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.”
Peter Laviolette's Fall From Grace With The Rangers: A Sad Tale The tenure of Peter Laviolette with the New York Rangers should be considered a sad tale.
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.
Rob Blake’s time with the Los Angeles Kings has come to an end.
The GM and club mutually agreed to part ways on Monday, the Kings announced Monday.
The Kings will search for a replacement immediately.
Blake was on an expiring contract after deciding to play out the season and not sign an extension last summer, according to TSN and The Athletic’s Pierre LeBrun.
The decision comes four days after the Edmonton OilerseliminatedLos Angeles from the Stanley Cup playoffs. The Kings had a 2-0 series lead before the Oilers won the next four games to win the series in Game 6 on Thursday.
To add to the Kings’ wounds, this was the fourth straight year of losing to Edmonton in the first round of the playoffs.
“On behalf of the entire organization, I would like to thank Rob for his dedication to the LA Kings and the passion he brought to his role,” team president Luc Robitaille said in a statement. “Reaching this understanding wasn’t easy, and I appreciate Rob’s partnership in always working toward what is best for the Kings.”
Blake was the Kings’ GM for eight seasons, earning the job ahead of the 2017-18 season. Before that, he was the assistant GM for Los Angeles and the GM for its AHL affiliate in Manchester and Ontario. He was also the VP of hockey operations for the Kings and held that title since 2013-14.
Throughout Blake’s time as the Kings' GM, the team has never advanced past the first round in five post-season appearances. They finished third in the Pacific Division in the last three seasons.
In terms of regular-season results, this was Blake’s best campaign as his team finished second in the Pacific. They capped off the year with a 48-25-9 record and 105 points. It was the first time they earned home-ice advantage in the first round since the 2016 playoffs.
The Kings had the best home record in the NHL in the regular season, giving the team a chance to put away the Oilers once and for all. They also went 17-7-1 in the last 25 games of the year, tied for the most points in the NHL in that span.
Los Angeles also missed the playoffs from 2019 to 2021 but added talent at the NHL draft. They selected center Alex Turcotte fifth overall in 2019, Quinton Byfield second overall in 2020 and defenseman Brandt Clarke eighth overall in 2021. They also drafted defenseman Brock Faber but traded him to the Minnesota Wild with a 2022 first-rounder in exchange for Kevin Fiala in 2022.
“Rob deserves a great deal of credit and respect for elevating us to where we are today,” Robitaille said. “He has been an important part of the Kings and will always be appreciated for what he has meant to this franchise.”
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As per LA Kings PR, Rob Blake and the Los Angeles Kings have mutually agreed to part ways following the team's failure to make it past the 1st round of the playoffs for the fourth straight year.
— LA Kings PR (@LAKingsPR) May 5, 2025
Hired on April 10, 2017, Blake had the fourth longest tenure as general manager, behind only franchise legends Rogie Vachon, Dave Taylor, and two-time Stanley Cup winner, Dean Lombardi.
Under Blake's leadership, the Kings posted a regular season record of 309-238-71 (.557 PTS%), qualifying for the playoffs in five of his eight-year tenure. The Kings, however, are still looking for their first playoff series win since the 2014 Stanley Cup Final against the New York Rangers.
The Kings and long-embattled general manager Rob Blake have mutually agreed to part ways, the team announced Monday, four days after the team’s fourth consecutive first-round playoff loss to the Edmonton Oilers.
“On behalf of the entire organization, I would like to thank Rob for his dedication to the L.A. Kings and the passion he brought to the role,” president Luc Robitaille said in a statement. “Reaching this understanding wasn’t easy and I appreciate Rob’s partnership in always working toward what is best for the Kings.
“Rob deserves a great deal of credit and respect for elevating us to where we are today. He has been an important part of the Kings and will always be appreciated for what he has meant to this franchise.”
The search for new GM will begin immediately, the Kings said.
Read more:Why can't the Kings beat the Oilers? A familiar pattern emerges in playoff elimination
Blake, 55, was a Hall of Fame defenseman whose 20-year NHL playing career included two stints with the Kings. He spent several of those seasons playing alongside Robitaille, who brought Blake back to the Kings as assistant general manager ahead of the 2013-14 season, which ended with the team winning its second Stanley Cup.
Less than four years later the team fired general manager Dean Lombardi, the architect of its two Stanley Cup champions, and promoted Blake, who quickly went about expanding the team’s player-development program, adding strength and conditioning coaches, a sports dietitian, a psychologist and other specialists, making it one of the most robust in the NHL.
Yet the Kings haven’t won a playoff series since.
