Ex-Rangers coach wants to ‘get after it again,’ but where’s his next NHL chance?

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Laviolette is seventh all-time among NHL coaches with 846 wins, and that doesn’t even include his 88 postseason victories. He coached three different teams to the Stanley Cup Final, and led the Carolina Hurricanes to their only Cup championship in 2006. No United States-born coach in League history has more wins than Laviolette, who’s 69 victories ahead of another former Rangers coach, John Tortorella.

He was behind the Rangers bench for two seasons, each memorable for vastly different reasons. In 2023-24, Laviolette guided the Rangers to the most wins (55) and points (114) in franchise history, securing their fourth Presidents’ Trophy for best regular-season record in the NHL.

However, the Rangers face-planted in 2024-25, becoming, at the time, the fourth team to ever miss the Stanley Cup Playoffs the season after winning the Presidents’ Trophy. Though much of the chaos that enveloped the Rangers last season was out of his control nor his of his own doing, Laviolette also couldn’t pull the group together during a wildly dysfunctional season.

So, you can understand why he welcomed a break after being fired by the Rangers.

Now that he appears to have that itch to coach again, the question is whether there’s an NHL opening for Laviolette to fill. Perhaps there’s an opportunity in Los Angeles with the Kings. However, interim coach D.J. Smith impressed by getting the Kings into the postseason with an 11-6-6 finish, so a Laviolette reunion with Artemi Panarin, this time in Hollywood, feels like a 50-50 proposition.

The Columbus Blue Jackets already removed the interim tag from Rick Bowness, so that’s not an option. The New Jersey Devils and Toronto Maple Leafs have new GMs, so the futures of coaches Sheldon Keefe (NJ) and Craig Berube (Tor) are not exactly stable. The last-place Vancouver Canucks are in the midst of a GM search, and very well could be looking for a new coach too, after a rough first season for Adam Foote.

Hiring experienced veteran coaches is a thing again in the NHL. Peter DeBoer landed the Islanders gig after Patrick Roy was fired; and Tortorella replaced Bruce Cassidy in Vegas during the homestretch of the regular season, and now has the Golden Knights three wins away from the Western Conference Final, heading into Game of their best-of-7 second-round series against the Anaheim Ducks on Friday.

Cassidy, of course, falls into the “experienced veteran” category. So, that’s some stiff competition for Laviolette, should a job open up in the offseason or sometime in 2026-27.

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