Corals are animals, in the same phylum (Cnidaria) as hydras, anemones and jellyfish. (What we commonly think of as coral is the exoskeleton the animal constructs by precipitating carbonates from sea water.) They propagate both by budding and by sexual reproduction. It's possible that tropical corals (and other species) were carried to the North Atlantic by the Gulf Stream. Not exactly "floating aimlessly", but not much different, either.

On the other hand... the benthic fauna found at the Pacific plate boundaries (a.k.a. seafloor spreading zones) appear to have had ample -- as in, geological -- time to adapt, in an evolutionary fashion, to their surroundings.

I daresay that, now discovered, that particular colony of life off the shore of Jan Mayen Island will be intensely studied and compared to known oceanic life elsewhere (living and extinct), to try to answer your question. I'd love to know, too.