The New York Rangers have plenty to be optimistic about following a surprisingly stellar offseason from Chris Drury. Drury has definitely not gotten out of the woods following years of questionable transactions, but his improved work has caught the attention of the fanbase. While optimism is in the air, I do worry the optimism has gone a bit too far, and there are plenty of reasons why Rangers fans should worry. After all, this is an offseason of correcting self inflicted wounds. There’s a lot Rangers fans should worry about because of who the GM is. But that’s low hanging fruit. There are a few other reasons why Rangers fans should worry.
Is the culture cured?
The Rangers may have made the biggest gaffe of all when they named JT Miller captain going into last season. Miller has been known to rub teammates the wrong way at every stop he’s played for in his NHL career. Now, the Rangers have him front and center of a fragile locker room.
With Vincent Trocheck and Artemi Panarin gone, maybe the fragile locker room days are gone. Still, Miller was noticeably struggling with his captain duties last season, and with expectations back up, he could be the first to sink rather than swim.
Another player to keep an eye on is Vlad Gavrikov. Early reports in the offseason had him supposedly frustrated with the organization. While that never came to fruition, a nudge in the wrong direction could create problems there.
The mushy middle
The Rangers are definitely improved, but this isn’t a team going from average to good. This Rangers squad will be going from terrible to average if all goes well. The key is to understand where the franchise is at in the retool. If Chris Drury is afraid of the retool taking the time it needs, he could force the issue with poor trades and rushed deals.
The Rangers are lucky to not be set for years in the mushy middle where teams are not good enough to win it all but not bad enough to be truly atrocious. However, that can change quickly if Drury doesn’t play his cards right. If the Rangers struggle, let’s not forget Adam Fox and Igor Shesterkin are on the roster, so the record can’t get too bad.
Still lacking a star
New York added plenty of depth this offseason, especially players they hope will contribute scoring. Pavel Dorofeyev was an awesome add, but he is not quite a certified star in the NHL yet.
Until the Rangers add a true top forward in the league, it’s hard to look at the team and think they are serious contenders to go anywhere. Chris Drury has time to fix this problem, but it definitely detracts from my excitement about the coming season.
All of this being said, maybe the reasons to worry aren’t reasons to worry just yet. If the Rangers finish between 8th-10th in the league, it’s a sign of some progress, which is better than the last two years. A retool can take some time, and despite the potential hiccups, New York is still in a better place than expected.
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