According to multiple reports, the Rangers have agreed to a deal with John Tortorella to take over for Tom Renney.
Although the club has agreed in principle with the former Tampa Bay coach, the deal still needs to be signed off by the Lightning, since Tortorella is still under contract with the club. According to Newsday, the Lightning wants some sort of compensation for their disposed coach, which is holding up any announcement.
Yet, the league has stepped in and is attempting to help broker a deal between the two clubs.
If everything is worked out, Tortorella reclaim a position he held briefly at the end of the 2000 season. Coaching four games after John Muckler was let go, the coach went 0-3-1, before the Rangers brought in Glen Sather to run the club. The general manger let Tortorella go in favor of Ron Low, and the coach went to Tampa the next season.
There he stayed for June 2001-June 2008 and compiled a record of 239-222-36-38, including a Stanley Cup victory over the Calgary Flames in 2004. He won that Jack Adams Award that season.
The 50 year-old is known as a fiery coach and the antithesis of Renney, who was more of a intellectual. With a locker room of friendly faces, Tortorella will be a coach who will take the team to task when it becomes necessary. In Tampa, he benched Vincent Lecavalier when the Tampa captain was not playing up to task. The new coach may do the same with disappointing Ranger veterans like Chris Drury, Scott Gomez, and Wade Redden.
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