Eric Hartline-USA TODAY Sports
According to various twitter reports, Alain Vigneault is in New York today, just three days after his meeting with the New York Rangers front office for their vacant head coaching position.
So what does this mean?
No one knows for sure yet as reports have not been confirmed, but if Vigneault is indeed in New York, one can speculate that him becoming the new Rangers head coach could be imminent and it is only a matter of time before Rangers’ GM Glen Sather‘s announcement.
Vigneault is 52 years old and has been the head coach of the Montreal Canadiens and Vancouver Canucks. His overall head coaching record is 422-288, with his best season behind the bench coming in the 2010-2o11 season where he led the Canucks to a Western Conference Title only to end up losing in seven games in the Stanley Cup Finals to the Boston Bruins.
He is a coach that has proven with the Canucks that a team can have a very good defense with potent goal scoring. If it wasn’t for spotty goaltending on the part of Roberto Luongo, the Canucks could have won the Stanley Cup in 2011. With Vigneault’s modern coaching style and ability to adjust to his players, he might be the best fit for the Rangers to get to the next level and expand on what they accomplished in the 2012-2013 season.
Another clue that suggests Vigneault could be the guy is that Sather has said that he will have a new head coach in place by the time of the NHL draft, which is scheduled for June 30. So with the draft only being about two weeks away, I would say signs are definitely pointing in the direction of Vigneault being the next Rangers head coach.
