The Rangers have been here before. For the second time in eight years, the team has issued a letter declaring the season dead, the Stanley Cup window closed, and announcing the commencement of a partial teardown they hope will someday lead to the Canyon of Heroes.
Let’s go back in time to Feb. 8, 2018, when the authors of the Letter 1.0 were then-GM Jeff Gorton and then-president Glen Sather and the words were almost identical.
The Rangers were coming off a string of seven consecutive seasons in which they made the playoffs under John Tortorella and then Alain Vigneault. With Henrik Lundqvist leading the way, they made the conference finals in 2012, lost to the Kings in the 2014 Stanley Cup Finals, and then won the Presidents’ Trophy and made the final four again in 2015. That was followed by two early playoff exits and then a last-place season in 2018, prompting Gorton and Sather to do what Drury just did.
The trades
Rick Nash was the first to go, sent to Boston for three players including Ryan Lindgren, and two picks including a No. 1 in 2018. One of the other players. Ryan Spooner, was flipped early the next season for Ryan Strome. This deal was a winner.
Next up was Ryan McDonagh and J.T. Miller to Tampa Bay for Vlad Namestnikov, Libor Hajek, Brett Howden, a first- and a second-rounder. The Rangers got very little from those players and the Lightning won two Stanley Cups, making the deal a major dud.
Mats Zuccarello, Kevin Hayes and eventually Marc Staal would be sent packing, as well, as the Rangers started to assemble a new core heading into the COVID era and David Quinn regime.
What went wrong?
Drafting and development. Vitali Kravtsov was a waste of the ninth-overall pick in 2018 and, after they hit on K’Andre Miller at 22, Nils Lundkvist never made it on Broadway at 28. The Rangers won two ping-pong ball lotteries. They picked Kaapo Kakko No. 2 in 2019 and Alexis Lafreniere No. 1 in 2020. Neither has become a star.
What went right?
The Rangers had a few fortuitous circumstances that helped them get back to the conference finals in both 2022 under Gerard Gallant and 2024 with Peter Laviolette, when they also won the Presidents’ Trophy.
The biggest factor was having Igor Shesterkin ready to step in for The King. Adam Fox forced his way to his childhood team by threatening the Hurricanes and Flames, the first two teams that owned his rights.
And in July of 2019, the Rangers signed Artemi Panarin to a seven-year, $81.5 million contract, putting him in the conversation with Adam Graves as the Rangers’ best free-agent signing.
Will there be a pot of gold at the end of this retool?
Panarin figures to be the player who would fetch the most in a deal, even as a rental. Are they willing to trade J.T. Miller or Mika Zibanejad, who would have value, or are they part of the core to which Drury was referring?
It’ll be hard to duplicate the circumstances that brought Shesterkin and Fox to the team, and there aren’t many Panarins on the free-agent market anymore.
Can we expect the Rangers to draft and develop players better than they have over the past eight years?
The retool actually started last season with the trades of Kakko, Jacob Trouba and Chris Kreider. Can Drury get more in this next round of trades than he did for them?