Insider: Mike Sullivan Close To Signing Deal With Rangers as New Head Coach
The New York Rangers are reportedly finalizing a deal to appoint Mike Sullivan as their 38th head coach.
The New York Rangers are expected to hire Mike Sullivan as the 38th coach in franchise history, per Vince Z. Mercogliano of USA Today Sports.
Sullivan, who spent the past decade behind the Pittsburgh Penguins' bench, led the team to consecutive Stanley Cup victories in 2016 and 2017—his first two seasons at the helm.
The #NYR haven’t confirmed or announced anything officially yet, but it sounds like things are getting close and very much trending toward Mike Sullivan becoming the 38th head coach in franchise history.
— Vince Z. Mercogliano (@vzmercogliano) May 1, 2025
Despite Pittsburgh missing the playoffs for the third straight year, Sullivan’s departure sent shockwaves through the NHL. At the time of his exit, he was the league’s second-longest-tenured coach, trailing only Tampa Bay’s Jon Cooper.
Just months earlier, Sullivan had expressed his commitment to staying with the Penguins long-term, telling The Athletic’s Josh Yohe that he had no interest in coaching elsewhere.
That stance appeared firm until the very end, with Penguins GM Kyle Dubas even stating a week before Sullivan’s departure that the 57-year-old would return for the 2025-26 season. Instead, Sullivan chose to enter free agency for the first time in nearly a decade.
If confirmed, Sullivan’s hiring would mark a homecoming of sorts. He previously served as an assistant under John Tortorella in New York from 2009 to 2013, helping the Rangers snap a playoff drought with three consecutive postseason appearances.
Sullivan left before the team’s 2014 Stanley Cup Final run, joining the Vancouver Canucks as an assistant before taking over AHL Wilkes-Barre/Scranton in 2015-16.
His NHL head coaching career began abruptly after just 24 AHL games when he replaced Mike Johnston in Pittsburgh. What followed was a remarkable decade of success. The Penguins were already playoff regulars when Sullivan arrived, but they had struggled to translate regular-season dominance into deep postseason runs—aside from their 2008 Final appearance and 2009 Cup win. Sullivan changed that, guiding the team to two more championships and extending their playoff streak to 16 seasons before it finally ended in 2023.
Under his leadership, Pittsburgh’s playoff streak outlasted the Buffalo Sabres’ ongoing 14-year drought—a feat the Rangers hope he can replicate within the Metropolitan Division.
Image - Charles LeClaire-Imagn
