The New York Rangers sent ripples throughout the NHL after they announced the signing of Mike Sullivan as their new head coach last week.
On April 28, 2025, Sullivan, who spent the last decade as the coach of the Pittsburgh Penguins, parted ways with the organization. He was quickly snapped up by the Rangers just a few days later on Friday, May 2, 2025.
NHL Insider Shares Details About Mike Sullivan’s Rangers Contract
NHL insider and Sportsnet analyst Elliotte Friedman predicted that Sullivan might join the Rangers a week in advance. During the latest edition of “32 Thoughts: The Podcast,” on Monday, May 5, Friedman offered some information about the new Rangers’ coach’s contract.
“Mike Babcock had the largest contract ever signed by a coach. It was eight years and approximately $50 million front-loaded, $6.25-million-ish AAV [average annual value]. The number is north of that [for Sullivan],” Friedman said on the podcast.
“I don’t have the exact number, but Sullivan did sign the richest AAV of any head coach. So it’s north of Babcock’s number, which was in the $6.25 [million] range,” Friedman said.
“Sullivan may not be the highest-paid coach in the history of the actual largest contract, but he is the highest-paid coach in terms of average annual value paid a coach. So he definitely moved the bar,” Friedman added.
Babcock signed his eight-year, $50 million deal with the Toronto Maple Leafs in 2015. The deal’s AAV was more than twice what the next-highest-paid coach in the league was earning at the time.
By raising the bar with Sullivan, the Rangers are expecting a fast turnaround and improvement for the underperforming team, which went from winning the Presidents’ Trophy last season to failing to qualify for the playoffs in 2025.
Former Rangers players lauded the management’s aggressive and decisive actions in hiring the veteran coach, the only American-born coach to win the Stanley Cup more than once. Former NHL player Brian Boyle, who played under Sullivan when the latter was an assistant coach with the Rangers (2009-13) and with the Penguins (2021-22), said that Sullivan would get the best out of the team
“‘Sully’ is still unbelievable of making sure everybody knows exactly what is expected of you,” Boyle told NHL.com. “If your role changes, he’s great at communicating that. He is a demanding coach. He’s an extremely fair coach, a very respectful coach of the players, but also still very demanding.”
“All the coaches in the league know the game extremely well, but he knows his players extremely well and puts them in places where they’re going to succeed and the team is going to succeed. That’s his gift. That’s what separates him. That’s what has given him success,” Boyle said.