Bests and worsts of Chris Drury’s first five seasons as Rangers GM
Tuesday marked the fifth anniversary of a franchise-altering day in the history of the New York Rangers.
On May 5, 2021, Rangers owner James Dolan informed team president John Davidson and general manager Jeff Gorton that they were being fired. He also announced that associate GM Chris Drury would assume both roles. The move came shortly after the Rangers were eliminated from the playoff race.
“Chris is a very sought-after executive and a strong leader, who has proven himself to be one of the top young minds in hockey,” Dolan said of Drury, then 44. “We are confident he will effectively guide the team to ensure the long-term success we promised Rangers fans.”
It’s been an up-and-down five years for Drury and the Rangers. They’ve twice come within two wins of a trip to the Stanley Cup Final – but have missed the playoffs in each of the past two seasons. 2025-26 was the Rangers’ Centennial season, but they were out of the playoff race before the NHL’s Olympic break in early February.
Drury, who got a contract extension in March, still has full authority over the team’s hockey operations and personnel, and he’ll be hoping the ping-pong balls bounce right Tuesday night at the NHL Draft Lottery; the Rangers have an 11.5 percent chance of getting the No. 1 overall pick.
Ironically, the Rangers have their pick this year because of perhaps the best move Drury made as GM: He opted to keep this year’s first-round pick rather than No. 13 pick in last year’s draft, which was dealt to the Vancouver Canucks in the J.T. Miller trade on Jan. 31, 2025, and ultimately went to the Pittsburgh Penguins.
Many Rangers fans are wondering if Drury is the right man to get the Rangers back on their feet. He has a lot of work to do after this season’s disaster.
Here’s a look at some of the highs and lows of Drury’s tenure:
Best finish: 2023-24
Two years after the Rangers made a surprise trip to the Eastern Conference Final, they enjoyed the best regular season in their history, finishing with team records in wins (55) and points (114). They won the Presidents’ Trophy as the NHL’s regular-season champion for the third time since the award was first given in 1985-86. Artemi Panarin led the offense with 49 goals and 120 points (and was a First-Team All-Star), and Igor Shesterkin finished 36-17-2 with a 2.58 goals-against average and .912 save percentage. The Blueshirts swept the Washington Capitals, beat the Carolina Hurricanes in six games and took a 2-1 series lead against the Florida Panthers in the Eastern Conference Final – only to lose the last three games and miss out on making the Stanley Cup Final for the first time since 2014.
Worst finish: 2025-26
Drury fired Peter Laviolette, the architect of the Rangers’ success in 2023-24, after they missed the playoffs the next season. He brought in Mike Sullivan, a two-time Stanley Cup winner who left the Pittsburgh Penguins after three straight playoff misses. The change behind the bench didn’t work out: New York dropped to the bottom of the Eastern Conference and finished 30th in the overall standings. The Rangers were out of the playoff race before the end of February, and the last-place finish in the conference was their first since 1965-66, when they were last in a six-team league.
Best first-round draft pick: Gabe Perreault (2023)
Drury hasn’t had a lot of success at the draft table. But nabbing the son of former NHL center Yanic Perreault with the 23rd pick in the 2023 draft looks like it’s going to be a success. The Rangers signed Perreault after his second season at Boston College ended in March 2025 and gave him a five-game taste of the NHL. He began this season with AHL Hartford but was a full-time Ranger before Christmas and finished with 12 goals and 27 points in 49 games. He still has work to do, but his hockey smarts and playmaking skills began to shine through after he was installed in a top-six role.
Worst first-round draft pick: Brennan Othmann (2021)
Othmann was Drury’s initial first-round pick (No. 16 overall) after being promoted; to say he didn’t work out would be putting it mildly. He turned pro in 2023-24 and put up 21 goals for AHL Hartford, earning a three-game cameo with the Rangers. Othmann split 2024-25 between the Rangers and Hartford but managed just two assists in 22 games with New York. He did score his first NHL goal with the Rangers in 2025-26 but turned into a healthy scratch before being peddled to the Calgary Flames on March 6 for junior prospect Jacob Battaglia. One word: Bust.
Best free-agent signing: Vincent Trocheck (2022)
Drury hit a home run in the summer of 2022 when he brought in Trocheck, an excellent two-way center, on a seven-year contract with an average annual value of $5.625 million. That cap hit has proven to be a bargain. Trocheck averaged 22 goals and 62 points in his first four seasons with New York while winning at least 56 percent of his face-offs in each. He’s also become a leader in the locker room and given the Rangers everything they could have asked when they signed him. The only drawback is that he turns 33 in July and could be traded this summer.
Worst free-agent signing: Patrik Nemeth (2021)
Drury felt the Rangers needed help on the blue line and gave Nemeth, a low-scoring defenseman, a three-year deal with an AAV of $2.5 million. To say the signing didn’t work out would be an understatement: He had two goals, seven points and was minus-9 on a team that went to the Eastern Conference Final. Drury cut his losses after one season, sending Nemeth and two second-round picks to the Arizona Coyotes for defenseman Ty Emberson (who never plated for New York) in July 2022. He played one season for Arizona before spending the past four seasons in Europe.
Best trade(s): Acquired Alexander Wennberg from Seattle (March 6, 2024) and Jack Roslovic from Columbus (March 8, 2024)
Drury doesn’t have a lot of winning deals on his resume. But Wennberg and Roslovic were useful pieces in the Blueshirts’ run to the 2024 conference final. Roslovic had two power-play goals and eight points in 16 playoff games. Wennberg had a goal and assist in 16 postseason games. Both left as free agents after the season.
Worst trade(s): Acquired Barclay Goodrow from Tampa Bay (July 17, 2021); Traded Pavel Buchnevich to St. Louis (July 23, 2021)
Drury wanted to bring a winning atmosphere to the Rangers, so he sent a seventh-round pick to the Lightning for Goodrow, who was part of Tampa Bay’s Cup-winning teams in 2020 and 2021 – then signed him to a six-year, $21.85 million contract ($3.462 million AAV). That was a huge number for a bottom-six forward, and after Goodrow managed just four goals and 12 points in 80 games in 2023-24, Drury was eager to get rid of him. But Goodrow had a 15-team no-trade clause, so Drury put him on waivers — and the San Jose Sharks, his first NHL team, claimed him. The move angered many in the Rangers’ locker room and began a series of deals designed to save money.
Two days later, Drury traded a top-line forward in Buchnevich, a restricted free agent the Rangers thought would be tough to fit on a long-term contract (partly because of the money they’d just doled out to Goodrow), to the Blues for a second-round pick and forward Sammy Blais. Buchnevich has been a productive forward with St. Louis; Blais is long gone from New York; the Blueshirts sent him back to St. Louis two years later.
