The New York Rangers have hired Mike Sullivan as their next head coach, the team announced Friday morning.
The 57-year-old returns to the Blueshirts after spending four seasons as an assistant from 2009 to 2013. Since then, he has become one of the top coaches of his generation, winning a pair of Stanley Cups in 2016 and 2017 with the Pittsburgh Penguins during a 10-year stint with the fellow Metropolitan Division franchise.
“Mike Sullivan has established himself as one of the premier head coaches in the NHL,” Rangers GM Chris Drury said. “Given his numerous accomplishments throughout his coaching career – including two Stanley Cups and leading Team USA at the international level – Mike brings a championship-level presence behind the bench. I’ve gotten to know Mike very well over the years, including as teammates in the 1997 World Championships, when he coached me as a player in New York and through our shared time working together with USA Hockey. As we began this process and Mike became an available option for us to speak with, it was immediately clear that he was the best coach to lead our team.”
Sullivan has a career record of 479-311-15-112 in 917 games as head coach with the Boston Bruins (2003-2006) and the Penguins. He became just the second head coach in NHL history to win the Stanley Cup in each of his first two seasons with a team and is the only American-born head coach in NHL history to win the Stanley Cup multiple times.
He will try to buck the recent trend of Rangers head coaches who have been unable to build lengthy stays in New York. Over the last five years, the team has fired David Quinn, Gerard Gallant, and, most recently, Peter Laviolette from their roles as bench bosses.
Laviolette was dismissed shortly after the 2024-25 season, in which he failed to guide the Rangers back to the playoffs, just one year after winning the Presidents’ Trophy.
