A look at how David Quinn has grown following his time behind the New York Rangers bench.
The New York Ranger's 35th head coach in the club's history was David Quinn, who commanded the team through an advanced rebuild, a pandemic-shortened and pandemic-affected season in the span of 3 years.
From 2018-2021, the former Boston University head coach had a winning record of 96-87-25. The thinking was Quinn would work well with the younger players entering the organization. The rebuild would accelerate the rebuild faster than planned.
A sudden hot streak in 2020 led many to believe the Rangers could make noise in a crowded Metropolitan Division. When the NHL suspended the season, the Rangers were a team that suffered from the halt of its momentum. They lost in a play-in round to the Carolina Hurricanes in a 3-game sweep.
Another season of unfortunate events led to Dave Quinn’s firing. Artemi Panarin was under threat by the Russian government and missed time, Tony DeAngelo and Alexander Georgiev had an altercation that led to the Rangers cutting the offensive defenseman, and the Tom Wilson incident capped off the year of uncontrollable circumstances.
On July 26, 2022, the Sharks named David Quinn their head coach. The Hockey News Max Miller spoke about how Quinn is aiding the franchise rebuild, “I think he’s done a good job bringing in pace. Speed to the game, The Sharks have never been very fast. He brings the pace and wants a hard team to play against. He’s done a great job bringing energy to the group.”
New York sports is a pressure cooker of an environment. Add to that the task of treading COVID-19-damaged seasons. Quinn was still criticized for the deployment of Kakko and Lafreniere.
Miller pointed out the roster structures, “Compared to the Rangers Lafreniere and Kakko were behind Kreider, Zibanejad, and Panarin, an established and cohesive forward group. The Sharks just have Logan Couture and Tomas Hertl.”
The true mark of growth for Quinn would not necessarily be the success of a torn-down roster, but the culture he institutes within the locker room. He’s doing just that, “If you look at the Sharks, Couture and Hertl aren’t the fastest, he works with what he has and gets the most out of his players.”
With that, it's hard to overlook that the Sharks finished 7th in the Pacific division with a 22-44-16 record and lost its last 6 games.
Miller continued to emphasize Quinn's more educated approach, “He’s not afraid to sit top guys, he sat Kevin Labanc last season. Oskar Lindblom started in the top six and was in and out of the lineup at the end of the season. Whatever is effective he’ll use. He relied more on the top guys in New York, but he’s learned to play the hot hand in San Jose if a line is effective. “
As for facilitating the rebuild, the Sharks bench boss is less hands-on, a common point of contention discoursed in New York's media, “He’s breeding more flexibility, he lets the player play their game while still playing to the system. He’s more hard-nosed with his defensive system though, he thinks it’ll work.”
Maybe all David Quinn needed was a full season behind the bench at Madison Square Garden.
We will never know for certain, Quinn is improving as he takes on a steeper rebuild in Silicon Valley.