Two of the Rangers three assistant coaching roles have been filled today, with the hiring of Gord Murphy and Mike Kelly. Both have been assistant coaches under the new Rangers’ head coach, with Murphy working with Gallant through his first head coaching term in Columbus, and Kelly being behind the bench with Gallant in Florida and Vegas. Kelly also worked with Gallant in the QMJHL with the Saint John Sea Dogs, and has been part of the success in each of the three franchises have seen.
Murphy perhaps is best known as one of the Florida Panther defensemen where he spent six seasons from 1993-94 to 1998-99. Overall he played 862 games in the NHL, before turing to the coaching ranks after his retirement. He comes to New York with 16 years of experience, spanning stints with the Blue Jackets, Panthers and Flyers. The past two seasons, he’s been an associate coach with the Rangers’ AHL team, the Hartford Wolfpack.
Kelly did not make it beyond the canadian college ranks, but brings a long track record of coaching and management experience to the Rangers. He spent sixteen years in the Canadian College and Canadian Major Junior systems, nine of them as head coach. He also had two one-year stints as an AHL assistant for the Prince Edward Island Senators and Manitoba Moose respectively, before breaking into the NHL as an assistant in 2006-07 under former Rangers head coach Alain Vigneault.
Since leaving Vancouver, Kelly partnered with Gallant to take the QMJHL Saint John Seadogs to the Memorial Cup and then followed him to his stints in Florida and Las Vegas.
The Rangers are still looking to fill their third assistant coaching role.
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