This spring’s early exit from the postseason may have been the most painful of Blake’s team as general manager. The team tied franchise records for wins (48) and points (105) while breaking the record for home wins (31), giving it home-ice advantage in the first round of the playoffs. But after dominating the first two games at home, the Kings were swept in the next four.
That extended another franchise record, marking the 11th straight season the Kings have failed to win a postseason series.
Unlike Lombardi, who was frequently visible around the team and available to the media, Blake, who was in the final year of his contract, rarely spoke publicly. Additionally, he has long been a target of fans critical of his roster construction and poor trades, such as the one that brought Pierre-Luc Dubois to the Kings in the summer of 2023 in exchange for Alex Iafallo, Rasmus Kupari, Gabriel Vilardi and a second-round draft pick. Dubois signed a cap-squeezing eight-year, $68-million contract with Blake, then promptly proved to be a bust, setting career lows with 16 goals and 24 assists.
But Blake fixed that last summer, moving Dubois to the Washington Capitals in exchange for goaltender Darcy Kuemper, who had a career season and is one of three finalists for the Vezina Trophy. Blake also made an important deal at the March trade deadline, acquiring forward Andrei Kuzmenko from the Philadelphia Flyers, who also agreed to split the remainder of Kuzmenko’s salary.
The trade immediately improved the Kings’ offense and rescued an impotent power play, helping win 17 of its final 22 games to place second in the Pacific Division, the best finish of Blake’s term as general manager.
But that luck — and Blake’s time with the team — ended in the playoffs.
This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
The NHL draft lottery is the most exciting time of the post-season for the clubs that missed out on a playoff spot.
Heading into the 2025 NHL draft, it’s been 10 years since Connor McDavid was drafted. Widely considered the best player in the NHL today, we’ve seen the draft lottery change a few times since then.
There was one lottery draw in McDavid’s draft year. From 2016 to 2020, there were three lottery draws for picks Nos. 1 through 3. After that, it went down to two draft lotteries.
The odds were tweaked each time, and the NHL has tried to deter tanking, but teams have continued to tank. While they aren’t tanking at the same level as the Edmonton Oilers, Arizona Coyotes and Buffalo Sabres were that McDavid year, we still get, as some like to call it, strategically losing.
Before we head into the 2025 NHL draft lottery Monday at 7 p.m. ET, where we will see the numbers drawn live, let’s look at the last decade of the draft lottery, starting with McDavid going to the Oilers in 2015.
After toiling at the bottom of the NHL despite getting some high-end picks, including three straight first overall picks between 2020 and 2012, the Oilers were once again praying for a lottery miracle.
In what was set up to be the biggest draft since Sidney Crosby came into the NHL, the Oilers finished third-last in the NHL with 62 points, ahead of super tankers Arizona (56 points) and Buffalo (54).
McDavid has more than lived up to the hype, asserting himself as the game’s best player with three Hart Trophies, four Ted Lindsay Awards, five Art Ross Trophies, a Rocket Richard and even a Conn Smythe in a losing effort as playoff MVP.
After narrowly missing out on McDavid the year before in the lottery, the Hockey Gods had something different in store for the Maple Leafs.
Toronto finished last in the standings, but it was the first year in which three lotteries would be held to determine the top three picks.
The Leafs had 67 points, which was a very respectable number for a last-placed team, and the team was happily gifted with the lottery win. They took their franchise center, arguably a top-three player in the world and the league's best goal-scorer since he stepped into the NHL. Matthews has a Calder Trophy, a Hart, three Rocket Richards and a Ted Lindsay, and he’s become one of the best two-way centers in the world.
NHL Sour Rankings: What Lies Ahead For Every Non-Playoff TeamThe NHL is so often focused, for good reason, on the races at the top of the standings, but the NHL Sour Rankings looks at the bottom.
The 2017 draft lottery was a wild one.
Colorado had one of the worst seasons in recent history with 48 points, while Vancouver (69) and Arizona (70) each had terrible years in hopes of getting first overall.
There was no surefire bet like McDavid or Matthews in the class, but Nico Hischier and Nolan Patrick were both promising young players.
On lottery night, we saw pure chaos.
The New Jersey Devils moved from fifth to first, the Philadelphia Flyers moved from 13th to second, and the Dallas Stars moved from eighth to third.
Hischier went first overall, and he’s become one of the NHL’s top two-way centers. Colorado and Vancouver were both rewarded with Cale Makar and Elias Pettersson at fourth and fifth overall, arguably the top two players in the class.
