Confirmed with Link: Alain Vigneault fired

[GregSirico]

Never heard anyone really suggest this, though. Most I've seen just don't want to be the first stepping stone for the guy as a NHL coach.

Not here, but I've seen it before where people question his past. It's just hard for me to put blame on him when he was 15 being manipulated by an older man with some disturbing motives.

 

[Hunter Gathers]

Not here, but I've seen it before where people question his past. It's just hard for me to put blame on him when he was 15 being manipulated by an older man with some disturbing motives.

Doesn't explain his connections to frost up until just a few years ago nor does it explain his weirdly uncaring view of his brother and Frost. Last I heard, his brother was still involved with Frost (who has changed his name). I know they were trying to do some hockey camp in California about 5 years ago.

 

[GregSirico]

Doesn't explain his connections to frost up until just a few years ago nor does it explain his weirdly uncaring view of his brother and Frost. Last I heard, his brother was still involved with Frost (who has changed his name). I know they were trying to do some hockey camp in California about 5 years ago.

I get the concern.

 

[Levitate]

I mean you're still talking about stuff that happened a decade ago in some cases, and the Adam Keefe situation sounds like another instance of Frost managing to get in and control someone's life. If your choices are cut your brother out of your life o r just avoid the part of his life that is unsavory, how do you approach it?

At any rate, I will assume if the Rangers hire him, they will indeed do a lot of looking into his past issues and his current conduct and associations as well discussing the situation with Dubas and the Leafs, who have had a front row seat to his conduct recently. I agree you don't want to make a decision this big and screw it up by hiring a guy who is nuts, but Keefe has a good track record as a coach and we have enough years of information to see if he's doing something shady or not, I believe.

 

[Hunter Gathers]

I mean you're still talking about stuff that happened a decade ago in some cases, and the Adam Keefe situation sounds like another instance of Frost managing to get in and control someone's life. If your choices are cut your brother out of your life o r just avoid the part of his life that is unsavory, how do you approach it?

At any rate, I will assume if the Rangers hire him, they will indeed do a lot of looking into his past issues and his current conduct and associations as well discussing the situation with Dubas and the Leafs, who have had a front row seat to his conduct recently. I agree you don't want to make a decision this big and screw it up by hiring a guy who is nuts, but Keefe has a good track record as a coach and we have enough years of information to see if he's doing something shady or not, I believe.

Considering the abuse that Frost allegedly put Sheldon through, I'd think he'd at least make it known that your brother and Frost are predators on the kids they wanted to train. Instead of staying silent.

Staying silent and just not talking about it when Frost was still out there preying on kids isn't exactly something to be OK with.

 

[GregSirico]

Q: If these were such major issue, why would Shanahan, Dubas, Babcock and the Leafs front office hire Keefe? Not saying we shouldn't do our homework, but the Leafs organization with the above people are a group I trust and if they hired him to groom their talent, then maybe this all checks out OK?

 

[McRanger]

I mentioned Frost in another thread; I was surprised to see Keefe's name again since I hadn't followed his coaching career and all I knew of him was from the Brampton Boy days.

Still, if he's turned it around then that's that. If anything concerns me about him its that this would be his first time coaching in the big leagues.

 

[Bleed Ranger Blue]

With the way this roster is headed, it just makes sense to bring in a successful college/AHL guy who has experience with kids.

A retread like Tippett of Bylsma almost makes me physically ill. Stay away.

 

[Hunter Gathers]

Q: If these were such major issue, why would Shanahan, Dubas, Babcock and the Leafs front office hire Keefe? Not saying we shouldn't do our homework, but the Leafs organization with the above people are a group I trust and if they hired him to groom their talent, then maybe this all checks out OK?

Maybe it does, maybe it doesn't. There are still unanswered concerns to me right now. And enough of them that I'd pass.

 

[broadwayblue]

Crazy story. So Keefe's best friend was planning to kill an abusive coach. And "None of the Keefes have ever commented on this story."

