Rangers retool, Islanders remodel: Who’s in better spot entering 2025-26?
The New York Rangers and New York Islanders are taking different paths but have the same goal for the upcoming season: a return to the Stanley Cup Playoffs. The local rivals each missed out on the playoffs last season, with the Rangers (39-36-7) finishing fifth in the Metropolitan Division, one spot ahead of the Islanders (35-35-12). The difference in the standings came down to the fact that the Rangers swept their suburban rivals in the four-game season series, outscoring them 23-5.
Each team will look a lot different when training camp opens in September. The Rangers have a new coach and staff; the Islanders kept their coach but changed general managers, who then ditched all but one of the assistant coaches.
The Rangers, who didn’t have a first-round pick in the 2025 NHL Draft, took a big swing in free agency and made one of the biggest trades this offseason, changing the look of their defense corps. The Islanders defied the odds (3.5 percent chance) to win the draft lottery and went shopping in the lower levels of free agency — but they made a huge trade of their own, dealing arguably their best young defenseman for two more first-round draft picks, giving them three of the first 17 selections.
So which team is in better shape entering the 2025-26 season, as well as down the road?
Related: Rangers GM ‘above board … very professional’ handling K’Andre Miller trade: agent
Off-Ice Shakeups
General manager Chris Drury finally got the coach he’d been wanting when he hired Mike Sullivan on May 2, two weeks after Peter Laviolette’s team went from Presidents’ Trophy winners in 2023-24 to missing the playoffs. Sullivan led the Pittsburgh Penguins to back-to-back Stanley Cup championships in 2016 and 2017, but missed the playoffs in each of the past three seasons, and the two sides parted ways after last season. Sullivan was an assistant with the Rangers under John Tortorella from 2009-13, and was behind the bench for Drury’s final two NHL seasons with the Rangers.
The Islanders retained coach Patrick Roy, but they opted not to keep president/GM Lou Lamoriello when his contract expired. They replaced him with Mathieu Darche, who had been director of hockey operations and assistant GM with the Tampa Bay Lightning and was part of their Cup-winning teams in 2020 and 2021. Darche was named GM and executive vice president of hockey operations. He wasted little time confirming that Roy would return but that assistants John MacLean and Tommy Albelin would not.
Free-Agent Signings
Having taken one big swing by changing coaches, Drury took another one on July 1 by signing defenseman Vladislav Gavrikov to a seven-year, $49 million contract ($7 million average annual value). The 29-year-old established himself as one of the top defensive defensemen with the Los Angeles Kings, and the Rangers have already penciled the lefty shooter as Adam Fox’s partner on the top defensive pair. Drury also made a key move by re-signing the Rangers best young forward, restricted free agent Will Cuylle, to a two-year contract with an AAV of $3.9 million. They also added forward Taylor Raddysh on an affordable two-year, $3 million contract to to boost the third line.
The Islanders didn’t make any big moves in free agency, but likely helped their middle-six forwards by signing Jonathan Drouin to a two-year contract with an AAV of $4 million. The 30-year-old had 11 goals and 37 points in 43 games for the Colorado Avalanche last season. They also signed their best restricted free agent, forward Simon Holmstrom, as well as 24-year-old Russian Maxim Shabanov, who had 23 goals and 67 points in 65 games with Traktor Chelyabinsk of the Kontinental Hockey League, then added 10 goals and 20 points to help his team reach the Gagarin Cup final, the KHL’s equivalent of the Stanley Cup.
Big Deals
The Rangers parted ways with their longest tenured player when they traded Chris Kreider to the Anaheim Ducks for center prospect Carey Terrance and a swap of mid-round draft picks. That opened up significant salary-cap space ($6.5 million), even if it meant trading away the third-leading goal scorer in franchise history (326). Before the start of free agency on July 1, the big question for the Rangers was what they would do with restricted free agent defenseman K’Andre Miller, whose turnover-plagued on-ice play belied his ample physical skills. The answer came with one of the biggest trades of the offseason, with the Rangers dealing the 25-year-old to the Carolina Hurricanes for 22-year-old defenseman Scott Morrow and first- and second-round picks in next year’s draft. The Hurricanes quickly signed Miller to an eight-year, $60 million contract ($7.5 million AAV).
