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Renney hangs onto Rangers’ reins

Eds: AMs.

NEW YORK (AP) – Tom Renney is ready to rebuild the New York Rangers, no small task considering the team has missed the NHL playoffs seven straight years.

“We want to be a responsible team and be able to gain the respect of the fans and the rest of the NHL,” Renney said Tuesday after he was hired as the Rangers’ coach after serving on an interim basis since February.

Renney went 5-11-0-4 after taking over from Glen Sather, who stepped down Feb. 25 to focus solely on being the general manager of the struggling club.

Renney, who signed a long-term contract, retains his role as vice president of player personnel.

“We’re trying to build an enthusiastic, youthful organization,” Sather said on a conference call. “We have a long-term plan in place, and Tom is a teaching coach who is very well respected.”

Sather, the president and general manager, lauded Renney for his “wealth of knowledge and a tremendous work ethic.”

Renney takes over a team coming off its seventh straight losing season, even though it was loaded with high-priced All-Stars. With Renney behind the bench, Sather traded away nine top players, including Brian Leetch, Petr Nedved and Alexei Kovalev.

Last week, the team did not pick up the contract option for Eric Lindros.

And there’s still no word whether Mark Messier will return for another season.

“It’s still status quo,” Sather said.

Renney, formerly a head coach with Vancouver, was already in the Rangers’ front office before joining Sather’s coaching staff at the start of last season.

He was instrumental in forming the Rangers’ playing system that preached more discipline and a stronger defensive mind-set. The Rangers went 27-40-7-8 under Sather and Renney last season.

Renney is the fourth Rangers’ coach in the four years Sather has been New York’s GM. The others were Ron Low, who lasted two seasons; Bryan Trottier, dismissed just 54 games into his rookie season; and Sather.

Renney will enter a season threatened by labor discord. The NHL’s collective bargaining agreement with the players’ association expires Sept. 15 and the sides are not close to an agreement. That makes a lockout a distinct possibility.

Renney got the job over former St. Louis Blues coach Joel Quenneville and Ryan McGill, who led Hartford – the Rangers’ AHL affiliate.

Quenneville was forced to step down as Canada’s coach at the world hockey championships in April after he was hospitalized in the Czech Republic because of exhaustion.

AP-ES-07-06-04 1707EDT