After a catastrophic season that saw them fall from top spot in the NHL’s 2023-24 regular season to completely out of the Stanley Cup playoffs this year, the New York Rangers have made significant changes to their organization. Coach Peter Laviolette was replaced with former Pittsburgh Penguins bench boss Mike Sullivan, and longtime core component left winger Chris Kreider was traded to the Anaheim Ducks this week for a prospect and draft pick. And the off-season has barely started.
It’s clear Rangers GM Chris Drury – armed with a new contract extension that shows team owner James Dolan has full confidence in him – is going to reshape the Rangers’ lineup in a major way. But is Drury going to completely rebuild the roster from scratch, or is a retool-on-the-fly more likely?
We believe all signs point to the latter option. Dolan has never been one to stomach a full rebuild, and Drury’s work leading up to this point has built a team that’s exceedingly difficult to disassemble. You’re not trading star left winger Artemi Panarin, even if he’s entering the final season of his lucrative contract. You’re not trading star center J.T. Miller, less than a year after the Blueshirts acquired him. You’re definitely not dealing star goalie, Igor Shesterkin. And you’re not trading star defenseman Adam Fox or veteran center Mika Zibanejad, both of whom are signed for at least the next four seasons.
That means the road ahead is a retool, although Drury is still likely to reshape the roster. The Kreider trade opened up $6.5 million in salary cap space, but the Rangers have only $14.9 million in space – far from the amount the Rangers need to outbid opponents in free-agency. Blueliner K’Andre Miller is an RFA, and his asking price may hamper Rangers management’s efforts to acquire veteran players, so he may be traded.
Thus, trades will probably be the route Drury takes to change the makeup of the team. But even then, Drury may be limited in what he can do. Seven current Rangers have some sort of no-trade or no-move clause in their current contract. And while Drury showed with the trading of Kreider and former captain Jacob Trouba that he isn’t afraid of going to players with no-trade or no-move clauses and still finding a way to trade them, the market for those players may be more limited than the Rangers like.
That opens up speculation about Rangers who don’t have no-trade protection, including young winger Alexis Lafreniere. The 23-year-old’s offence dropped off considerably this season, going from 28 goals in 2023-24 to only 17 goals this season. Lafreniere is entering the first season of a seven-year extension paying him $7.45-million annually, and the Rangers may have buyer’s remorse.
Drury gave up on another high draft pick last year – winger Kaapo Kakko, who went on to have a solid half-season with the Seattle Kraken – and so it shouldn’t be a complete shocker if Drury moved Lafreniere.
Regardless of who winds up getting traded or signed, the prevailing sentiment around the Rangers is that this team will be markedly different by the time training camp rolls around. Drury has a mandate of getting his team back into the post-season right away, and that means he can’t run it back with the same group of players. The Rangers are built to win now, and in a few weeks, we’re likely to see a Blueshirts squad that is even more hyper-focused on being a playoff team in 2025-26.
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