Former Flyers bench boss Peter Laviolette hired as New York Rangers head coach

Peter Laviolette is set to join a Metropolitan team for the fifth time in his 21-year NHL head coaching career.

After parting ways with the Washington Capitals at the end of the season, former Flyers head coach Peter Laviolette has found himself a new gig.

Unsurprisingly, he'll be staying in the Metropolitan Division.

Tuesday afternoon, the New York Rangers officially announced the hiring of Laviolette as their new bench boss, making him the 37th head coach in club history. He replaces Gerard Gallant, who was fired after the Rangers lost to the New Jersey Devils in Game 7 of their first-round playoff series.

Laviolette, who played 12 games for the Rangers during his playing career, is the winningest American-born head coach in NHL history.

In 2022, he became just the 10th head coach in league history to reach the 700-win marker. And with an overall record of 752-503-25-150 in his 21 seasons coaching in the NHL, he is the third-winningest bench boss among all active head coaches.

He is also one of only four NHL head coaches to lead three separate teams to the Stanley Cup Final.

Laviolette has now served as the head coach of five of the Metropolitan Division's eight teams. He earned his first head coaching job with the New York Islanders in 2001, but was fired after just two seasons. He then joined the Carolina Hurricanes and led them to their only Stanley Cup title in franchise history. After five seasons in Carolina, Laviolette spent the next five seasons with the Flyers, guiding them to the Stanley Cup Final in 2010. He was eventually fired by the Flyers just three games (!) into the 2013-14 season and spent the following six years with the Nashville Predators before returning to the Metropolitan Division for a three-year stint with the Capitals.

He sure does stay busy.

Laviolette is inheriting a talented Rangers team that severely underachieved in the postseason. With elite talent like Artemi Panarin, Mika Zibanejad, Adam Fox, and Igor Shesterkin already in the fold, Laviolette will have a chance to succeed right off the bat in The Big Apple. And with him staying in the Metro, the Flyers will continue regularly facing off against their former bench boss for the foreseeable future.