Head coach Roger Neilson of the New York Rangers (Photo by Mitchell Layton/Getty Images)
What happened on August 15 in the history of the New York Rangers
On this date in 1989, the New York Rangers hired Roger Neilson as their new head coach as part of a complete makeover of the management team. He was hired by Neil Smith who had replaced General Manager Phil Esposito after a disastrous season.
The goal was to bring some stability to the organization after the tumultuous years that Esposito had run the team, culminating in his trading for coach Michel Bergeron only to fire him after two seasons.