It was clear immediately that Alain Vigneault will be very different from John Tortorella, as the 35th head coach in Rangers history smiled and laughed and had fun on Friday afternoon, the day when Radio City Music Hall put his name on the marque and all the attention belonged to him.
Vigneault, 52, was at times lighthearted and serious, explaining his coaching philosophy while showing the assembled media that he is also knows how to crack a joke.
“It’s a lot easier negotiating a contract,” Vigneault said, “when there are two teams going after you.”
“I didn’t particularly like that part,” general manager Glen Sather responded, knowing that Vigneault was also being recruited to coach the Stars, who hired Lindy Ruff on Thursday.
Yet it was Sather who fired the hard-nosed Tortorella on May 29, and who recently put his name on a five-year, $10 million contract for Vigneault, showing a commitment to the 2007 Jack Adams Award winner and headman behind the Canucks back-to-back Presidents Trophies from 2010-12.
“The game has changed,” Sather said. “I like his style of play and I like the way his players have reacted to him.”
Sather made the decision to go with Vigneault over a group of what he said was 13 candidates, nine of whom were seriously considered, four of whom were interviewed over the phone and just two of them who interviewed in person. It would make sense if the other candidate to be personally interviewed was Mark Messier, a special assistant to the GM since 2009 who was also the icon of the Rangers’ 1994 Stanley Cup-winning team. He made his desire for the job clear to Sather early in the process, and now his future with the organization is uncertain.
“I expect I’ll talk to him this week or early next week,” Sather said of Messier.
Vigneault spent seven years in Vancouver, and made it to Game 7 of the Stanley Cup finals in 2011, where his team lost to the Bruins. His teams have been both offensive and defensive, what he says is a strategy tailored to his personnel
“I believe your top skill players should have more latitude,” said Vigenault, whose teams went 313-170-57 and won the Northwest division in six of seven years. “They have to be given that latitude to make a something out of nothing.”
That was a place where it seemed Tortorella came up short, even admitting after his team’s second-round loss to the Bruins that he was not able to get enough out of his top players. Reports out of Vancouver said that Tortorella is nearing a contract to complete the coach swap.
Vigneault was fired this season after his Canucks got swept in the first round of the playoffs by the Sharks. He hasn’t gotten deep into tape of the Rangers yet, but knows enough about the roster to consider them an immediate contender for the Stanley Cup.
“I’m going into this – and I hope the guys go into this, too – with an open mind,” Vigneault said. “It’s a clean slate for everybody, so let’s write what we want to write on that slate.”
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Sather said he entirely expects to sign all of his restricted free agents, which include Ryan McDonagh, Carl Hagelin, Derek Stepan and Mats Zuccarello. He also said that Don Meehan, the agent for franchise-backbone goaltender Henrik Lundqvist, is set to come to New York for a meeting next week. Lundqvist, 31, is set to be an unrestricted free agent after this coming season.
“Six, seven, eight years,” Sather said about what he’s planning on giving Lundqvist, “depending on how many years he wants to play.”
One thing Sather didn’t want to discuss was the future of Brad Richards, who is a prime candidate for the team’s second amnesty buyout. Sather said that discussion would take place very soon, and will involve Vigneault. If bought out, Richards’ $6.67 million annual salary-cap hit would be voided.
bcyrgalis@nypost.com