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Rangers make several changes to hockey operations staff, add two coaches to Hartford

An update on the Wolf Pack’s coaching staff and the Rangers scouting and player development departments

Today the New York Rangers announced several changes to their hockey operations staff, some of which were reported earlier this offseason.

From the team’s release:

The New York Rangers announced today that the team has made several additions to its hockey operations staff. Tanner Glass and Tuomo Ruutu have been named Assistant Directors of Player Development. Chris Morehouse has been named the team’s Director of North American Scouting, and Marshall Davidson and Derek Ginnell have been named Amateur Scouts. Steve Konowalchuk will transition from the team’s amateur scouting staff to the team’s professional scouting staff. In addition, the Rangers have named David Cunniff as an Assistant Coach with their American Hockey League (AHL) affiliate, the Hartford Wolf Pack, and have also named Chris Hoeler as the Wolf Pack’s Video Coach.

Player Development

Former NHLers Tanner Glass and Tuomo Ruutu have both been named Assistant Directors of Player Development. Glass, of course, spent three seasons of his playing career with the Rangers. Ruutu, 36, played in 735 NHL regular season games and was an assistant coach for Finland’s U-20 team last season.

Glass will work primarily with Rangers prospects in North America while Ruutu will work with prospects in Europe. Both will work directly with Jed Ortmeyer, the Rangers Director of Player Development. Ortmeyer, 40, is entering his third season in that role.

Scouting

Chris Morehouse has been named the team’s new Head of Amateur Scouting in North America. Prior to joining the Rangers’ hockey operations staff, Morehouse spent three seasons as the Blue Jackets’ Assistant Director of Amateur Scouting and is John Davidson’s son-in-law. So, it’s safe to assume that the Rangers new president weighed in on this one.

The Rangers also announced two new scouts: Marshall Davidson and Derek Ginnell. Both Davidson and Ginnell join the Rangers after spending half a decade in Columbus’ scouting department. Both will be amateur scouts, which is the role that they had with the Blue Jackets. Marshall Davidson is John Davidson’s brother.

Furthermore, Steve Konowalchuk will transition from the Rangers’ amateur scouting department to its professional scouting department. Konowalchuk joined the Rangers hockey operations staff last season after spending a year behind the bench with the Anaheim Ducks as an assistant coach. Prior to that, he was the head coach of the head coach of the Seattle Thunderbirds for five years.

Hartford’s Coaching Staff

Joining head coach Kris Knoblauch and associate head coach Gord Murphy in Hartford are David Cunniff and Chris Hoeler.

Kris Knoblauch named head coach of the Hartford Wolf Pack

Cunniff, 48, will serve as an assistant coach for the Wolf Pack. He brings 17 years of coaching experience in the AHL to the table and was most recently an associate coach with the Iowa Wild. Prior to the four years he spent with the Minnesota Wild’s farm team, Cunniff spent one season behind the bench with the Albany Devils; eight seasons on the Worcester Sharks’ coaching staff; and four seasons as an assistant coach with the Cleveland Barons. Cunniff played 120 games of AHL hockey and 148 games of ECHL hockey during his playing career.

Hoeler will be Hartford’s new video coach. He was the Director of Hockey Operations for the USHL’s Chicago Steel last year, but prior to that was a video and analytics coordinator for Harvard’s women’s hockey team. He also spent the 2016-17 season as a freelance video assistant for the Wolf Pack, so Hoeler is someone that the organization was familiar with before this hire.

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