Ever since Chris Drury took over as New York Rangers GM, he’s been billowing gas about his team being tough, grind-y, or hard to play against, and usually throwing some neanderthal hockey term in there like, “sandpaper” or “grit.” Much like their rivals down I-95 in Philadelphia, Drury has decided it’s always 1997 on Broadway.
Drury’s ascension to the GM chair coincided with Igor Shesterkin’s elevation into aa consistent Vezina threat, which means the reasons for the Rangers relative success the past five years has become muddied. Drury swaggered into the job, talking tough to appease the six-year-old tastes of his boss James Dolan about hitting and fighting, and the Rangers made themselves actively slower and dumber. But Shesterkin made it ok while Chris Kreider and Mika Zibanejad scored a ton on the power play. It was enough to see the Rangers get to two East finals in three years, though they got utterly clubbed in both of those.
The Rangers didn’t falter last year because they suddenly lacked toughness or weren’t hitting people after whistles enough. Shesterkin had an offseason, which then uncovered all the warts the Rangers have been carrying for years. That is, they were never a good even-strength team, Zibanejad was drowning at center at 5-on-5, and they were slow. When the power play dried up too, and Kreider started to look at his age, the Rangers deservedly were exposed as a non-playoff team propped up by a world class goalie.
The Rangers playoff losses the previous three seasons should have been a clue for Drury. They couldn’t come close to matching the Lightning’s or Devils’ speed in 2022 or 2023, and the Panthers mobility from the blue line left them consistently pinned in their own zone in 2024. But much like the Leafs and the wrong lessons they can’t help but learn from each of their playoff spit-ups, all the Rangers could focus on was the Panthers’ snarl.
Moving on from Kreider this summer was the right call, and the Rangers did have an opportunity to try and get a little lighter on their feet, especially on the blue line. Instead, they punted underappreciated K’Andre Miller to Carolina (a team should always be suspicious if the Canes want your d-man) for the far more stationary Vladislav Gavrikov. The forwards have basically remained the same, with the grind-heavy J.T. Miller now installed as the team’s model.
It’s not that Miller is a bad player, far from it. Certainly his already close relationship with Vincent Trocheck and Adam Fox from Team USA makes his an easy insertion to the “C.” It’s what surrounds it that’s a clue that the Rangers and Drury don’t think there’s anything wrong with how they’ve built the team.
Miller is always a powder keg, and the minute things go sideways, he’s more likely to make things worse with his snap-to-call-everyone-an-asshole ways. It’s not only that, however. From Vincent Mercogliano at The Athletic:
Drury wants the Rangers to toughen up and views Miller as an embodiment of that. He’s handing him the keys less than eight months after his return and counting on the organization’s 2011 first-round pick to reset a fractured culture.
Here we go again. Whatever problems the Rangers might have had in the room last season can almost assuredly be attributed to Peter Laviolette fatigue. Laviolette is famous for making his players despise him after a season or two of listening to him, which is why he’s had so many jobs. The far cooler Mike Sullivan being brought aboard should have flattened that out on its own.
Drury will get away with it all if Shesterkin returns to his all-world form. He’ll get away with forcing cave beast Matt Rempe on Sullivan, too, to provide chum for the blue seats in the Garden. He’ll get away with leaving the blue line with basically one puck-mover in Fox, and even his defensive play can get questionable. He’ll get away with a team that will struggle to get much done on the rush when Artemi Panarin isn’t in the mood. Luckily for the Rangers, in a free agent season, Panarin will probably be in the mood most nights.
He’ll get away with it until the first time they face a real, fast team in the playoffs, that is. If they get there. Whenever it ends, we know Drury can’t diagnose the problem.
Naming J.T. Miller Captain Means It’s More Of The Same For The New York Rangers