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The Rangers are headed for their fourth coach since the 2020-21 season. 

Peter Laviolette was relieved of his coaching duties on Saturday, the team announced, after the Rangers failed to qualify for the playoffs in his second season at the helm. The Blueshirts became the sixth team to hire and fire the veteran coach, who finishes his New York tenure with a regular-season record of 94-59-11 and a 10-5-1 playoff record. 

Associate head coach Phil Housley was also fired, according to the team.

This is the second consecutive Rangers coach to be fired after just two campaigns, with Laviolette matching the timeline of his predecessor Gerard Gallant. Before Gallant, David Quinn (2018-2021) was the last Rangers coach to last longer than two seasons behind the Rangers bench. 

Everything seemed to go right in Laviolette’s first season with the Rangers. 

Not only did the Rangers set franchise records for wins (55) and points (114) in a single season, but the club won the Presidents’ Trophy and came two wins away from a Stanley Cup Final berth for the second time in three seasons in an Eastern Conference Final loss to the eventual Stanley Cup champions, the Florida Panthers. 

The Rangers also led the entire NHL in comeback victories (28) under Laviolette in 2023-24. 

Laviolette became the first head coach in NHL history to guide six different teams to the Stanley Cup playoffs. 

Everything seemed to go wrong this season for the Rangers, who took a tremendous step back in all facets of their game as they missed the postseason for the first time in four years. 

While there wasn’t much Laviolette could do about the outside noise that hovered over the Rangers locker room since the beginning of the season, the 60-year-old didn’t exactly make drastic changes to the lineup or system to effectively pull the Blueshirts out of their funk. 

Laviolette often stuck by his veteran players and kept faith in what had worked in the past despite little success with it. A majority of the blame for this disastrous season, however, does not appear to fall on Laviolette’s shoulders. 

That belongs to the roster construction by president and general manager Chris Drury, as well as insufficient efforts from marquee players.