Rangers coaching job too good for Quinn to pass up

NEW YORK -- David Quinn glanced around the packed room at Madison Square Garden for his introductory press conference as coach of the New York Rangers on Thursday and knew he was entering a different world.
"This is a bit bigger than a [Boston University] press conference, I can tell you that," Quinn said.

Quinn, 51, was hired Wednesday after coaching Boston University for the past five seasons. He went 105-67-21 there and led them to the NCAA championship game in 2015.
"I didn't want to leave BU. That doesn't mean I wasn't going to leave BU," Quinn said. "As this process went on, the fit just got better and better. I wasn't looking to leave BU. I loved where I was at. I felt like as a coach and as a staff we had some unfinished business. We lost a crushing national championship game in 2015 (a 4-3 loss to Providence). We'd been close the last few years, and I loved coaching at BU. I loved my relationship with the players. But as this process went on, it was too good to pass up."
Quinn has professional coaching experience. He had been an assistant with the Colorado Avalanche in 2012-13 and was coach of Lake Erie in the American Hockey League from 2009-12. That wide range was one of the many things that intrigued Rangers general manager Jeff Gorton to pursue Quinn as Alain Vigneault's replacement. Vigneault was fired April 7 after five seasons as Rangers coach.

The Rangers finished eighth in the Metropolitan Division with 77 points (34-39-9), 20 points behind the New Jersey Devils for the second wild card into the Stanley Cup Playoffs from the Eastern Conference.
"We talked to a number of people that were really good people," Gorton said. "It's just that for me and for our group talking to David, I think communication is a huge part with these players today. I just think that's probably the No. 1 thing that stuck out. The command of the Xs and Os was there with most people I talked to. The way that he wants to play, an up-tempo game, a puck-possession game, I think that meshes with how I like to think. When you go down and you hit all these boxes, you try to check them off and I think we were able to do that."
Quinn also checked one more box off Gorton's list Wednesday.
"As I drove home, my wife and I, we had dinner with him and I said, 'What'd you think?'" Gorton said. "She says, 'Huh. He's handsome.' So I think we got the other box too."
His resume and good looks aside, Quinn brings a familiarity with several players on the Rangers roster. Defenseman Kevin Shattenkirk played at BU from 2007-10, when Quinn was an assistant under Jack Parker during Shattenkirk's first two seasons. Quinn also coached Shattenkirk at Lake Erie.
"Knowing him so well and then really thinking about our team and what direction we need to head in, it's the right move. It's the right way to go," Shattenkirk said. "He's fair and demanding, I think that's very accurate. He treats players with a lot of respect, but he expects you to show up to work every day. He wants to work on something every day, so it's constantly working and constantly growing as a player. I think that's something that we need here."

Rangers forward Kevin Hayes was a freshman in high school when he was approached by Quinn, then a BU assistant, to play at the university. Hayes decided to play for Boston College but said he's looking forward to having the change to play for Quinn in New York.
"He always has a fast team," said Hayes, who as a senior at BC in 2013-14 played against Quinn in his first season as coach at BU. "I've never practiced under him, but I can only imagine what those practices are going to be like. Every time we played BU when I was at BC, it was an up-and-down game. I'm sure he'll kind of bring that towards the Rangers."
Quinn is the third coach in the last three years to go to the NHL from NCAA hockey, following Dave Hakstol from the University of North Dakota to the Philadelphia Flyers in 2015, and Jim Montgomery from the University of Denver to the Dallas Stars on May 4. Quinn is the only one of the three with prior professional coaching experience.
"Certainly college hockey has made more of an impact on the NHL in the last five or six years," Quinn said. "We practice four days a week every week, so I think from a coaching perspective at the collegiate level you're always developing because you've got more time to practice.
"I was fortunate to have some pro coaching experience, which I think has allowed me to have some opportunities. There's a lot of good players playing college hockey that have come in and make an impact, and I think that's opened some eyes at the NHL level."
Now it's up to Quinn to open some eyes with the new-look Rangers, who traded defenseman Ryan McDonagh and forward J.T. Miller to the Tampa Bay Lightning and forward Rick Nash to the Boston Bruins prior to the NHL Trade Deadline with hopes of starting a run like the one that saw them qualify for the Stanley Cup Playoffs in 11 of the 12 previous seasons, which included a trip the Cup Final in 2014, where they lost to the Los Angeles Kings.
"It's a pretty unbelievable feeling," Quinn said. "At this point in my career … to have this opportunity was something I couldn't pass up. It's the pinnacle of our coaching profession. I think if you polled all the coaches in all of hockey and asked what job they could have, I bet this would be at the top."
Photos courtesy of New York Rangers