After years of toiling near the bottom of the standings, including their former GM Tim Murray openly being displeased with “only” getting the second overall pick in 2015, the Sabres won the lottery.
It was a very good year to get the top pick because Rasmus Dahlin was the top prospect, and he was a virtual can’t-miss blueline prospect. His career has had some ups and downs because Buffalo has continued to toil near the bottom of the league, but Dahlin has been one of the most prolific offensive defenseman to come out of Europe ever.
Two years after getting the Hischier pick, the Devils were back in the lottery, finishing third-last in the NHL. They were fortunate to move up three spots to first, but the chaos that ensued after that was fun for fans.
The Ottawa Senators finished at the bottom of the NHL and moved down to fourth overall, while the Los Angeles Kings fell from second-last to fifth. The New York Rangers jumped from sixth to second, and the Chicago Blackhawks went from 12th to third overall.
Hughes has been a stud for New Jersey when healthy, becoming one of the most dynamic and entertaining centers in the NHL.
The COVID-19 year was certainly a weird one. After the NHL shut down in early March, it resumed the season in the summer but chose to just do an extended post-season, including the top 24 teams instead of the top 16.
The league held a lottery with the eight teams out of the extended playoffs, as well as eight teams designated as Team A through Team H. Team E won the first overall pick, followed by the Kings and Senators.
Once the play-in round was held and the initial eight teams were eliminated, they held a second lottery for those teams to see who would be granted the distinction of being Team E and winning the first overall pick.
The Rangers won that lottery and picked first overall in one of the oddest drafts in league history, with so many players worldwide playing limited games because of the global pandemic.
The Rangers selected Alexis Lafreniere, who has been a solid scoring winger, but he’s been overshadowed by Tim Stutzle (third overall), Lucas Raymond (fourth) and Jake Sanderson (fifth overall) among others to this point in the careers of the 2020 draft class.
In what would be an even weirder draft, the Sabres won the second COVID-19 lottery as the NHL went down to two lotteries instead of three to help offset the odds of a team finishing last and picking fourth.
Buffalo retained its first overall slot, and it took Owen Power in a year that was horrible for scouts.
Players played limited games, and the OHL shut down for the year. It was an incredibly tough year to evaluate, as almost all scouting was done on video, which put NHL scouts out of their comfort zone.
Power returned to the University of Michigan immediately after being drafted, but he would join the Sabres shortly after his season ended, and he’s been a solid defenseman, albeit a work in progress.
The Seattle Kraken, meanwhile, received the second overall pick in their inaugural draft. They took Matty Beniers, who won the Calder Trophy as the top rookie in 2022-23.
As the hockey world – and real world – began to return to normal after COVID, the NHL draft world was hyper-focused on Shane Wright in the OHL, returning to play after losing a full season to the pandemic.
Wright was very good, but some scouts had questions about the developmental lapse the time off would have and his lack of dynamism. Montreal won the lottery after finishing last in the league.
The Habs hosted the draft that year, and although fans outside of the arena were already wearing Canadiens jerseys with Wright’s No. 51 on the back, they instead took hulking Slovak winger Juraj Slafkovsky.
While Wright has slowly worked his way into the NHL and looks poised for a breakout next season in Seattle, he fell to fourth overall. The Habs have been ecstatic with the development of Slafkovsky as he’s found chemistry with their top players and become an integral part of their future.
2025 NHL Draft Lottery Day Announced: How It Works, And What Are The Odds?The 2025 NHL draft lottery is scheduled for Monday, May 5, when we will know which team has the top pick in June.
Chicago fully embraced its new reality as a bottom-feeder rather than a Cup contender, and it paid off.
The Hawks moved from third to first in the lottery, giving them the chance to select WHL superstar Connor Bedard, a player many deemed generational. There was plenty of tanking in the NHL because of the prospect of drafting Bedard, but with Leo Carlsson, Adam Fantilli and Matvei Michkov also available, this draft was loaded with talent up top for anyone who missed out on first overall.
Chicago has a bright future because of Bedard, but growing pains in Year 2 after winning the Calder as a rookie showcase Chicago’s need to do more for their franchise star.
The Sharks committed fully to tanking, and they’ve done a masterful job. It’s only been a year since they retained the first overall pick and selected Macklin Celebrini, but the spirits in San Jose have been sky-high because of how complete of a player he’s been since stepping foot in the NHL.
They are once again in position to select first overall as they finished dead last for a second straight year. They could have back-to-back franchise-altering picks that shape their franchise for the next 15 years with Celebrini as their No. 1 center and a possible future top-pair defender in Matthew Schaefer or a second franchise center in Michael Misa.
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