Rangers' swing on new HC Mike Sullivan is well worth the risk

While Sullivan is, in many respects, a home-run (maybe even a grand-slam) hire for the Original Six squad, he does carry some risk. Sullivan's best years came while having the greatest player of his generation in Crosby and two other potential Hall of Famers in center Evgeni Malkin and defenseman Kris Letang. When the Penguins won the Stanley Cup, they had an embarrassment of riches at forward.

Conversely, those Penguins continued to underachieve under Dan Bylsma and Mike Johnston. It was Sullivan — as credited by Crosby — who helped rev the engine and light the spark that would turn the Crosby era from a sequence of ones that got away into the greatest era in club history. 

Sullivan also hasn't won a playoff series since 2018, and the Penguins haven't made the playoffs since 2022. These are valid criticisms, but it's also worth noting that the Penguins asked Sullivan to maximize what appeared to be the tail end of the prime of the Crosby-Malkin-Letang trio, which is exactly what he did. 

Pittsburgh certainly made swings after its last Cup in 2016, but extending its window much longer would have been a challenge for any coach with the Penguins' aging stars and declining depth.

It's entirely possible the Rangers are chasing Sullivan for all the wrong reasons — a brand name coach with a history of success but not necessarily recently, a long-time relationship with Rangers GM Chris Drury and Sullivan's status as the hottest name on the market. 

Those things could all be true, and it would still make this worth the swing for the Rangers. This is akin — the Rangers hope — to the Panthers hiring Paul Maurice after he resigned in the middle of a slow start in Winnipeg in 2021.

Sullivan inherits a difficult task. He has to mend a room that seemingly broke during the season. The Rangers' brand of hockey was a mess, particularly defensively. In many ways, there's a lot to compare between the 2024-25 Rangers and the 2021 Winnipeg Jets. 

There's not a big difference between what Sullivan will ask from the Rangers and what Peter Laviolette or Gerard Gallant asked. The difference now is that the Rangers have chased Sullivan long enough to feel like they can invest serious time into Sullivan's success, a level of stability Chris Drury clearly never felt with Laviolette or Gallant. 

That investment should, in theory, give Sullivan a significant amount of power over personnel decisions. That's a dynamic Sullivan and Drury will need to make sure is crystal clear if the two are going to lead the franchise back on the path after a shocking wrong turn this season. 

If anyone can do it, it's probably Sullivan.