Building a quality program at the NHL level is difficult. David Quinn’s time at Boston University will help being that college hockey is basically a rebuilding process on steroids. Basically, every single year the team brings in two or three new guys. Then, no matter what, at the end of a four year cycle, a player will move on.
Now, in the case of player development there are several avenues of approach. The Rangers found their level of sustained success through a combination of two methods over the course of two coaches. First, under John Tortorella, young players were thrown to the wolves and learned on the fly.