The Rangers have reportedly hired their new head coach

According to multiple online reports, the New York Rangers are set to announce Peter Laviolette as their next head coach.

Laviolette replaces Gerard Gallant, who was fired after the Rangers bowed out of the Stanley Cup Playoffs last month.

The funny thing is... Laviolette and Gallant are both cut from the same cloth. Both coaches are passionate motivators whose coaching style has more to do with personal relationships than it does with strategy and 'X's and O's'. Laviolette is arguably the most experienced coaching candidate available and he does have a Stanley Cup championship on his resume though, so the Rangers must believe that he can get them over the hump.

Color me skeptical though.

To me, the Rangers don't really have a motivational issue per se. They don't need a fiery guy like Laviolette to hype them up for games. Their young players need further development and they need a really solid structure to play within. Honestly, I think the Rangers would be better served by hiring a coach with more of an emphasis on systems and development, but I digress.

Laviolette, again, has experience out the ears. He's been a head coach in the NHL for 20 years now and has left an impression at ever stop along the way. He spent the past three seasons with the Washington Capitals with mixed success, but he has managed to get to the Stanley Cup Final with three different franchises, winning it just once.

He'll now take over a job in New York where he'll be expected to get the most out of a team in transition. The Rangers' star players are firmly in the prime of their careers, but the team's younger players simply haven't been able to take the next step. You know what you're going to get from guys like Igor Shesterkin, Artemi Panarin, Mika Zibanejad, Chris Kreider, Adam Fox and Jacob Trouba... but what about the likes of Alexis Lafreniere, Kaapo Kakko and Filip Chytil? Will these guys ever be stars? Lafreniere and Kakko are former 1st and 2nd overall picks and have had almost zero impact in their careers so far.