When the Rangers hired David Quinn to be the team’s Head Coach in 2018, management’s listed goals for at least the early part of his tenure were fairly abstract. Wins and losses were not going to be a notable part of evaluating the job he was doing.
Quinn’s job was to build a new culture for a team that was building from relative scratch. Quinn’s expertise, as shown at Boston University, was in being a personable coach who could relate to talented players and strike the right balance between pushing players while maintaining strong relationships. More nuanced, he was tasked with changing the way the Rangers played and getting players integrated into the new systems, weeding out those who couldn’t fit his vision.