The Rangers Name Kris Knoblauch as the New Coach of the Wolf Pack

Okay, this seems perfect.  LOL Flyers jacket aside Knoblauch is exactly what we were looking for in an AHL coach. Though he's just 40, he's had a ton of coaching: first in the WHL when that was becoming a power league, then with the AHL's Erie Otters where he got to know JD and won 50 games three years in a row, and also with Team Canada, assisting with the U18's and U17's.  So the Rangers are getting young coach, who's succeeded everywhere he's been and developed a bunch of the Columbus squad.  You'll remember under McCambridge no one developed and the Rangers had to wait until players got "courtesy" promotion to see if they were any good.  Remember how Libor lit it up before getting hurt last year?  He'd been having a bad year in the AHL. Hopefully, the new Knobby will get everyone rowing to the NHL.  Though he is Canadian and may not know any of the kids.

The other tracks the Rangers might have looked at were the US, Swedish and Fin National Programs, or perhaps an American small college coach, but Knobby really fits the flight plan, and the Rangers are looking smart once again.

I think he was only available because the LOL Flyers hired Vigneault


UPDATE:  In my haste to get this out before I left this morning, I read Coach Knobloch's Erie career as being in the AHL instead of the OHL, the Canadian Major Junior League. so he didn't know JD from being under him in the Columbus hierarchy.  He did; however, coach Connor McDavid, and from what we can tell, did no harm.  So, sorry about the mislead. Doesn't change the analysis of what looks like a great hire.