Inside look at New York Rangers
NHL.com is providing in-depth roster, prospect and fantasy analysis for each of its 32 teams from Aug. 1-Sept. 1. Today, the New York Rangers.
Mike Sullivan has been spending his first offseason as New York Rangers coach getting to know the players on a personal level and watching games from last season to gain a deeper understanding of what he is inheriting.
What he has learned has bolstered what he already knew.
“I’ve certainly coached against them for a number of years,” Sullivan told NHL.com. “I’ve always had just a ton of respect for how talented this group of players is and what they’ve accomplished with this core over the last half a dozen years or so. We’re not unlike any other organization in the League where the challenge is to become a team because talent alone doesn’t win, as we all know. We’re going to work at that. We’re working at it right now. For me it starts with the relationships with the players.”
From a trip to Sweden to get to know Mika Zibanejad to 1-on-1 conversations at home with J.T. Miller, Vincent Trocheck, Will Cuylle, Adam Fox, Alexis Lafreniere and others, Sullivan has been focused on building those relationships since he was hired to replace Peter Laviolette on May 2, four days after leaving the Pittsburgh Penguins.
He has talked to the players about their roles and where they see themselves fitting best. He’s informed each player of his expectations and how he and his staff, which features former Rangers coach David Quinn, will push them to, as he says, “get the best versions of them.”
Sullivan is in New York because the Rangers were not the best versions of themselves last season. They missed the Stanley Cup Playoffs one year after winning the Presidents’ Trophy with franchise records in wins (55) and points (114), and losing the Eastern Conference Final in six games to the Florida Panthers.
