RANGERS NAME LEACH WOLF PACK HEAD COACH
JAY LEACH NAMED NINTH HEAD COACH IN HARTFORD WOLF PACK HISTORY
By: Alex Thomas, Hartford Wolf Pack
NEW YORK, NY – New York Rangers President and General Manager Chris Drury announced today that the team has named Jay Leach Head Coach of the Rangers’ American Hockey League (AHL) affiliate, the Hartford Wolf Pack.
Leach, 46, becomes the ninth head coach in Wolf Pack history. He joins the Rangers organization with 12 years of coaching experience, including four seasons as a head coach in the AHL. Leach most recently served as an assistant coach with the Boston Bruins for the past two seasons (2024-25 and 2025-26) and spent three seasons with the Seattle Kraken as an assistant coach (2021-22– 2023-24).
Prior to making the jump to the NHL in 2021, the Syracuse, NY, native served as head coach for four seasons for the Providence Bruins of the AHL (2017-18 – 2020-21). Over Leach’s tenure as head coach with Providence, the team posted a 136-77-26 (W-L-OTL/SOL) record in 239 games. During this span, Providence won back-to-back Atlantic Division titles in 2019-20 and 2020-21.
As an assistant with Providence in 2016-17, he helped them reach the AHL’s Eastern Conference Finals.
Before joining the Bruins organization, Leach spent the 2015-16 season with the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins. He began the season as an assistant coach before being named interim head coach and then serving as an associate coach. He made his coaching debut as an assistant coach with the Adler Mannheim of the Deutsche Eishockey Liga in Germany (2014-15).
A fifth-round selection, 115th overall, of the Phoenix Coyotes in the 1998 NHL Entry Draft, Leach appeared in 70 NHL games across five seasons between the Boston Bruins, Tampa Bay Lightning, New Jersey Devils, Montreal Canadiens and San Jose Sharks. Leach played 12 seasons of professional hockey prior to the start of his coaching career.
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ABOUT THE HARTFORD WOLF PACK: The Hartford Wolf Pack has been a premier franchise in the American Hockey League since the team’s inception in 1997. The Wolf Pack are the top player-development affiliate of the NHL’s New York Rangers and play at PeoplesBank Arena. The Wolf Pack has been home to some of the Rangers newest faces including Igor Shesterkin, Will Cuylle, and Matt Rempe. Follow the Wolf Pack on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and TikTok.
