Friedman/McKenzie: BU’s David Quinn the front runner for Rangers coach

Per both Elliotte Friedman and Bob McKenzie, the Rangers appear to have narrowed their coaching search to just one person. BU’s David Quinn seems in line to succeed Alain Vigneault as the next Rangers coach.

It’s been a pretty interesting coaching search, as other than Jim Montgomery picking Dallas there hasn’t been much news on this front. Quinn was initially rumored to be their target, but word had spread that he wanted to remain in BU. Whether that was true or not, or whether Quinn changed his mind, we don’t know.

Adding fuel to this fire is that James Mirtle said that Sheldon Keefe is no longer in the running for the Rangers. This makes it seem that all signs point to Quinn as the coach. There aren’t many options left without going off the board, so Quinn looks like he’s the man.

Here’s what I know about Quinn:

1. We share the same first name.
2. He started coaching at BU as an assistant in 2004-2005. This means I probably met him at the BU alumni game that year –when the NHL alumni played against the current team– and didn’t realize it.
3. He was the assistant at Lake Erie for three years before becoming the head coach at BU in 2013-2014. He had a rough first year, but transformed the program back to dominance with four straight .600 seasons or better.
4. NHLers of note under Quinn: Jack Eichel, Matt Grzelcyk, Jordan Greenway, Charlie McAvoy, Clayton Keller. That’s a solid list right there.

That’s all I got on him. He appears to be a coach that can develop kids and knows how to get his team running his system, whatever the system may be (I don’t know, honestly). I’m not going to judge the choice or the guy right now. We shall see.