 

[iamitter]

WAY too much to explain in a thread.

Joyce: Frost case a study in tragedy and farce

This was a lot to take in. I realize that he was just a kid & had an adult in a position of power manipulating him. I also realize he seems like a phenomenal coach. But damn. Why was he still associating with Frost in the late 2000's?

If they choose Keefe, they better be really damn sure of him. That's a lot of baggage.

 

[FireGerardGallant]

How much you wanna bet were making him the hc

 

[PlamsUnlimited]

How much you wanna bet were making him the hc

Fire Gorton then.

 

[Levitate]

I think saying "we want a fresh take for our new coach" and then hiring the guy who was the assistant coach for the worst defense would be some bizarre levels of wtf

 

[GoAwayPanarin]

How much you wanna bet were making him the hc

I think there is a better chance that he hires someone off of this board.

 

[Tawnos]

I wouldn’t be surprised if Gorton is interested in giving Ruff a role in the front office.

 

[Krams]

I think there is a better chance that he hires someone off of this board.

Maybe GregSirico can send Dolan an email and score an interview

 

[Krams]

What Jeff Gorton said on the radio Monday

Jeff Gorton was on The Michael Kay Show at 4PM on Monday and said the following:

• Did AV's post game comments expedite you firing him, "no, I think, it's a godo questionm based upon what he said. We had made the decison to do it once the decision was made I wanted to do it after the game and not have it linger any more. It didn't have any effect."

• Did it get contentious, "not really. For anyone who has ever had to do that, it's never a great conversation. AV felt he should still be coaching the Rangers and said so and I can appreciate that and I will leave it at that."

• Why did you make the decision, "I think that in sports five-years is a long time and watching our team over the last several months and thinking about going forward with youth, it just felt like it was the right time to make the change. Have the timing of a new coach and, essentially, a young team start together."

• On Lindy Ruff, "I just had a brief conversation with him today. He will head home and then we will talk in a few weeks and see where things are at. I will talk with some people and see where they fit for head coach and then we will talk to Lindy at the end of the process."

• How hard was the conversation, "it was hard. We worked closely for five-years and I consider him a friend. It's difficult. That night, after the game, I am getting off the train to grab him and talk to him and go through that. It was hard, those are hard things to talk about and difficult conversations but I guess I sleep at night thinking it was the right thing to do."

• On AV's player development, "I hear that too and heard it when he was coming out of Vancouver. I don't neccesarilly agree with that as a broad statement, that he doesn't develop young players. He has had success, Kreider and Skjei are a couple of guys that come to mind. We had Pionk and he had no problem playing him. It wasn't a huge issue for me. Our group, we just felt that maybe the guys who have been here could use a fresh start and a message from somebody else. It had more to do with that than anything."

• On balancing development and wanting to win the Cup, "no question, good point. It's definitely a fine line. When you are trying to win and that is the coaches job. Sometimes as managers, we are sitting from ten floors up saying put these young guys on the ice but the reality is that we are trying to win and everyone is trying to win that night and it's a fine line of winning and developing players."

• Is the next coach currently employed, "Good question, I would say that I don't know the answer to that. We have to go through a process and talk to a bunch of people and get some ideas from other people, what they are thinking about our group and maybe here from some people outside our group that have insight that we don't have, that we are close to it. We will find out and go from there."

• Do you have a guy that you want, "I think someone is going to have to convince us. We do have a number of names that we want to talk to and start to do but I think someone is going to have to convince me and our group that they should be the next coach of the Rangers."

• Do they have to have head coaching experience, "I think it's important that you would have been a head coach somewhere along the way and had success with it. It's a pretty hard job to learn on the fly."

• On experience, "I think it could be from junior, really any league but they would have had to have been a head coach to have that experience."

• Would you involve someone like Lundqvist in this, "no, not really. These guys will come in tomorrow, have our exit meetings with them and talk to them and find out on a personal level how they felt about the season, a team level, which we know wasn't good, but I like to hear from the players and their thoughts and what they are thinking and Hank is certainly someone we want to hear from. As we go through a coaching search I think that will be my role."

