Rangers coach Mike Sullivan sees plenty of talent with his new team
GREENBURGH – Mike Sullivan, the new coach of the Rangers, said Thursday that the Blueshirts have plenty of talent on their roster, but that isn’t enough to win a Stanley Cup. It’s his job, he said, to take that talent and find a way to turn the Rangers back into a Stanley Cup contender after they missed the playoffs this spring.
“There's a lot of talent in the dressing room, but as we all know, talent alone doesn't win championships,’’ Sullivan said as the Rangers formally introduced him at their Westchester County practice facility as the 38th coach in franchise history. “Teams win championships. And I think that's going to be our challenge from Day One.’’
Sullivan, who won back-to-back Stanley Cups as coach of the Pittsburgh Penguins in 2016 and ’17, was hired by the Rangers last Friday, four days after the Penguins let him go. Rangers general manager Chris Drury, whose relationship with Sullivan goes back to 1997 when they were teammates on the U.S. World Championship team, couldn’t wait to hire him as soon as he became available.
“The second Mike was available, we quickly and aggressively pursued him,’’ Drury said. “We're certainly thrilled that that pursuit led us to this moment today.’’
Sullivan, 57, replaces Peter Laviolette, who was fired April 19, two days after the Rangers closed out the season with a 4-0 win over the Tampa Bay Lightning. Laviolette, who’d replaced Gerard Gallant in 2023, had led the Rangers to the Presidents’ Trophy in his first season, amassing franchise records in wins (55) and points (114) along the way to an appearance in the Eastern Conference finals, the Rangers’ second in three years.
But things went sour in his second season, with the Rangers tumbling to a 39-36-7 record and finishing fifth in the Metropolitan Division, six points out of a playoff spot. Several key players who performed at career-best levels in 2023-24 underachieved in 2024-25, and Sullivan will need to get them back up to their level of expectation.
Artemi Panarin, who led the team in scoring two seasons ago with 49 goals and 120 points, fell back to 37 goals and 89 points this season. Linemates Alexis Lafreniere and Vincent Trocheck, who both had career years in 2023-24, took steps back as well. Mika Zibanejad, the No. 1 center in ‘23-24, had 10 fewer points (62) this season and went from a plus-15 to a minus-22. Chris Kreider finished with 22 goals and 30 points, after putting up 39 and 75 the season before. The power play, which had been elite for years, was 28th overall, at a 17.6% success rate, after finishing third (at 26.4%) the year before.
Sullivan, though, said he is excited to get the chance to work with the group.
“Every time we've played against this group of players [as an opposing coach], they've been fierce battles, and I've grown so much respect over the years for the talent that the Rangers have,’’ Sullivan said. “I look forward to the opportunity to get to know some of these guys on a more personal level. I look forward to the opportunity to work with them, both on the ice and off the ice, to try to become the most competitive team that we can become and ultimately challenge for a Stanley Cup.’’
Sullivan, who will coach the U.S. team in the 2026 Olympics, was the coach for the U.S. at the NHL’s 4 Nations Face-Off international tournament, where he got to work with four Rangers on that squad – Trocheck, Kreider, J.T. Miller and defenseman Adam Fox. He was asked Thursday about Fox, the Jericho native, whose production dipped from 17 goals and 73 points in 72 games in 2023-24 to 10 goals and 61 points in 74 games this season.
“I think he's an elite player in this league,’’ Sullivan said of the 26-year-old Fox. “He's still a young guy. He already has a Norris Trophy (2021) in his trophy case, I think he's one of the elite defensemen in this league. I look forward to the opportunity of working with Adam.
“With the experience that we had at the 4 Nations, I got to know him a little bit better. I got to know all those guys a little bit better. And I look forward to building that relationship with him. I don't think there's any doubt that Adam is an elite player in this league, and we're going to push him to try to be at his very best."
Colin Stephenson covers the Rangers for Newsday. He has spent more than two decades covering the NHL and just about every sports team in the New York metropolitan area.
