The 2024-2025 Rangers season has been a train wreck. It started off fine with a strong start to the year, then a 2-2 west coast trip happened, then the memo, and then the train fell off the tracks. As Chris Drury tries to mend the locker room and the roster, the players are trying to find something to get motivated and be happy again. It’s been an unexpected roller coaster, and as per usual, I have thoughts.
1. If you’re one of those saying “I told you so” about the 2024-2025 Rangers season, then you’re lying. Even if you thought the Rangers were going to take a step back, which wasn’t really a reach considering they reached the Conference Final, you did not, in any of your wildest dreams, expect whatever it is we’ve been seeing on the ice for the last six weeks. So just stop.
2. We knew the 2024-2025 Rangers season was going to be about the little tweaks made over the summer and how much they improved the Rangers on the ice. Barclay Goodrow was a significant net-negative, and replacing him with the duo of Sam Carrick and Adam Edstrom–combined making $1.5 million less than Goodrow–stabilized the fourth line.
Filip Chytil’s return added much needed scoring depth to the third line, making that line a threat once again.
Reilly Smith was the wild card, at least up front.
3. Heading into the 2024-2025 Rangers season, we knew the blue line would be a concern. There was hope a fully healthy Jacob Trouba and Ryan Lindgren would at least get back to respectability. Add in a much improved forward group that would back check and help out the defense, and you have a logical path to expect better results.
This is where the wheels came off. The back check did not exist. The stars were doing nothing. Lindgren got hurt and was rushed back. Trouba was fine with Braden Schneider to start the season, but he went the way the Rangers did after the first few weeks of the season.
4. We are learning that, despite the strong start to the 2024-2025 Rangers season, there were issues under the hood. The people part of the game, managing the actual people and not treating them like assets, was starting to become unglued. Trouba’s drama bled into the locker room, which while unfortunate, should have been expected. He was a lame duck captain and everyone knew it. The 2-2 road trip out west was the start of the snowball.
After that 2-2 road trip, where the chinks in the armor became apparent, Chris Drury made an absolute blunder in leaking a memo that included Chris Kreider’s name as available. The message was clear, play better or I’m going to be forced to dismantle this team, but the delivery and approach were brutal. The players were assets, not humans. The spiral continued. Even if Trouba and Kreider were able to deal with it individually, the rest of the team did not.
We know how this ended. Trouba was traded. Kaapo Kakko wound up as a healthy scratch, voiced his displeasure, and was also traded.
5. With the Trouba and Kakko trades, Drury finally completed what he should have done over the summer, before the start of the 2024-2025 Rangers season. All three were going to go, and only Goodrow was gone by the start of the season. Timing matters, and while the Trouba drama could have been avoided by not tipping his hand, the Kakko situation should have been managed in the summer.
We can Monday Night QB this all we want, but the paltry return for Kakko shows Drury again messed up this summer by not moving him when he had the chance. Perhaps he was waiting for someone like Brett Berard to show he belonged. That’s a fair counterpoint. But it’s clear Kakko wanted out, going as far as requesting a change of scenery, essentially a soft trade request.
So where does the 2024-2025 Rangers season go from here?
6. As the 2024-2025 Rangers season hopefully turns around tonight in Dallas, Chris Drury gave himself some outs with the Trouba and Kakko trades. The picks are fine, and getting more dart throws is never a bad thing. Drury also acquired a pair of pending UFAs in Urho Vaakanainen and Will Borgen.
Both will have extended auditions for an extension in New York, and both do temporarily fill a need for bodies that can skate and (hopefully) move the puck on the blue line. But both are UFAs and can be traded at the deadline if the Rangers continue to spiral.
Initial (see: emotional) reactions can lead us to believe the Rangers are punting the season. Acquiring draft picks and other bodies that can be moved led us down that path. But it doesn’t take much for the Rangers to turn it around. Perhaps Peter Laviolette scoring on Igor Shesterkin in practice is all the team needed.
7. If the 2024-2025 Rangers season doesn’t see a turnaround, both Vaakanainen and Borgen can fetch more picks at the deadline. Ryan Lindgren, Reilly Smith, and Jimmy Vesey would be guaranteed trade fodder as pending UFAs too. The true wild card at the deadline, in this scenario, is Chris Kreider. He would fetch an absolute haul, but moving him would be akin to trading Brian Leetch.
It’s abundantly clear that including Kreider’s name on that memo irked the locker room. Actually trading Kreider, despite the expected haul he could bring in, could be a career defining move for Drury. Kreider is on a path to retire as a career Ranger with multiple team records. Moving him now would deny him and us these moments.
8. If the 2024-2025 Rangers season sees a turnaround, then we may see a different approach. A turnaround means the stars start producing, which means forward balance has finally happened and the Rangers are getting production from all four lines. It means the defense finally figured it out. It means the overall team defense–back checking, assignments, forechecking, all of it–is back on track. That means addressing actual roster holes.
We simply don’t know if this version of the Rangers is enough to get past the Conference Final because we don’t know what this version of the Rangers is. Are they a team that can snap back and go on a run? Or are they going to sulk and continue to be soft?
Drury has made his mistakes, and we all know there have been a bunch of them. But we’ve learned two things this month: Laviolette has not lost the room, and it’s on the players to turn it around. Only they can impact their own performance on the ice.
Sulk or win. It’s up to them.
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