David Quinn has been fired as coach of the Rangers, the team announced via Twitter on Wednesday. The move comes after Quinn's third season in New York, which resulted in three straight failed attempts to make the NHL playoffs.
OFFICIAL: #NYR President and General Manager Chris Drury has announced that Rangers Head Coach David Quinn and Assistant Coaches David Oliver, Jacques Martin and Greg Brown have been relieved of their coaching duties.
— New York Rangers (@NYRangers) May 12, 2021
Quinn's firing is the first major action taken by new team president and general manager Chris Drury. He also fired assistant coaches David Olivers, Jacques Martin and Greg Brown. Drury took over the position on May 5 after team owner and CEO James Dolan fired president John Davidson and general manager Jeff Gorton.
MORE: Why did Rangers fire John Davidson, Jeff Gorton?
Quinn's Rangers went 32-36-14 in 2018-19; 37-28-5 in 2019-20; and 27-23-6 in 2020-21. Overall, the team finished with a 96-87-25 record over the course of Quinn's three-year tenure, never finishing better than fifth in the Metropolitan Division (East Division in 2020-21). New York was officially eliminated from the playoffs on May 3 with a 6-3 loss to the Capitals, extending the team's playoff drought to the 2017-18 season.
A potential compounding factor in Quinn's firing — as well as Davidson and Gorton's — is the Rangers' critical statement of NHL officiating. The team publicly criticized George Parros as "unfit" to run NHL player safety after the league declined to suspend the Capitals' Tom Wilson after he punched Pavel Buchnevich and body-slammed Artemi Panarin to the ice.
"Wilson is a repeat offender with a long history of these types of acts and we find it shocking that the NHL and their department of player safety failed to take the appropriate action and suspend him indefinitely," the statement read.
"Wilson’s dangerous and reckless actions caused an injury to Artemi Panarin that will prevent him from playing again this season. We view this as a dereliction of duty by NHL Head of Player Safety, George Parros, and believe he is unfit to continue in his current role."
The NHL fined the Rangers $250,000 for their statement.
