While the New York Rangers haven’t made this information public, more details on Mike Sullivan’s contract are being revealed.
Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman has sources that lead him to believe that the Rangers awarded Sullivan with the highest annual value for a coach, beating out Mike Babcock who was making $6.25 million with the Toronto Maple Leafs.
“Just a bit of information on the contract, it’s a five-year deal,” Friedman said. “Mike Babcock had the largest contract ever signed by a coach. It was eight years at approximately $50 million, front-loaded, $6.25 million-ish the AAV. The number is north of that. I don’t have the exact number, but Sulivan did sign the richest AAV of any head coach, north of Babcock’s number.”
Sullivan’s reported five-year deal beats out Gerard Gallant who got a four-year contract and Peter Laviolette who got a three-year contract.
Rangers president and general manager Chris Drury views Sullivan as one of the top coaches in the NHL, which is why he went all in to get him onboard.
“Mike Sullivan has established himself as one of the premier head coaches in the NHL,” Drury said. “Given his numerous accomplishments throughout his coaching career – including two Stanley Cups and leading Team USA at the international level – Mike brings a championship-level presence behind the bench.”
With great power comes great responsibility. The Rangers are fresh off missing the playoffs as Sullivan will be tasked with getting the most out of all the team’s talent and propelling them back to Stanley Cup contention.
That’s the goal when you bring in a coach for that amount of money, the expectations are high, and rightfully so.
Sullivan spent ten years with the Pittsburgh Penguins where he won two Stanley Cups. This is a new challenge for the 57-year-old coach.
He’s expected to address the New York media for the first in his introductory press conference on Thursday morning.
Read the full article here
