Breaking Down All The Latest New York Rangers' Trade Rumors Every Stanley Cup-winning team has a leader and – for the Rangers – J.T. Miller eventually could be that guy. Or, at least the fellow who'll launch the 2025 playoff drive. In some ways Miller – in style and substance – is reminiscent of defenseman Art Coulter who captained and led the Rangers to the 1940 Stanley Cup. Like Miller, Coulter came to the Blueshirts from another team. In this case it was a trade whereby the Black Hawks received blue liner Earl Seibert. Rangers boss Lester Patricki at first thought he had made a bad deal but Blueshirt center center Frank Boucher suggested that Lester make Art the team captain which he did. In his autobiography, "When The Rangers Were Young," Boucher explained how Coulter took over the team: "The change worked wonders. Art became a superb ice general. He lent strength to our smaller players, always on the spot if opposing players tried to intimidate them, responding beautifully to his new responsibilities." It was Boucher, as Rangers coach in 1939-40, who devised an "attacking" penalty-kill in which Coulter was the anchorman. Coulter also was the man who settled his mates down on April 12, 1940, the night before Game Six of the Rangers-Leafs Stanley Cup Final. The players all gathered at Toronto's Ford Hotel and – instead of going over game plans and serious talk – Boucher let captain Coulter take over. Art opened with a rousing "HEAR, HEAR," followed by toasts and gobs of beer in between. "It was," Coulter later explained, "a 'loosener.' The team had been playing great hockey and wanted no part of a seventh game in Toronto. The only danger was that of getting a little uptight, and pressing too hard." A night later at Maple Leaf Gardens, the Rangers overcame a 2-0 Toronto lead and beat the Leafs 3-2 on Bryan Hextall's overtime goal for New York's third Stanley Cup. Captain Coulter's "loosening" strategy had worked. Now we'll see what J.T. Miller can do!