• Did you know AV would be out when you made the moves, "I would say no. When we did all of this we had conversations and AV was fine with the things we were doing and understood. As time went on over the last couple of months it became clear to me that we needed a change and I definitely didn't know at the deadline or when we did stuff, it just became clear in the last week or so."

• Is there any timetable, "I don't think the draft is that important except that free agency is right behind it. That is probably the best target date."

• On the lack of toughness, "I agree and it does have to be addressed. We do want to be a team that plays harder and in the last couple of months we were void in that area and it became more and more clear and it's something that will be addressed."

• On the young players, "I'm certainly happy with the first round picks from last year. Chytil's speed and skill is pretty evident for an 18-year old player to make plays and skate like he does. Lias is a real competitive player that I think will have a bright future. When Georgiev came up and played so well in goal, I think that was a bright light. Pionk, to play over 20 minutes and get the points that he did and be on the plus side and be competitive, those are the guys that really stick out. On the other side, guys like Gilmour and O'Gara got a good taste and it will help them as they come to camp next year and see if they can crack it."

• Did you have any second thoughts after the trades, "I don't really agree. Maybe we would have made it if we hung in there, I don't think we would have went very far, I don't think we were a very good team, I think that Henrik covered a lot and I just didn't see where it was going or that we were a high level team that could compete with some of the better teams in the league. Could we have made it? Maybe but at the end of the day, it would have been tough for us to get 97 points the way we were playing."

• "At the end of the day, everything better the letter and the moves that we made, that is what we are after. We want to win, build a team capable to win and that can go after it for a number of years and give us that chance to finally win."

• On needing a coach with a 'name' factor, "It doesn't matter. We need to get the best person for the job and someone who can light a fire under these guys and give us an identity and hold these players accountable and get us on the right path."

• Where does analytics fit, "there is a place for it, we talk a lot about it, look at a lot of different things. Having been someone who scouted for a long time there is still something about an eye test and a feel that comes out but it is nice to look at and see another angle. It's not baseball where it' stoppage after every page. It's continuous, it's hard to listen to analytics 100% but we look at it and try to get every edge that we can."

 

[Mac n Gs]

He was STILL connected with Frost just up until a few years ago, though. Frost was attending Pembroke games before the cops got involved (I don't recall Keefe being involved, but other concerned adults). Frost is still very connected with his brother (of whom Sheldon just ignores rather than confronts).

Back in 2004, Danton and Keefe were very well connected.

Look, if they bring in Keefe, I will root for him as I do basically everyone involved with the Rangers. But this is an incredibly dangerous thing and they better be ****ing right.

I think this is a very fair take. Keefe also has success with an absolutely loaded AHL team. I’d be happy if he’s our coach, but let’s not act like he’s a flawless candidate.

 

[Thirty One]

Gorton don't want no assistant coaches.

 

[GoAwayPanarin]

Maybe GregSirico can send Dolan an email and score an interview

No offense to Greg, but I don't think hes the right man for the job.

Give me NYR as Rangers next coach, ReggieD as assistant and The Mouth to replace John Rosasco.

 

[Brooklyn Rangers Fan]

Gorton don't want no assistant coaches.

*Unless they have also been head coaches at some level.

 

[E-Train]

No offense to Greg, but I don't think hes the right man for the job.

Give me NYR as Rangers next coach, ReggieD as assistant and The Mouth to replace John Rosasco.

If that ever happened, the sword in the eye avatars must come back.

 

[Thirty One]

If that ever happened, the sword in the eye avatars must come back.

That is not allowed.

 

[GordonGecko]

How much you wanna bet were making him the hc

come on now, who do you think we are - the Islanders??

(for those who didn't hear, the Islanders owner today held a press conference with Gather Snow and Doug Weight, read a speech and bailed, and left them there alone basically renewing both of them for the foreseeable future)