Following one of the most disappointing seasons in franchise history, the New York Rangers fired coach Peter Laviolette on Saturday. Assistant coach Phil Housley also was dismissed.

Considering how miserable the year was, it was expected. Following a terrific 2023-24 season in which he guided the Rangers to a 55-23-4 record with 114 points for the league’s best record, Laviolette didn’t come close to duplicating that success which included a run to the Conference Finals. Instead, a dark cloud hovered over Madison Square Garden. A team that at one point was 12-4-1 finished a forgettable season with a 39-36-7 record with 85 points, failing to qualify for the postseason.

It wasn’t all Laviolette’s fault for what happened. A lot of the blame goes to Rangers team president and general manager Chris Drury for his complete mishandling of last off-season. A successful team coming off a Presidents’ Trophy was fractured due to both Barclay Goodrow getting dumped on waivers to the Sharks, and captain Jacob Trouba having his name mentioned in trade rumors. None of it sat well with the veterans on the team.

The off-ice distractions really didn’t materialize until Drury sent out a memo that made both Trouba and Chris Kreider available last November. Growing impatient with how they were playing despite a good record up to that point thanks to the stellar play of Igor Shesterkin, Drury created a rift in the locker room that affected both Trouba and Kreider negatively. What followed was a 4-13 record the Rangers never recovered from.

One of the biggest problems was the inconsistency with the defensive system Housley was in charge of. Despite having some success with the man-to-man system in Year 1 under Laviolette, the Rangers struggled mightily defensively in Year 2, with all sorts of breakdowns in coverage that left opponents wide-open in the slot for goals and high danger scoring chances. They kept allowing the same thing to happen night after night, becoming like a broken record. Or in the Rangers’ case, a broken team thanks to management.

During a tumultuous season that saw them never put together another three-game winning streak since Nov. 14-19, several players voiced their displeasure with how things were handled by the coaching staff. After he was finally forced to accept a trade to Anaheim, Trouba called it, “A rite of passage to get fired by MSG.”

He admitted that all of the trade rumors last summer became a distraction that affected his play. Something he was upfront about with teammates entering the season. He became a lame duck captain thanks to Drury, who eventually got out of Trouba’s contract that still has a year remaining with a $8 million cap hit.

The next dissatisfied player was 2019 second pick Kaapo Kakko, who was made a healthy scratch for a game against the Blues on Dec. 15. He didn’t mince words by correctly pointing out that it was always a younger player on the roster who’s made the scapegoat. Having also been sat out by Laviolette for Game 6 versus Florida in the Eastern Conference Finals, he was fed up. Ironically, Kakko didn’t play in Game 6 versus Tampa Bay in the same round under former coach Gerard Gallant. The Rangers were eliminated in each instance. By sitting him over an underachieving veteran such as Mika Zibanejad, it was understandable why Kakko was upset.

After he was dealt to the Kraken, Kakko performed better while playing with Matty Beniers and Jaden Schwartz on the top line. Asked what the biggest differences were between the Rangers and the Kraken he said, “I feel confidence is the biggest thing since I got here. I feel like I got more ice time and they trust me here more… I feel our line did a pretty good job… I was making plays and maybe things I didn’t do before.”

Following a blowout loss to the Devils at home on Dec. 23, Zac Jones wasn’t in the lineup again until Feb. 5 against Boston. Having to sit out after having a different role in the top six was tough for him.

“It’s tough. It’s really [expletive] tough,” he told reporters. “I mean, I’m just generally a pretty easygoing, happy person. And no matter what is going on in my life, I’m gonna try and come to the rink with a smile on my face . . . But it [expletive] sucks. Like, there’s nothing else I can say about it.”

Jones went from playing with Braden Schneider and playing on the second power play unit to often becoming a healthy scratch due to the additions of Will Borgen and Urho Vaakanainen. He did play more down the stretch even after Adam Fox returned from an upper-body injury. Jones is a restricted free agent this summer. A scenery change would probably be best for him at this point.

Even Kreider had issues with how things were handled, which mostly had to do with the trade rumors. In an injury riddled season that limited his ability to be effective, he often didn’t speak to reporters following games. When asked about it by reporters, he took the high road before a game at Winnipeg.

“I’m not privy to that information,” Kreider told Mollie Walker of the NY Post. “I worry about what’s right in front of me and right now it’s Winnipeg. Happy to be here, enjoyed my time here and I’ll continue to try to help this team win hockey games.”

When Calvin de Haan called attention to his situation by speaking to reporters about how he’s been treated before taking a morning skate, it really was an indictment of the organization. After coming over with Jusso Parssinen from Colorado for Ryan Lindgren, de Haan partook in three games and played well to help the Rangers go 2-0-1 between Mar. 2-5. That was it for him. He never played again despite looking better than trade deadline pickup Carson Soucy. Another Drury brain cramp.

Most recently, following a bad loss, Fox seemed to question Housley’s defensive system. That was probably the final straw. Laviolette and Housley were attached. His coaching staff also included Michael Peca and Dan Muse. Both haven’t been let go by the organization. According to hockey insider Frank Seravalli of Sportsnet, each will have a chance to interview for the coaching vacancy.

Laviolette wasn’t the first coaching casualty of the day. The Ducks relieved Greg Cronin before Laviolette was let go. Regarding how things went down this season, it’s probably a relief for him. You could tell that it was wearing on him from the closeups on the bench and postgame interviews. How many times did he keep repeating the same things over and over again? The team quit on him. It wasn’t pleasant to watch.

Two years after Gallant was fired, Laviolette is now out of a job. In two seasons, he went 94-59-11 with a .607 winning percentage. A Stanley Cup winning coach with the Hurricanes in 2005-06, he’s guided three different teams to the Stanley Cup Finals. Unfortunately, he won’t get the chance to do it with the Rangers. For his career, Laviolette has 846 wins, which ranks seventh all-time. Among active coaches, he ranks third behind Lindy Ruff (900), and Paul Maurice (916).

It’s too early in the process to start guessing who the next coach of the Rangers should be. Whoever it is, it can’t continue to be every two years, they’re out. There’s something fundamentally wrong with the organization. They really need to take a closer look at themselves. This isn’t only about personnel. It’s about how they’ve been run. Why do other teams put younger players in a better position to succeed? That’s something that needs to change moving forward.