Rangers’ Worst-Case Scenarios For 2026-27

The New York Rangers are hoping the 2026-27 season goes better for them than the previous two seasons have. They are trying to get back to being a playoff team, but as we all know, the game of Hockey is also a game of luck. Even if this team looks better on paper going into this season, luck may not be on their side once again. In this piece, we will look at three of the worst-case scenarios for the Rangers as we get closer to the start of a new season.

They Miss The Playoffs For a Third Straight Season

After winning the Presidents’ Trophy and making it to the Eastern Conference Final during the 2023-24 season, the Rangers have since missed the playoffs each of the past two seasons and have been one of the worst teams in the NHL over that span. They completely retooled their roster over these past few years, trading away players like Artemi Panarin, Chris Kreider, Vincent Trocheck, and their former captain Jacob Trouba, among many others. Now, after finishing last season with the worst record in the Eastern Conference, they are looking to get back to the playoffs after making major moves this offseason to try to make the team more competitive. Players like Pavel Dorofeyev, Sean Durzi, and Marcus Pettersson were brought in to help surround the core players who are still here, and they hope this group is good enough to get them to the playoffs.

But what happens if this team isn’t good enough to make it back to the playoffs? Maybe these new players might not fit in like general manager Chris Drury hoped they would. Maybe some of the younger players they hope will take the next step in their development end up taking a step back. It would be a disaster if this team, which on paper looks better than it did last season, ends up missing the playoffs while playing in the weakest division in the NHL. The Metropolitan Division can be seen as the worst division in the NHL, and outside of the Rangers, only one team improved its roster this offseason, while the rest didn’t make any major changes. If this team stays healthy playing in this division and they end up missing the playoffs for a third straight season, Dury might be out of a job by season’s end.

Alexis Lafreniere & Gabe Perreault Fail to Take The Next Step

Two players the Rangers are relying on to take a big step this season are Alexis Lafreniere and Gabe Perreault. With Lafreniere, he took a big step last season, especially after the trading away of Panarin. He got consistent top-line and top power-play minutes, and he made the most of that opportunity. He had 27 points in his final 26 games played, ending the season with 24 goals scored and 57 points recorded, which ties his career high in points in a season. He is going to get the chance to get those minutes again, but we have seen him regress in the past after a career season. If he can’t play at this level or better at a consistent rate, the Rangers’ top-six is going to look a lot weaker.

When it comes to Perreault, this is going to be the first time he starts the season out of training camp with the Rangers. He came up in December of last season and remained a top-six player for them until the season ended. He played in 49 games, scoring 12 goals and recording 27 points playing on a line with Lafreniere and Mika Zibanejad, and this line was one of the best in the NHL after the Olympic break. Perreault is going to get the chance to play top-six minutes again, but can he sustain this kind of success over a full season? They are counting on him to take a big step this season, but if he can’t, his role with the team may look a lot different going forward.

Injuries to Key Players Once Again Impact This Season

One of the main reasons why the Rangers struggled as much as they did last season was injuries to their key players that kept them out of the lineup for periods of time. Trocheck, who isn’t on the team anymore, missed 16 games early last season, and their current captain, J.T. Miller, got injured in training camp and played through various injuries throughout the year while also missing time. The two big injuries came in the same game, when Adam Fox and Igor Shesterkin both got hurt and missed a month each from January to February. It was that stretch of games without those two players that really killed the season for the Rangers and is why they ended up trading away a player like Panarin.