Peter Laviolette’s firing proves two things: New York Rangers president and general manager Chris Drury is still calling the shots and his job is safe.
There was an overwhelming sense for weeks that Laviolette would be fired while Drury would ultimately keep his management duties.
Laviolette is gone and all indications point toward Drury keeping his job.
It appears as if Drury made this decision well knowing he’ll remain at the top of the helm and by the looks of his recent statement, there’s no fear he’ll suffer the same fate as Laviolette.
“After finishing with the best regular season record in the NHL a year ago and making a trip to the Eastern Conference Final, we came into this season with high expectations for ourselves,” Drury said. “Quite simply, we failed to meet those expectations. We must all do better – myself included. As we head into next season and beyond, I felt that a change was necessary in order to give us the best chance to achieve our goals as an organization. Our search for a new head coach will begin immediately.”
It just doesn't make a whole lot of sense why Drury does not seem to be at risk of losing his job as well.
Typically once a general manager fires their first coach, the clock is ticking on them and they get pushed to the hot seat.
However, Drury has now fired three coaches since 2021, David Quinn, Gerard Gallant, and now Laviolette.
Drury said he’s not going to get into conversations he’s had with Rangers owner James Dolan and whether he’s been given any assurances that he’ll be back next season.
“I’m not going to get into, you know, personal, private conversations I have had with Mr. D, (James Dolan),” Drury said. “I can tell you my focus is on doing what I think is right to make this organization better. We're obviously all frustrated and disappointed with how things ended and not being in the playoffs, and my focus is on, like I said, doing everything I can to make sure that we're a playoff team next year.”
The pure fact that Drury is speaking to the media immediately after Laviolette’s firing is a clear indication that he’ll remain in his current position.
It was Drury who created a whole media circus around former Rangers captain Jacob Trouba last summer, it was Drury who sent out a league-wide memo indicating his desire to shake up the team’s core that went public, and it was Drury who instigated all of this tension and dysfunction within the Rangers organization.
It’s puzzling and quite frankly baffling why he does not seem to be held accountable for his actions.
The Rangers need a culture shift, a change of a culture that Drury helped create.
Changing the coach hasn’t seemed to work out too well for the Rangers, so Dolan needs to consider going to Plan B and pulling the plug on Drury.
The Rangers have failed to live up to expectations this year and ultimately this is Chris Drury’s team. The team needs to bring back a true winning culture, and perhaps for them to do that, it will take major changes at the highest level.