretches of three-game losing streaks that saw them fail to gain any sort of grasp in the Eastern Conference wild-card race.

Sources told ESPN’s Emily Kaplan that the Rangers would like to interview several names outside of the organization, including John Tortorella, Joel Quenneville, Jay Woodcroft, Jay Leach, David Carle as well as Mike Sullivan and Rick Tocchet if they are available.

Laviolette’s dismissal comes hours after the Ducks announced they had fired Greg Cronin. It leaves the NHL with five head coaching vacancies, with the Boston Bruins, Chicago Blackhawks and Philadelphia Flyers ending the regular season with interim coaches in place.