What are the next steps in Chris Drury’s plan?

After the free agency frenzy of July 1, Chris Drury’s plan started to become clear. At a high level, he wanted a culture change in the locker room, which meant distancing himself from the previous leadership group. The Rangers needed to be harder to play, which led to Mike Sullivan being brought in to implement a real system and then signing the best defenseman on the market in Vlad Gavrikov. But there’s more to it than that, and we simply haven’t seen the next steps in Drury’s plan come to fruition yet.

Being difficult to play against is more than just a coach, a system and some players. It’s a mentality and a team mentality. It certainly doesn’t mean you have to leave your position to hit someone. It doesn’t mean you have to fight everyone. It doesn’t mean you have to throw an elbow.

When a coach says he wants his team to be difficult to play against, he means he is buying into a system that frustrates the opposition and limits their speed and attacking opportunities. When that happens, skilled teams can take advantage of the turnover and their own opportunities, further frustrating and demoralizing the opposition.

To get to that point, teams must learn the system and make it a habit, an automatic response to puck location, play situation and player data on the ice. The Rangers aren’t there yet, it’s only eleven games. It seems everyone is on the same page with that piece of the puzzle. But the bigger question is about personnel, as holes are emerging in rosters and Chris Drury’s plan to address them has not yet been made clear.

The next steps in Chris Drury’s plan will take time to unfold

Rushing the next steps in Chris Drury’s plan, assuming there is one, won’t help anyone. That includes rushing trades, rushing prospects, or rushing to shoot someone into the sun. Very rarely does an attempt to accelerate a plan work, as we have seen with this recent attempt at rebuilding.

There appear to be three key factors in Drury’s plan that we are waiting for:

1. The Artemi Panarin situation
2. How prospects are shaping up in Hartford
3. How other teams are doing and how the trade market is unfolding

With all the calls to turn everyone around and start all over again, remember it takes two to tango. There aren’t many General Managers in the NHL who are willing to make major or even minor changes this early in the season. Even the Jacob Trouba and Kaapo Kakko trades didn’t happen until December of last season. The only moves the Rangers made in October and November were several AHL call-ups due to injury.

It will take time, even for a more permanent AHL call-up. These kids need games in the AHL. The Rangers need more games to see what they have in the current wingers. They also need to bring back Vincent Trocheck and field a full lineup.

So what *can* Chris Drury do?

Come December, when I think the Rangers will start making some more permanent roster moves, we’ll likely see some hints about the next phase of Chris Drury’s plan. And again, we assume there is one. I said at the start of the season that Conor Sheary, Juuso Parssinen and Taylor Raddysh are all emergency players. There is no reason at this point to believe otherwise.

I expect Gabe Perreault to be recalled by December at the latest and placed in one of two roles almost immediately: 1LW next to JT Miller and Mika Zibanejad, or 3LW next to Noah Laba and whoever the 3RW du jour is. It’s safe to assume Parssinen will be the first stopgap to be waived or traded.

There’s a good chance Brett Berard will also be drafted before 2025 ends, though he’ll have to right the ship on his own game in Hartford first. Berard would most likely slide into the 3RW spot alongside Laba and Perreault or Will Cuylle, depending on Perreault’s role.

Panarin’s future clouds everything

Artemi Panarin’s name will remain in trade rumors until he is re-signed or traded. His slow start to the season hasn’t helped, and we might not even have some of these roster complaints if he wasn’t in a shooting slump. But his name is thereand without any indication from either side on an extension in New York, one wonders if/when Drury will pull the trigger on a trade.

Then again, this kind of trade probably won’t happen until December, probably closer to the Olympic roster freeze. The Mikko Rantanen trade is probably still fresh in Drury’s mind, as it was a star-for-star trade (Rantanen and Taylor Hall for Jack Drury, Martin Necas and a second-round pick) between two Cup contenders.

The Rangers aren’t Cup contenders this season (yet), but there are a few teams in similar contract situations with some otherwise great players. Dallas and Jason Robertson, Ottawa and Drake Batherson, Colorado and Necas are the first three that come to mind. (Ha, Necas and Colorado I just agreed to the terms and conditions). Add to that the fact that the Rangers have Braden Schneider as a very tempting secondary piece – have you seen Dallas’ RD depth? – and you have the ingredients for an absolute blockbuster.

But as we’ve seen, players are more likely to re-sign with their current club, so I wouldn’t be surprised if both Robertson and Necas Robertson steps down from board after Olympic freeze. I think these NHL GMs read my post drafts…

We have a long road ahead of us, Rangers fans, and it’s going to be a bumpy ride. Remember in the movie Cars Lightning McQueen makes his first attempt at repaving the road and it’s all bumpy and no one liked it? Yes, that.