Still, the Rangers are a team in desperate need of a new approach. Chris Drury may have taken Rangers to a pair of Conference Finals, but the future seems scarier than ever. The Rangers have an excellent goaltender and an excellent coach. Adam Fox is a defender of the entire world (although some would have you believe otherwise). They simply don’t have anything else consistent around them, leading to more calls for the Rangers to rebuild.
If anything, the Rangers can be an example of how important it is to have more than just a few terribly good pieces. The Rangers don’t have Connor McDavid or Nathan Mackinnon. Worse yet, it doesn’t appear the Rangers will be getting one anytime soon. We all love Gabe Perreault, but he’s not at that level.
Free agents re-sign at a faster pace than ever. The Rangers don’t appear to be a bad enough team to be at the top of the draft (combined with that if the team is remotely in contention, you can expect Drury to trade away first-round picks). Alexis Lafreniere is clearly not going to be a generational talent (although that shouldn’t take away from the fact that he is a top-six winger).
So the Rangers are forced to do things a different way. Normally that starts with an elite attacker who is not quite on the generation track yet, and then a bunch of strong pieces. Just look at the 2024 playoffs. With the Rangers, Shesterkin, Fox, Artemi Panarin and the likes of Vincent Trocheck, Mika Zibanejad, Chris Kreider and even K’Andre Miller had strong seasons. Now the Rangers have Igor Shesterkin, Adam Fox, and….what?
Which brings us back to the original point. The Rangers are an aging team with little depth and no stars. That sounds like a strong argument that the Rangers need to rebuild, right? Unfortunately, as I said, the Rangers don’t exude the air of an organization that would embrace such a decision. Convincing Mike Sullivan to stick with the rebuild for a few years seems like an impossible task when he just leaves the Pittsburgh Penguins in the same position. There’s no better way to see Igor Shesterkin through a rebuild in his prime.
So instead of realizing that the Rangers need to rebuild, the front office will likely take a middle ground. A lot of average seasons, and even more waiting for silly contracts to inevitably expire. Maybe a good draft pick or two, hopefully some better trades. But with a system filled with bad prospects, bad contracts and free agency looking like an increasingly dismal opportunity to add talent, the options to improve the franchise are slim at best.
It’s a bleak outlook for a team that was just two wins away from reaching the Stanley Cup Finals. Life moves fast, and Chris Drury hasn’t exactly prioritized young talent and focused on the future. The Rangers need to rebuild. But don’t expect this rebuild anytime soon. Maybe don’t expect many playoff wins either.
#Rangers #rebuild #wont