That trade came a few days after the Islanders settled a similar question with restricted free agent defenseman Noah Dobson by dealing him to the Montreal Canadiens for forward Emil Heineman and the No. 16 and 17 picks in the draft on June 25. The Canadiens wasted no time signing him to an eight-year contract worth $76 million ($9.5 million AAV). Dobson dropped from 70 points in 2023-24 to 39 last season and struggled in his own zone. He reportedly did not plan to sign with the Islanders when he was due to become an unrestricted free agent next year.
Draft Doings
The Rangers got first-round talent in the second round when they selected forward Malcolm Spence with the No. 43 overall pick, after sending their first-round selection to the Penguins to complete the J.T. Miller trade from last season. Most draft gurus projected Spence to go in the second half of the first round, so getting him that low was regarded by many as a steal. He had 32 goals and 73 points for Erie of the Ontario Hockey League last season and will play at the University of Michigan in the fall. If Spence doesn’t make it, this draft could be a bust, though the Rangers did add eight players to their prospects pool.
When Spence arrives on Broadway, he’ll see Erie teammate/roommate Matthew Schaefer waiting for him. The Islanders grabbed the smooth-skating defenseman with the No. 1 overall pick in the draft, and he’s expected to become a cornerstone on the blue line. The Isles also fared well in nabbing Swedish forward Victor Eklund and Barrie (OHL) defenseman Kashawn Aitcheson with the two first-rounders they got from Montreal in the Dobson trade. Aided by their first-round haul, the Islanders were regarded by many as the draft’s biggest winners.
Biggest Risk/Reward
For the Rangers, dealing Miller is the kind of move that can make or break a GM’s career. If Miller figures things out in Carolina with a division rival and becomes a stud, this move will blow up unless Morrow blossoms on Broadway and/or they made significant additions with their two new picks in the loaded 2026 draft. Drury had no intention of signing Miller to the kind of long-term, big-money contract the defenseman wanted, opting instead to reel in Gavrikov and hope that Morrow will grow into a top-four defenseman.
Darche’s decision to trade Dobson is also a risk, albeit one that was influenced by the near-certainty the Islanders would lose him when he became a UFA next year. How well the deal turns out for the Islanders depends on how Eklund and Aitcheson develop; each is highly regarded but isn’t likely to get to Long Island for a couple of years. The Isles also need Schaefer to live up to his draft status; he’s expected to become at least a first-pair defender — and they hope he’ll become a franchise cornerstone.
2025-26 Outlook
The Rangers should rebound from last season’s massive disappointment and make the playoffs. They still have top-level talent, including goaltender Igor Shesterkin, Fox and Gavrikov on the blue line, and forwards Artemi Panarin, J.T. Miller and Vincent Trocheck. Their top prospect, forward Gabe Perreault, should at worst be a middle-six forward. They need Alexis Lafreniere to rebound after a poor showing after he signed a long-term contract early on last season. But the biggest question figures to be whether the Rangers respond to Sullivan after tuning out Laviolette amid team-wide dysfunction.
Good health would help the Islanders a lot — all of their regular defensemen missed at least 10 games with injuries last season, and their most dynamic forward, Mathew Barzal, played just 30 of 82 games due to two major injuries. Their 2024 first-rounder, forward Cole Eiserman, is likely to return to Boston University, but Schaefer figures to be an immediate starter on the blue line and Calum Ritchie is an exciting prospect up front. The Isles have a number of good players; what figures to keep them out of the playoffs next season is a lack of star power.
In the Future
The Rangers will have a big decision to make next summer, when Panarin hits free agency at age 34. No Rangers player in the team’s 99-year history has put up points at the rate Panarin has done since signing with New York as a free agent in July 2019. Shesterkin and Fox should still be among the League’s best at their positions for years to come, Miller should be a top-six center at least for a few more years, and they’re counting on Perreault, Spence, Cuylle, Lafreniere and Brennan Othmann to become big contributors up front. The Rangers are counting on Sullivan to get this team back to being an annual championship contender.
Things are different on Long Island, where a team that’s been one of the oldest in the NHL for the past few seasons is getting younger. Ilya Sorokin is an excellent goalie signed to a long-term contract, and Schaefer gives every indication of being a franchise defenseman. They really need Eiserman, Ritchie and Eklund (when they arrive) to blossom into the kind of A-level talent that’s been in short supply on Long Island, and they’ll have to keep replacing over-30 guys like Adam Pelech, Ryan Pulock, Anders Lee and Casey Cizikas, among others. The Islanders haven’t won a Cup in 42 years; it’s going to be a few more before they can contend for one, but the future is getting brighter.
