May 2, 12:49 p.m.: It’s a five-year contract for Sullivan with an undisclosed AAV, per Emily Kaplan of ESPN. While the exact number isn’t known, the deal includes the highest annual salary for a coach in NHL history.
May 2, 8:00 a.m..: As expected, the Rangers will make Sullivan’s hire official on Friday morning, per Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman. The team released a formal announcement a few moments after Friedman shared the news.
May 1: The New York Rangers are expected to hire Mike Sullivan as the 38th coach in franchise history, per Vince Z. Mercogliano of USA Today Sports. Sullivan spent the last 10 seasons as the coach of the Pittsburgh Penguins. He won back-to-back Stanley Cups in 2016 and 2017 – his first two seasons as Pittsburgh’s head coach.
Pittsburgh missed the postseason for the third-straight season this year – but even despite that, news of Sullivan’s mutual departure sent shockwaves around the hockey world. He was the second-longest tenured head coach in the league at the time of his dismissal, behind only Jon Cooper with the Tampa Bay Lightning. In March, Sullivan reaffirmed his desire to stick in Pittsburgh long-term, telling Josh Yohe of The Athletic that he didn’t wish to coach anywhere but Pittsburgh. That sentiment seemed to hold true through the end of the season, with Penguins general manager Kyle Dubas even sharing that Sullivan was expected to return for 2025-26 just one week before he left the team. When all was said and done, the 57-year-old bench boss opted to explore free agency for the first time since 2015.
Should the news hold true, Sullivan will be returning to old roots by rejoining the Rangers organization. He served as an assistant coach to John Tortorella in New York from 2009 to 2013. His presence helped New York push back into the postseason in three straight seasons, after missing the playoffs in 2010. Sullivan parted ways with the Rangers before their run to the Stanley Cup Finals in 2014 – instead joining the Vancouver Canucks as an assistant for the 2013-14 campaign, then heading to Wilkes-Barre/Scranton for an AHL role in 2015-16.
Sullivan coached in just 24 AHL games before being promoted to the top flight, following the dismissal of Mike Johnston. What Sullivan was able to create in Pittsburgh over the subsequent 10 seasons was nothing short of incredible. Pittsburgh had no shortage of playoff experience when Sullivan took over – having made the postseason for nine-straight seasons. But aside from a Cup final loss in 2008, and a Cup win in 2009, the squad had fallen into a deep rut of dazzling regular season success followed by quick playoff exits. Sullivan was the one to change that, pushing the Penguins to the fourth and fifth Cup wins in franchise history and prolonging their playoff streak to an impressive 16 seasons – before they finally missed out in 2023. With Sullivan’s help, Pittsburgh’s playoff streak lasted longer than the Buffalo Sabres’ ongoing playoff drought – 16 seasons to 14 seasons – and the Rangers are certainly hoping he can continue that success across the Metropolitan Division.
The 2024-25 season was a historic low for the Original Six club. In front of Peter Laviolette, in his second year at the helm, New York posted a bleak 39-36-7
record – their worst win percentage since posting a 32-36-14 record in the 2018-19 season. The season was disappointing in every aspect, undercut by the fact that the Rangers posted a franchise record 114 points (55-23-4 record) last season. Career-long goal-scorer Chris Kreider managed just eight assists and 30 points in 68 games, while Alexis Lafreniere continued to underperform and the defense looked lost at sea. They were just three of the many headlines to pour out of New York over the course of the year – which culminated in New York missing the postseason for the first time since 2021.
But even on the heels of a bad year, the Rangers will offer Sullivan plenty to work with. They have franchise cornerstones locked up for the foreseeable future in former Norris Trophy winner Adam Fox and Vezina Trophy winner Igor Shesterkin. Star forwrad Artemi Panarin is also under contract through the 2025-26 season, while Kreider and Mika Zibanejad are signed through at least 2027. That forward group will look to lead an otherwise very young corps, headlined by top pick Lafreniere, emerging pieces like William Cuylle and Adam Edstrom, and top prospects Gabriel Perreault, Brennan Othmann, and Brett Berard. That should be more than enough firepower to make a playoff champion, especially under the guide of a head coach who got the most out of scorers like Rickard Rakell, Michael Bunting, and Philip Tomasino.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports.