Retool, not rebuild: Rangers GM ready to make moves as season falls apart
The New York Rangers publicly raised the white flag Friday. Team president and general manager Chris Drury told fans that the Rangers are conceding this season and looking toward the future.
In a message to the Blueshirt Faithful, the fifth-year GM said that while “no one in the organization is happy with what transpired” this season, “we must be honest and realistic about our situation.”
That “situation” is being last in the 16-team Eastern Conference as the Rangers (20-22-6) prepare for a four-game road trip that begins with a visit to the Philadelphia Flyers on Saturday afternoon, followed by a three-game swing through California next week. The Rangers lost five games in a row, the past four in regulation; they have 46 points and a .479 points percentage under first-year coach Mike Sullivan. The letter came two days after they were embarrassed 8-4 by the Ottawa Senators at Madison Square Garden.
The Rangers have the fewest home wins of any team in the Eastern Conference this season (five). They’re 30th in the League, averaging 2.58 goals-for per game.
Drury appears to acknowledge what most everyone already admitted, at least to themselves: The Rangers will miss the Stanley Cup Playoffs for the second straight season and it’s time to look to the future.
The GM was adamant that “this will not be a rebuild. This will be a retool around our core players and prospects.” Notably, he did not name any names but did say it could involve “saying goodbye to players that have brought us and our fans great moments throughout the years.”
The core of the Rangers includes goaltender Igor Shesterkin and defenseman Adam Fox, each of whom is sidelined with a lower-body injury, as well as 30-year-old defenseman Vladislav Gavrikov, a free agent signee last summer who has teamed with Fox to form one of the League’s best defense pairing. Fox is on his second stint on long-term injured reserve and isn’t eligible to return until at least Jan. 31; however, Fox and Shesterkin skated before practice Friday.
The top-six forward group could soon look different, though. The New York Post reported Friday that Drury told left wing Artemi Panarin, the Rangers’ leading scorer this season – as he was in each of the previous six – that he will not be offered a contract extension. The 34-year-old is the final season of the seven-year contract he signed on July 1, 2019; it includes a no-move clause, meaning that Panarin can decide if he wants to be traded and where he’d be willing to go.
“He told me he’s OK with whatever happens,” Newsday’s Colin Stepehenson told Forever Blueshirts on the latest RINK RAP podcast the day before this stunning news was announced.
Earlier this season, Panarin reportedly rejected a team-friendly extension offer, and word was that he didn’t plan on handing out any hometown discount to the Rangers.
Trading Panarin means having him waive his no-move clause, limiting the number of potential suitors. Plus, there aren’t many (if any) true Stanley Cup contenders with the available salary cap space to add Panarin’s massive $11.643 million annual charge. But it’s hard to imagine the Rangers won’t find a way to get a trade done before the March 6 deadline, now that they went public with their retool plan.
In addition to Panarin, defenseman Carson Soucy, forwards Jonny Brodzinski and Conor Sheary, and goalie Jonathan Quick can become UFAs on July 1.
The Rangers have several other players who are signed to long-term contracts. Center Vincent Trocheck and Fox are signed through the 2028-29 season. Mika Zibanejad, J.T. Miller and defenseman Will Borgen are signed through 2029-30. Gavrikov and forward Alexis Lafreniere are signed through the 2031-32 season, and Shesterkin is signed through 2032-33.
Chris Drury message to Rangers fans echoes similar letter in 2018
It’s the second time in less than a decade that the Rangers issued a letter to their fans announcing changes were coming because of the team’s disappointing on-ice performance.
On Feb. 8, 2018, team president Glen Sather and GM Jeff Gorton told fans that the Rangers would be looking to add “young, competitive players that combine speed, skill and character” while adding that “this may mean we lose some familiar faces.”
They ended up moving notable names including defenseman Ryan McDonagh and forwards J.T. Miller, and Rick Nash. New York missed the playoffs in 2018 and 2019, made the COVID-expanded 20-team postseason in 2020 (and was swept by the Carolina Hurricanes in a best-of-5 series) and missed again in 2021 before the pieces they acquired helped them make it to the Eastern Conference Final in 2022. The Rangers lost in the first round in 2023 before winning the Presidents’ Trophy in 2023-24 and getting back to the Eastern Conference Final, where they lost to the eventual champion Florida Panthers.
However, the Rangers missed the postseason in 2024-25, becoming the fourth team to go from regular-season champion to a non-playoff team the following season. They haven’t won the Stanley Cup since 1994, and Drury’s message appears to indicate that management has decided the Stanley Cup window has firmly closed on the current core group.
“Over the last few years we’ve had some successes and moments to cherish, but ultimately it was not the end goal,” he wrote. “We are working relentlessly every day to bring a Stanley Cup back to New York because that is what our fans deserve.”
