The New York Rangers announced Saturday that they have fired coach Peter Laviolette after the team failed to make the playoffs for the first time since the 2020-21 season.
New York entered the season with Stanley Cup aspirations following a run to the 2024 Eastern Conference final and Presidents’ Trophy win, but it finished with a 39-36-7 record and did not have a multi-goal comeback all season until Monday, its first game after elimination.
Laviolette, who won the Stanley Cup with the Carolina Hurricanes in 2006, ends his time with the Rangers with a 94-59-11 record. The 60-year-old, who is seventh in NHL history with 846 coaching wins, came to New York with a reputation for early-tenure success before his teams faded as the years went on. Though he battled factors outside his control this season, that ended up being the case with the Rangers.
New York’s season was defined by drama and underperformance. Every key veteran on the team regressed from their 2023-24 performance, most notably Chris Kreider, who went from 39 goals and 75 points in 82 games in 2023-24 to 22 goals and 30 points in 67 games in 2024-25. Mika Zibanejad, Adam Fox, Vincent Trocheck, Artemi Panarin and Alexis Lafrenière all had at least 10 fewer points than they did last season.
The Rangers struggled to find defensive consistency — or consistency of any kind. They did not have a three-game win streak after November and gave up five or more goals on 23 occasions. Their goals against numbers could have been worse had the team not gotten strong goaltending from Igor Shesterkin, who finished the year sixth in the league in goals saved above expected, according to Evolving-Hockey.
The team also faced its off-ice issues, not all of which were Laviolette’s fault. General manager Chris Drury frustrated members of the locker room by putting Barclay Goodrow on waivers over the summer so the San Jose Sharks, a team on his no-trade list, could pick him up. Drury also traded captain Jacob Trouba to the Anaheim Ducks, and Trouba said the Rangers threatened to put him on waivers if he did not accept a trade to a team on his no-trade list.
The Trouba trade came on the heels of Drury sending a memo to the league’s other 31 general managers saying he was open to trading roster players. He mentioned Trouba and Kreider by name. The memo came early in what became a 5-14-0 stretch.
The Rangers also had multiple players publicly question their role on the team.
“I think it’s easy to pick the young guy and put him out,” Kaapo Kakko said after a scratch in December. He was traded days later.
Zac Jones and Jimmy Vesey both expressed frustration at consistent scratches in interviews with various publications.
Most recently, Calvin de Haan said the way the Rangers have treated him has been “f—ed” as he got on the ice for an optional morning skate. De Haan, acquired in a package for Ryan Lindgren and Jimmy Vesey, played his first three games with the Rangers, then was a scratch for the final 20 games of the season. Laviolette said Monday he communicated with de Haan throughout his time with the team.
After its rocky stretch in November and December, New York stabilized a bit when the calendar flipped to 2025 and on multiple occasions pulled within a tie of the East’s second wild-card spot. The Rangers were tied in points with the Montreal Canadiens as recently as April 2. But a Canadiens six-game win streak paired with New York going 4-4-0 in April ensured the Rangers would miss the playoffs.
The Athletic also came out with a report Thursday, the day of the season finale, that Panarin and Madison Square Garden, the company that owns the team, “paid financial settlements to a Rangers employee last year after she alleged that Panarin sexually assaulted her.”
Asked for comment on the report, Laviolette deferred to the MSG statement that said, “The matter has been resolved.”
New York had plenty of turnover throughout the season. Drury shipped out Trouba and Kakko in December, then landed a J.T. Miller-centered package in January for Filip Chytil, Victor Mancini and a conditional first-round pick. The Rangers decided to trade pending unrestricted free agents Lindgren, Vesey and Reilly Smith at the trade deadline, but brought in NHLers Carson Soucy, de Haan and Juuso Pärssinen with eyes on still making the playoffs.
Given the way the season went, Laviolette seemed to know a coaching change was possible.
“I think everything gets looked at when a year is not good like this,” he said April 13 when asked about his job security. “I’m not blind to anything. I love being here with these guys and the New York Rangers. It’s a year where everything went right, to a year where things didn’t go right. When things don’t go right, I’m sure everything gets looked at.”
In 2024-25, the year in which Laviolette said everything went right, the Rangers set a single-season franchise record in wins (55) and points (114). New York fell to the Panthers in six games in the Eastern Conference final.
The Rangers are now looking for their fourth coach since hiring David Quinn ahead of the 2018-19 season. Quinn served three seasons, then Gerard Gallant and Laviolette each lasted two despite each leading the Rangers to a conference final appearance.
Assistant coach Phil Housley was also fired, per the announcement. A league source told The Athletic that assistants Dan Muse and Michael Peca will have the opportunity to interview for a position on the next coaching staff.
“Today I informed Peter Laviolette and Phil Housley that we’re making a coaching change,” 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.
“After finishing with the best regular-season record in the NHL a year ago and making a trip to the Eastern Conference final, we came into this season with high expectations for ourselves. Quite simply, we failed to meet those expectations. We must all do better — myself included. As we head into next season and beyond, I felt that a change was necessary in order to give us the best chance to achieve our goals as an organization. Our search for a new head coach will begin immediately.”
(Photo: Bruce Bennett / Getty Images)
Peter Baugh is a staff writer for The Athletic NHL based in New York. He has previously been published in the Columbia Missourian, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Kansas City Star, Politico and the Washington Post. A St. Louis native, Peter graduated from the University of Missouri and previously covered the Missouri Tigers and the Colorado Avalanche for The Athletic. Follow Peter on Twitter @Peter_Baugh