According to Smith, he wanted Bowman and Al Arbor in April of 1993. Keenan was third on his wish list. If Keenan had accepted the offer from Philadelphia, Smith could have had Bowman the next month. Here are Smith comments below.
“With about a week to go in the season, I told [ownership] that there were only three people who could win the Cup with our team,” Smith said. “One was Scotty Bowman, but he was coaching the Penguins. The second was Al Arbour, but he was tied up with the Islanders.
“The third was Mike, and he was the only one who was available because he’d been fired as general manager in Chicago early that year after giving up coaching the previous summer. So to me, he was the only guy for the job.”
Smith wanted to work quickly to rinse out the bad taste from 1992-93, but there was another reason for his haste. Keenan, you see, had an offer in hand from the Flyers, whom he had coached to a pair of Cup final appearances in 1985 and 1987 during his four-year stint on Broad Street.
“I met with Mike in Toronto at his agent’s office on the last day of the season,” Smith said. “And [agent] Rob Campbell showed us the paperwork on the offer from Philly, which was for five years. That was his leverage. And so we hired him, and the next day we introduced him as our head coach.”
Keenan and Smith hated each other. After the SC victory, Smith 'missed' a bonus payment that was due to Keenan by one day and Keenan used that as an excuse to claim a breach of contract. Eventually this led to a whole mess where Bettman fined Detroit and St.Louis for tampering. New York ended up having to pay Keenan that bonus, but Keenan had to repay the Rangers part of that bonus. The Rangers were fined for filing a lawsuit against Keenan's agent, Rob Campbell. Keenan received a 60 day suspension. Before that hearing in Principal Bettman's office, Smith and Keenan reached a deal to trade Nedved to New York for Tikkanen and Doug Lidster as compensation.
HOCKEY; Rangers Acquire Nedved In the Keenan Dispute
https://nypost.com/2018/04/16/behind-the-coaching-hire-that-took-the-rangers-back-to-glory/