While it appears that the Rangers are closing in on naming Mike Sullivan as their next head coach, he might not be the only veteran bench boss the team hires. ESPN’s Emily Kaplan and Kevin Weekes report (Twitter link) that John Tortorella is a strong candidate to rejoin the organization.
Tortorella, of course, spent parts of six seasons with the Rangers, spanning from the 2008-09 season through the 2012-13 campaign plus a brief four-game stint in 1999-2000. New York had some success during the regular season over that stretch with the team playing to a .583 points percentage under Tortorella, his best points percentage out of any of the teams he coached. However, postseason success proved to be more elusive with the team only winning 19 of 44 games, getting to the Eastern Conference Final just once over that stretch.
The 66-year-old is certainly well-traveled as a head coach with stints in Tampa Bay (seven years), Vancouver (one year), Columbus (six years), and most recently Philadelphia (three years) where he was let go with nine games left in the regular season.
With Sullivan presumably coming on board, the head coaching vacancy won’t be going to Tortorella. It has been a while since he has been an NHL assistant coach; that hasn’t been the case since the 2000-01 campaign where he was an assistant with the Lightning before taking the top job midseason. He did, however, serve as an assistant with Buffalo (1989-90 through 1994-95), Phoenix (1997-98 and 1998-99), as well as the 99-00 campaign with the Rangers beyond that four-game stint as the interim head coach. It’s also possible that Tortorella could be coming onboard in more of an advisory capacity but either way, it looks like he won’t be out of a job for long.