Rangers need an identity — and Chris Drury has no choice but to get this hire right

This is a sad day for the Rangers organization. Conducting a second coaching search within three years and the third over the past five off-seasons represents an admission of guilt from the hierarchy, past or present. Successful franchises are models of stability.

The Rangers once were that. From the dawn of the hard-cap era in 2005-06 through the 2017-18 season, the club had just three head coaches over 13 seasons — Tom Renney (three-plus), John Tortorella (four-plus) and Alain Vigneault (five).

But the Rangers are not even close to that now. Next man up will be the fourth man behind the New York bench across six seasons — following David Quinn, Gerard Gallant and Peter Laviolette, the latter dismissed Saturday by president-GM Chris Drury after failing to make the playoffs a year after finishing with the best record in hockey while going to the conference final.

Drury’s authority and status within the organization was implicitly confirmed when he was permitted to make that decision before holding a press briefing during which he said, “It starts with me.”