The Rangers have never had three assistant coaches before, unless you count goaltending coach Benoit Allaire, in which case the Rangers have never had four before. In fact under John Tortorella there was really only one assistant, and that was Mike Sullivan, although Jim Schoenfeld pitched in from time to time.
Per Larry Brooks on Twitter, that is about to change with former Ranger forward Daniel Lacroix expected to join Alain Vigneault’s staff as a third assistant following the hiring of Ulf Samuelsson and Scott Arniel to help man the bench.
Lacroix is set to become Vigneault’s off-ice assistant – at least during games – tasked with evaluating the team from the box, rather than at ice level. He joins the Rangers from the Tampa Bay Lightning, where he has served as a more conventional assistant over the past three seasons.
The Montreal native also spent three years with the Islanders as an assistant and briefly served as an interim head coach with the Moncton Wildcats of the QMJHL, coaching the team in the final 21 games of the season.
A borderline NHLer, Lacroix was selected by the Rangers in the 2nd round of the 1987 NHL Entry Draft, and went on to play 30 games over three seasons, before finishing out his career with the Oilers, Flyers, Bruins and Islanders. He registered a modest 11 goals and 7 assists in 188 games, while picking up 379 penalty minutes.
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