Rangers name BU’s David Quinn their new coach
More than 35 years after turning to ex-college coach Herb Brooks to run their bench, the New York Rangers hired Boston University’s David Quinn as their new head coach Wednesday.
Quinn, 51, joins the Original Six franchise just months after general manager Jeff Gorton took the bold step to engineer a roster reboot, jettisoning some core talent, including Rick Nash, who he felt did not fit his long-term vision of a fast, aggressive team. Gorton dismissed his coaching staff, headed by Alain Vigneault, in April, hours after the Rangers completed the season with a 34-39-9 record and without a playoff berth.
“I’m incredibly excited for this new challenge, but leaving a job like this is very hard to do,’’ said Quinn in a statement released by BU. “BU is a special place that has given me so much, not only as a player and a student, but also as a coach. The lifelong friendships I’ve developed here over the years absolutely mean the world to me.
“I was so fortunate to work with the very best in athletic director Drew Marrochello and senior vice president Todd Klipp. BU hockey has always been bigger than the coach and they will bring in an outstanding one to continue the winning tradition here.’’
Quinn, who grew up in Cranston, R.I., and was a first-round draft pick of the Minnesota North Stars in 1984, took over the Terriers program from the legendary Jack Parker in the 2013-14 season. The Terriers did not win an NCAA championship under his tutelage, but they were a perennial Hockey East powerhouse during his four full seasons, and lost to Providence in the 2015 Frozen Four title game.
A promising defenseman in his playing days, Quinn had his collegiate career come to an end when he fractured an ankle during a pickup basketball game following his junior season at BU. The injury led to a weeks-long hospital stay, Quinn suffering from potentially fatal compartment syndrome, a blood-flow complication that often causes nerve and muscle damage.
Following a brief comeback attempt to play pro hockey, including minor league stints in Binghamton and Cleveland, Quinn in 1993 launched a coaching career as an assistant on Ben Smith’s staff at Northeastern. He later spent three seasons as an assistant coach at the University of Nebraska-Omaha, and then in October 2004 began a five-year stint as an assistant on Parker’s staff at BU.
In 2009, Quinn moved to the pros, beginning a three-year run as head coach of the AHL Lake Erie Monsters, followed by a season (2012-13) as an assistant on Joe Sacco’s staff with the Colorado Avalanche.
Sacco, now an assistant to Bruce Cassidy on the Bruins, could be one of the candidates BU will consider to succeed Quinn as the top Terrier.
Quinn, then age 47, returned to BU as head coach following his one year in Denver.
The Terriers, 22-14-4 last season and 105-68-21 during Quinn’s tenure, will have no lack of candidates
to lead one of the nation’s most highly regarded programs.
Other candidates could include current assistants Albie O’Connell and Lenny Quesnelle, plus Clark Donatelli (recently the head coach at AHL Wilkes Barre-Scranton) and Mike Bavis, who was the associate coach at BU before Quinn was named Parker’s successor. Bavis was an assistant at Babson this past season.
Upon coming to BU, Quinn was chosen over two other ex-BU players, Mike Sullivan and John Hynes, both of whom now direct NHL benches, Sullivan in Pittsburgh and Hynes in New Jersey. One or both could be approached again by BU, but neither would be likely to relinquish their far more lucrative pro paychecks.
In the summer of 1981, then age 44, Brooks was named coach of the Rangers some 18 months after he led Team USA to its stunning Olympic gold medal at the 1980 Games at Lake Placid, N.Y. Prior to taking over the US program, Brooks spent seven seasons as head coach at the University of Minnesota. Before being brought to Broadway, Brooks turned pro as the coach of Davos in Switzerland, where he went 11-16-1.
Quinn becomes only the fifth coach in history to jump directly from a college bench to the NHL. The first was legendary RPI and Cornell coach Ned Harkness, who left Ithaca, N.Y., in 1970 for a brief stint with the Red Wings, and later finished out his coaching career with a three-year farewell tour at Union.
A dozen years later, the Calgary Flames plucked Bob Johnson from the University of Wisconsin as their head coach. And following a 33-year void, the Flyers in 2015 brought University of North Dakota coach Dave Hakstol to Broad Street.
Last month, the Dallas Stars named University of Denver coach Jim Montgomery as their new coach. The ex-Maine standout was among the candidates to take over the Rangers.
