When Chris Drury was promoted to GMit meant a huge change for the Rangers. Out were Jeff Gorton, John Davidson and David Quinn, and in came Drury and his posse. Drury had quite a reputation and apparently even became very interested in other jobs in the industry. There’s a world where the Rangers didn’t fire Gorton and Drury is currently the Sabres’ GM, for example.
Unfortunately, owner James Dolan decided the Rangers needed a change. Enter Drury, being the snake oil salesman that he is, as he convinced Dolan to make him not only General Manager, but President of Hockey Operations for the Rangers.
While Drury’s overall results have been fine, if not solid, the cracks have become amply visible during his tenure. The development of the prospects has been atrocious. Pro scouting was terrible. The coaching was weak at best. There is an old saying: ‘Everything he touches turns to gold.’ Everything Chris Drury touches turns into a hot mess. The Rangers have to clean up everything he touched.
What I mean to say is not that Chris Drury deserves all the blame. Instead, it’s Chris Drury putting the pieces in place to settle the debt. Drury has made his fair share of terrible trades and even his fair share of bad draft picks. Take a step back and think about the prospects we’re excited about. Are these real top players? Or do we just hope so?
A good general manager would find a way to make up for that by trusting the smart people around him. Instead, Drury has entrusted people with bad reputations or no reputation at all. Eventually, Drury will be fired, at which point the Rangers will have to clean house and essentially start all over again.
The off-ice development team of Jed Ortmeyer and Tanner Glass must go. Ortmeyer and Glass had little to no experience working in their capacities, but somehow play a key role in player development, perhaps one of the most important roles in the organization. Unsurprisingly, the Rangers were among the worst, if not the worst, in the NHL at developing players. This goes way beyond on-ice skills, something that Mark Ciaccio still rides with the prospects and the Hartford Wolf Pack for some reason. At least he’s not touching NHL talent anymore.
Gone must be the brilliant PR staff that refuses to allow young players to answer questions, covers up scandals and presides over some of the worst social media in the entire league (although this is mostly a Dolan thing). Gone must be every single person involved in the atrocity that is the Hartford Wolf Pack, a truly terribly run organization that really helps represent the Rangers in the worst way possible.
The Rangers have to clean out everyone’s house. If Mike Sullivan continues to play veterans over kids in a developmental year, he and his team should go too.
The Rangers need to clean house, and it starts with Drury and everyone he’s brought into the organization over the past five years.
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