The Rangers’ Mediocrity Comes From Failing to Truly Rebuild

The New York Rangers were a true Stanley Cup contender in the early to mid-2010s. They made it to the Eastern Conference Final twice and made the Stanley Cup Final in 2014, but were never able to win it all.

When the 2017-18 season came around, the team was struggling, and it became clear that a step back was needed in order to turn the team around. So, on Feb. 8, 2018, the Rangers sent out what is now known simply as “The Letter”, letting fans know that the team was going to be trading away some key players in order to build for the future.

So, for the next few seasons, the Rangers began trading away veteran players, and in return, they received draft picks, prospects, and other NHL-ready players as they tried to build up their core for the future. The rebuild was going as planned, but along the way, certain moves were made that took the team in a different direction.

From multiple failed first-round picks to trying to accelerate the process in one offseason, the Rangers never truly finished their rebuilding process. This has led New York to where it is today: a team not good enough to contend, but not good enough to be dead last, either.

So Many First-Round Picks Failed to Pan Out

While the rebuild didn’t technically begin until 2018, the first sign that the Rangers were moving in a different direction came at the 2017 NHL Draft. They traded Derek Stepan to the Arizona Coyotes for a package that included the seventh overall pick.

They used that pick to draft Lias Andersson, who they thought could be a top-six center for them. He never truly got a chance to play meaningful minutes in the NHL, and after requesting a trade, he was sent to the Los Angeles Kings at the 2020 NHL Draft for a second-round pick that ended up being Will Cuylle.

At the 2018 NHL Draft, the Rangers had three first-round picks. They used the ninth overall pick to select Vitali Kravtsov, which was seen as a reach at the time, and it turned out to be a terrible pick.

After not wanting to report to the American Hockey League (AHL), he went back to the Kontinental Hockey League (KHL) before coming back to the Rangers for the 2022-23 season. He was traded prior to the 2023 Trade Deadline to the Vancouver Canucks. He is once again back in the KHL after failing to make the Canucks roster this season.

With one of the other first-round picks in that draft, they chose Nils Lundkvist, a smaller defenseman who had some offensive upside. He played in only 25 games for the Rangers, with those games coming in the 2021-22 season. He was traded to the Dallas Stars prior to the 2022-23 season for a 2023 first-round pick, which the Rangers used in the trade that got them Vladimir Tarasenko. They drafted nine players in the first round between 2017 and 2021, with only three of those players still with the team today.

The 2019 Offseason Changed the Trajectory of the Rebuild

The 2019 offseason can be seen as one of the most impactful in recent history for the Rangers. It started with them getting some draft lottery luck and ending up with the second overall pick in the draft. The consensus pick was Kaapo Kakko, and that is who the Rangers got after the New Jersey Devils selected Jack Hughes first overall.

They next made some key additions on defense, trading with the Carolina Hurricanes to acquire Adam Fox and with the Winnipeg Jets to acquire Jacob Trouba. These were two trades that had an impact on the Rangers’ defense for years to come. But there was still one more major move the team decided to make that offseason.

They signed free agent Artemi Panarin to a seven-year deal worth $11.6 million per season. At the time, it made sense why the Rangers wanted to sign him, as he was and still is one of the top players in the league, and he took a discount to come and play for the team.

Now, looking back on this move, it truly changed the course of the rebuild as they now felt like with the addition of him and Trouba, who they thought would be their number one defenseman, they could try and push for a playoff spot, when in reality, the team was still a few seasons away from truly competing. So while they might not regret signing Panarin, his arrival in New York sped up the rebuilding process, and that might have been the worst thing that could’ve happened for the team.

How We Got Where the Team Is Today

The Rangers were touted as a team to watch a few years ago, as many thought the future was going to be bright. However, because the team swung and missed on so many first-round picks, they had holes on their roster that they needed to fill. So, they had to turn to the trade and free agent markets to find players to help fill in the gaps.

They signed Vincent Trocheck as a free agent in 2022 to become their new second-line center. They traded for J.T. Miller last season after trading him away back in 2018 during the start of their rebuild. So, now the issue with this team is that they don’t have that young core leading them, but instead, they are led by players who are 30 and older, who will only get older and have struggled for most of this season.