New York Rangers Get A Reality Check

General manager Chris Drury’s tenure at Madison Square Garden has been marred by lopsided trades that favor other teams, locker room theatrics, and total misses in the draft. Since getting the job in May of 2021, only one of Drury’s draft picks has accrued more than 10 points in the NHL – Noah Laba. Drury has managed to dismantle the core and is now on his third head coach.

If fans were to ask team owner James Dolan, who shares a comically ebullient perspective of Drury’s job performance, then his hockey club isn’t that far behind. “Chris Drury is a winner and competitor,” Dolan said. “He can’t stand to lose.” Surely Drury has the résumé to substantiate that claim, yes?

At least the Rangers have one thing going for them: the front office isn’t stupid enough to try to raise the Titanic. The team has the second-worst record on home ice, they’re 26th in scoring, and their only non-injured point-per-game player is Artemi Panarin. Speaking of whom…

One Last Loaf For Bradman

This fact has been accentuated ad nauseam, but it bears repeating: Artemi Panarin has the fifth-most points among all NHL players since the 2019-2020 season, his first campaign with the Rangers. He is unequivocally an all-time great free agent acquisition, and still remains one of the game’s elite playmakers. The numbers back that up.

Trading Panarin will obviously be a sentimental maneuver, but emotions must be disregarded. It’s no secret that the Rangers can obtain a big haul for the Korkino, Russia native, who’s registered 54 points this season.

In the running for the “Yeast Mode” sweepstakes are the Carolina Hurricanes, Dallas Stars, Florida Panthers, and Minnesota Wild. The Hurricanes’ lack of firepower and a true game-breaking player has been their Achilles heel in recent playoff bouts, and Panarin solves that problem. Although Carolina does have nine players with ten or more goals, Panarin would make them the Stanley Cup favorite.

Panarin has close ties with Wild winger Kirill Kaprizov, and Kaprizov’s team will have $21 million in cap space come playoff time. It is worth noting that Panarin has a no-move clause in his contract, so he will dictate terms. The Rangers’ superstar responded to his team’s imminent offloading process, saying that he is “still confused, but the GM decided to go in a different direction. I’m okay with that.” “I’m a Ranger player right now, so I’ll play every game 100 percent,” Panarin extrapolated.

Requirements For Restarting The Rangers

Panarin is not the only Ranger who’ll be part of the team’s Black Friday sale. Almost no one is impervious to being shipped off – not Mika Zibanejad, Vincent Trocheck, or even captain J.T. Miller. The triumvirate will be wearing their countries’ colors the Olympics in less than a month, but they all may arrive back stateside preparing to wear different NHL sweaters, too.

Zibanejad has a legitimate case to have his No. 91 up in the rafters of the World’s Most Famous Arena one day. It’s been almost ten years to the day since he was shipped off to Broadway in exchange for Derick Brassard and a seventh-round pick. Among all players who have donned the red, white and blue for Broadway’s Original Six hockey club, Zibanejad ranks sixth in goals, ninth in assists, seventh in points, and first in power play goals.

“Mikachu” and his contributions to New York hockey should be deservedly applauded. The logistics of trading him are mercurial – he still has four years and $34 million on his deal after this season. But if fans have learned anything in recent seasons, no contract is immovable. That goes for Trocheck and Miller as well, especially the latter, considering that the Rangers have a propensity for trading their captains.

End Of My Rangers Rant

For the second time in less than a decade, the Rangers are rebuilding – or retooling, as that’s their selected euphemism. They came close to winning with Panarin and Co. twice, but ultimately failed to win their first Stanley Cup since 1994.

Some pieces are still in place. Igor Shesterkin and Adam Fox aren’t going anywhere. Perhaps Gabe Perreault can become the first first-round pick to be a productive Bluehsirt in eons. Head coach Mike Sullivan is a two-time Stanley Cup champion with 500 career wins, but he’ll n0w be tasked with presiding over a rebuild.

Fresh on Sullivan’s mind is the prospect of winning a gold medal with Team USA, a triumph not captured since 1980. Sullivan will be the bench boss for the American squad, and David Quinn and John Tortorella, two longtime colleagues of Sullivan, will be at his side in Milano, Italy.

Reality has set in for the Rangers. The next few seasons will be tumultuous endeavors, and fans can only hope that yet another teardown of a tantalizing team that came painstakingly close to winning it all can finally culminate in a Stanley Cup victory.