Report: Mark Messier wants to be the next Rangers head coach

Mark Messier wants to be the next head coach of the New York Rangers, according to a report. (Photo by Dave Sandford/NHLI via Getty Images)

The last time the New York Rangers won the Stanley Cup was in 1994 with Mark Messier as the captain to snap a 54-year Stanley Cup drought. 19 years later, Messier has aspirations to return to the franchise as its next head coach. According to a report in the New York Daily News, Messier wants to succeed John Tortorella as the 35th head coach of the Rangers.

Rangers general manager Glen Sather hired Messier as his special assistant in August 2009 and Sather had approached Messier when he was a player in 2002 about possibly coaching the team as well. Messier declined and continued to play for the Rangers through the 2003-04 season.

Messier previously served as the general manager of Team Canada during the 2010 World Championship in Germany along with coaching Team Canada during the 2010 Deutschland Cup and the 2010 Spengler Cup.

The Rangers went 26-18-4 under Tortorella and finished as the sixth seed in the Eastern Conference before being eliminated by the Boston Bruins in the second round of the playoffs. Tortorella was fired by the Rangers last week.

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