It’s official, a real Rangers rebuild is now a must have on Broadway. The New York Rangers are in desperate need to tear it all down. No re-tool on the fly or re-boot of the roster but a real Rangers rebuild, starting from scratch. The biggest issue that the Rangers have though isn’t even on the ice but it’s up in the press box putting the team together. There is little faith that the brain trust up there has any idea how to pull this off.
While most fans, myself included, are hoping for a real Rangers rebuild, I have zero faith in Chris Drury to actually execute things properly and get this team back on track. Everything Drury has done since he helped twist the knife in the back of Jeff Gorton and usurp power at MSG has led the Rangers down a bad road towards a rebuild. It starts off with the Pavel Buchnevich trade and then only continued to spiral.
Nobody in the league has traded more draft picks than Drury since he became Rangers General Manager. While he hasn’t directly traded many 1st round picks, these moves have yielded less than desirable results. It’s been eerily reminiscent of a darker period of Rangers hockey where they chased big names by any means necessary only to win back-page headlines and lose games on the ice. It’s 2026 and it seems like time is a flat circle.
Vlad Tarasenko, Patrick Kane, Barclay Goodrow, Alex Wennberg, Reilly Smith, Will Borgen, Carson Soucy, and J.T. Miller, all of Drury’s biggest acquisitions since becoming Rangers GM, have resulted in two Conference Finals appearances. One of those was dumb luck, the other was a missed opportunity to advance further. There are only so many assets available to move, and now the cupboard is bare.
The J.T. Miller acquisition is the one where it seems like everything has come to a head for the Blueshirts. Two years ago when rumors began that Vancouver could move Miller, Drury’s reported interest surfaced. In the end, Drury was unwilling to meet Vancouver’s asking price at the time. Funny enough, that was the time to add Miller, as the Rangers were one of the best teams in the NHL and adding Miller at that point could have put the Rangers over the top.
Instead Drury played it safe and added Jack Roslovic. The Rangers were bested by the Florida Panthers in the Eastern Conference Final and had to watch the Panthers win the first of their two back to back Stanley Cups.
The very next year Drury decided to make the move and acquire Miller for a team that was going nowhere and getting pretty awful pretty fast. It’s a decision like this that makes me wonder if Drury could actually successfully pilot a real Rangers rebuild. Instead of being aggressive and pushing your chips to the middle of the table, Drury played it safe and got burned. Not once, but twice.
It was very clear that the Rangers weren’t going anywhere last year, but despite that Drury still gave up a first rounder, Victor Mancini, and Filip Chytil for an older more expensive player. Since being brought back to Broadway, Miller’s been handpicked by Drury to lead his franchise and things haven’t necessarily gone to plan this season. It was a move that sent mixed messages about the direction of the team. Buying and selling at the same time is a needle that is impossible to thread.
It’s beyond clear that a real Rangers rebuild is needed. Burn it to the ground, start from scratch. This was abundantly clear after the 10-2 drubbing at the hands of the Boston Bruins on national TV. This came less than a week after James Dolan called Drury a “winner,” which appears to be very loosely defined.
Artemi Panarin should be dealt before the Olympic break, assuming Panarin waives his no-move clause and makes things a bit easier for Drury. Until that happens, Drury has little to no leverage and the rest of the league knows it. Take all these things into account and it’s tough to envision a winning trade, even if the writing is on the wall that he must be traded to salvage any kind of return.
This year has been nearly unbearable as a Rangers fan. If things continue to spiral then they’ll likely only get worse with a GM who’s clearly in over his head and tasked to re-boot this team. The fish always stinks from the head on down and it starts with Jim Dolan and comes to a head with Chris Drury. Get ready Rangers fans, it looks like the dreaded Darks Ages 2.0 could be making its way back to Madison Square Garden.
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