Leave it to The Great One to help Mark Messier get his dream job.

After a week of speculation, Rangers assistant general manager Don Maloney accepted the general manager’s post with the Phoenix Coyotes and will be introduced at a press conference tomorrow.

The 48-year old Maloney will be joining Coyotes managing partner and coach Wayne Gretzky in Phoenix as he tries to rebuild that organization, which finished the last three seasons at the bottom of the Pacific Division.

That opens the door for Messier in New York. Back in February, The Captain expressed interest in becoming the successor to general manager Glen Sather in the Ranger front office. In that same Edmonton Journal article, Sather said the former Hart Trophy winner would need experience to gain that position.

So now with Maloney out, Messier can step in and possibly replace Sather someday.

It remains to be seen if Messier can be a good GM, but in the short term, the Blueshirts will miss Maloney. A very good evaluator of talent, the former Ranger – who scored 195 goals with 307 assists during his career - first ran the Islander front office from 1992-1995 and was responsible for drafting Todd Bertuzzi, Bryan McCabe, Darius Kasparaitis, and Ziggy Palffy.

Then in 1996, Maloney moved to the Garden and worked under Neil Smith and eventually Sather. After Sather stepped down as coach in Feb. 2004, Maloney had a greater public persona with the organization. It was he and not the general manager speaking to fans during the lockout and also was the front office voice to the New York media, as Sather shied away.

Also, Maloney was the one who advocated a strong minor league system and had a hand in rebuilding it over the past few seasons.

Now, he is gone and a void needs to be filled. Even if Messier joins the front office in any capacity, he doesn’t have Maloney’s experience, so will need to time to get used to the role. But with coach Tom Renney - who used to be vice president of player development - probably having more say after two playoff bound years and Hartford general manager Jim Schoenfeld can replace Maloney as well. Also former Islander assistant GM and Rangers scout Gordie Clark will be considered, So, there will be plenty of talent evaluators at the draft on June 22.

And Maloney will have to get to work as well in Phoenix as he tries to rebuild a franchise for The Great One.