Alain Vigneault's hot seat remains toasty as a playoff-less Rangers season nears its final hurdles. Vigneault's future will be one of the biggest storylines of the NHL offseason, and the Rangers will need to think long and hard about whether to proceed with the 56-year-old coach behind their bench.
The flat-footed and penalty-prone Rangers allowed the Devils to jump out to a 3-0 lead within the first 10:40 of Tuesday's contest at the Prudential Center. New Jersey eventually completed a 5-2 victory over its Hudson River rivals.
Changes to the roster and alterations to Vigneault's staff have not alleviated the worrying trends displayed across three consecutive seasons. The stuttering, fall-behind starts, the poor defensive zone coverage and the high shot totals surrendered have made life difficult for franchise goaltender Henrik Lundqvist and his understudies.
Vigneault has overseen three successive substandard campaigns. The Rangers were dispatched with ease in their first-round elimination to the eventual champion Pittsburgh Penguins in the 2016 playoffs. A season later, the Blueshirts were able to advance to the second round, but their late-game miscues allowed the Ottawa Senators to steal the series.
The current season has been filled with challenges, pitfalls and a trade deadline selloff that shifted a veteran-laden roster to one with a youthful makeup. Hope engineered by the addition of star defenseman Kevin Shattenkirk and the re-signing of Brendan Smith quickly turned sour as Shattenkirk suffered a meniscus tear that blighted his season and Smith's performances fell short after he showed promise during his first season at Madison Square Garden.
An expected top-six defense of Ryan McDonagh, Brady Skjei, Shattenkirk, Smith, Marc Staal and Tony DeAngelo/Nick Holden is barely recognizable in April. Only Skjei and Staal remain on the Rangers' active roster after McDonagh and Holden were traded, Shattenkirk and DeAngelo were shut down for the remainder of the season, and Smith was demoted to the AHL's Hartford Wolf Pack.
The trade deadline exodus also shipped out Rick Nash, Michael Grabner and J.T. Miller in the quest for gaining youthful assets. Through their dealings, the Rangers acquired Ryan Spooner, Vladislav Namestnikov, Rob O'Gara and an abundance of prospects and draft picks.
This season has been an outlier in both performance and direction. There have been warnings in past seasons that a fall from grace could happen. But the drop toward the lower reaches of the Metropolitan Division has been stark, and it has been met with an organizational course correction to aid future runs at the Stanley Cup.
The big question facing the Rangers is whether a veteran-leaning coach in Vigneault is the right fit for a roster that has been significantly trimmed of age and experience. Lately, Vigneault has offered youngsters including Skjei, Neal Pionk, Jimmy Vesey and Filip Chyril prime minutes, though he has little choice given the players at his disposal.
Vigneault has garnered criticism for his deployments, his overreliance on veterans and the allowance of plentiful Grade-A chances under his watch. Over the past three seasons, the Rangers have surrendered the most high-danger chances in the league, according to NaturalStatTrick.com.
The counter to all of this is that Vigneault was supplied with a roster good enough to qualify for the playoffs but one that was withered due to injuries and the underperformance of its players. It's difficult to quantify how much of that underperformance falls on the shoulders of Vigneault and his coaching staff. There can be many factors that contributed to Smith's downward spiral as well as the slow offensive starts of Vesey and Kevin Hayes, while McDonagh's subpar performances appeared to be tied to injuries.
When the Rangers have fielded a capable and experienced roster, Vigneault has guided them to the postseason and beyond. Vigneault qualified for the playoffs in each of his first four years behind the Rangers' bench, while averaging 103 points per season.
Vigneault met or exceeded expectations in the 2013-14 Eastern Conference championship season and in the 2014-15 Presidents' Trophy-winning season that came within a period of a repeat Stanley Cup Final trip.
Additionally, Vigneault only missed the playoffs once in his seven seasons coaching the Vancouver Canucks. He captured first place in the Northwest Division six times during his Vancouver tenure.
Past accomplishments certainly count for something. On paper, Vigneault clearly possesses a track record for success, but what is critically important for the Rangers is having the right fit behind the bench when next season opens.
What the Rangers need is a coach who trusts and develops youth while showing a tendency to adjust his system and coaching tendencies to suit the situation. For all his positives, Vigneault has clung to an overload system and a veteran preference even when things aren't working.
Determining whether Vigneault has a future with the Rangers beyond this season is not an easy call to make. The Canucks regret pulling the plug on Vigneault after the 2013 playoffs, and they paid dearly for their misjudgment. What followed has been four playoff-less seasons in five years.
The Rangers will hope to avoid such a dry spell, even though they are in the midst of a rebuild. Success in the NHL is paved through getting the big calls right. Everything that the Rangers are trying to accomplish with their youth movement must be entrusted to the right coach who can mold fledgling talents into core components who jell together for a Stanley Cup challenge.
Time will tell if AV's the guy to lead the Blueshirts' next chapter.
Follow Sean on Twitter at @HartnettHockey
