Vigneault has previously coached the Montreal Canadiens, Vancouver Canucks, New York Rangers and the Philadelphia Flyers for 19 seasons in the NHL, as well as in the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League (QMJHL).
Following his QMJHL career, Vigneault was selected in the eighth round, 167th overall, by the St. Louis Blues in the 1981 NHL Entry Draft.
The 1983 playoffs were Vigneault's final appearances as a player in the NHL, as he finished his career the following season splitting time between the Maine Mariners of the AHL and the Montana Magic in the CHL.
He began in the QMJHL, coaching one season for the Trois-Rivières Draveurs and five for the Hull Olympiques, the same two teams he played junior hockey for.
[2] In the 1992–93 season, Vigneault got his first break in the National Hockey League (NHL) as an assistant coach with the expansion Ottawa Senators.
After a full season with the Harfangs in 1996–97, Vigneault began his second stint in the NHL and his first as a head coach, with the Montreal Canadiens.
They then advanced to the second round with a four-games-to-two series victory over the Pittsburgh Penguins, before being swept in four games by the Buffalo Sabres.
During his third season with the Canadiens in 1999–2000, he returned to above-.500, despite numerous long-term injuries to key players, just narrowly missing a post-season berth.
After another season with the Rocket, in which the team finished out of the playoffs, Vigneault was hired by the Vancouver Canucks organization to coach their minor-league affiliate, the Manitoba Moose, of the American Hockey League (AHL).
The Canucks had failed to qualify for the playoffs in Crawford's last season with the club and were seen to have underperformed after being considered Stanley Cup contenders after the 2004–05 NHL lockout.
Key offensive players Ed Jovanovski and Todd Bertuzzi departed as stay-at-home defenceman Willie Mitchell and star goaltender Roberto Luongo were brought in.
As a result of the successful 2006–07 campaign, Vigneault received his second Jack Adams Award nomination and beat out Lindy Ruff of the Buffalo Sabres and Michel Therrien of the Pittsburgh Penguins in voting to win the coach of the year on June 14, 2007.
[6] Under new leadership and management, Vigneault and the Canucks returned to the post-season and won their second Northwest Division title in three years.
Though the league's best regular season team once more in 2011–12, the Canucks were eliminated from the 2012 playoffs in the first round; losing in five games to the eventual champion, the eighth-seeded Los Angeles Kings.
[8] After finishing the lockout-shortened 2012–13 campaign as the Northwest Division champions for the fifth straight season and the third seed in the Western Conference altogether, the Canucks were swept in the first round of the 2013 playoffs by the sixth-seeded San Jose Sharks.
The Rangers finished second in the Metropolitan Division and fifth in the East, qualifying for the post-season and making it to the team's first Stanley Cup Finals since they defeated the Vancouver Canucks in the 1993–94 season.
In the semi-finals the Rangers found themselves facing a familiar foe in Alexander Ovechkin and the Washington Capitals, the fifth meeting between the two franchises since 2009 (each team had won two).
In overtime, team captain Ryan McDonagh scored the game winner to send the series back to Washington.
After the seasons premature end, Vigneault was a finalist for the Jack Adams Award,[20] coming in second in final voting to the Boston Bruins' Bruce Cassidy.