Ex-Rangers coach wants to ‘get after it again,’ but where’s his next NHL chance?
· Yahoo Sports
Outside of the 2004-05 NHL lockout, this was the first season that Peter Laviolette didn’t coach in the League in 25 years. Fired by the New York Rangers after the 2024-25 campaign, Laviolette decamped to his home in Florida, had plenty of family time, and watched lots of hockey from the comfort of his living room.
And he didn’t hate it. In fact, Laviolette quite enjoyed this season-long vacation — a paid vacation it should be noted, since the Rangers are on the hook for the rest of his contract, unless he takes another job.
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“It’s been good. I mean, everyone wants to work, but honestly I think a break coming out of New York was good,” Laviolette explained Thursday during a guest spot on NHL Network’s ‘First Shift.’
“Came down to Florida, got to spend time with my family. Got to watch my son (Peter Jr.) play hockey — he played down here in Florida (Orlando Solar Bears of the ECHL) and ended up in Savannah (Ghost Pirates), so I got to see him play. You miss so much in the course of your kids’ lives in regard to their own sports and what’s going on. So, the fact that I was able to do that, and I saw my daughter over in Scotland, and her boyfriend plays on a [golf] tour there, and then went over to St. Andrew’s, so there are things that you get to do that you just don’t get to do during the season, so that was really good.”
That said, retirement doesn’t seem to be anything Laviolette’s considering right now. Instead, the 61-year-old sounded the part of a man ready to get back to work.
“Now, sitting here and watching the playoffs, you just want to get back out there and get after it again. But we’ll see what happens. I think it’s been good, just from a refreshing standpoint. Sometimes you just take a minute, take a beat and get your mind back on track, and that’s where things are right now.”
Peter Laviolette looks to get back into coaching after being fired by Rangers 1 year ago
Danny Wild-Imagn ImagesLaviolette 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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