With just 10 games remaining in the regular season, making the playoffs is becoming unlikely as the New York Rangers continue to struggle in crucial games. As of this writing, the Rangers are one point back of the final wild-card spot in the Eastern Conference, but the Montreal Canadiens, who are in that spot, have two games in hand. If the Rangers continue to lose, it will be a bitter end to a season that started with Stanley Cup aspirations.
Just one season removed from a Presidents’ Trophy and an Eastern Conference Final appearance, no one expected a down season from the Rangers. With so many players on the move, the team never had a chance to pull it all together, and now, a retool could begin this offseason. As they enter a new phase, New York must learn from their mistakes as they look to build a Stanley Cup contender for years to come.
Rangers Must Give Young Players an Opportunity to Succeed
One of the major criticisms of the Rangers during and coming out of their rebuilding years was that the top talent they drafted or traded for never got any true chances to succeed at the NHL level. Kaapo Kakko, the team’s 2019 second-overall pick, spent parts of six seasons in New York and never got an extended look in the team’s top six. Three different head coaches – David Quinn, Gerard Gallant, and Peter Laviolette – didn’t trust him enough to take on a bigger role than playing on the third or fourth line. Now, with the Seattle Kraken, he is thriving, with nine goals and 25 points in 39 games this season. He is becoming the player everyone hoped he would be when he was drafted. He just needed a chance to prove it.
Brennan Othmann and Brett Berard are 22 years old and considered key pieces of the Rangers’ future. But instead of being given a chance to take on a bigger role with the team now that this season is likely ending sooner rather than later, they have been given third and fourth-line minutes and have even been healthy scratched. What is the point of having them on the roster if they aren’t given a chance to play? Management’s mindset needs to change with players like Gabe Perreault getting ready to join the team. He must be given a legitimate chance to prove himself outside of a third or fourth-line role.
Moving On From Players at the Right Time
We can expect some big changes to the roster this offseason. Chris Kreider, for example, will likely be moved. He has seen a sharp decline in his play and has been plagued by injuries this season. Yet, the team should have moved on from him when he was a pending free agent five years ago. Now, while current general manager Chris Drury wasn’t the one to extend Kreider to his current deal, he is the one that needs to move on from him. At the time, the Rangers were still a rebuilding team and could have received a major haul in return for Kreider, but they signed him to a seven-year extension to be a veteran leader.
While he has had the best seasons of his career since he signed that extension, keeping him has had a major impact on Alexis Lafreniere‘s development. The Rangers’ first-overall selection from 2020 is a natural left-winger, and the team already had two left-wingers, Kreider and Artemi Panarin, on the roster when they drafted him. Because of this, the only place for him to play was on the third line or on the right wing, which didn’t happen until last season. So, in Lafreniere’s first two seasons, he was blocked from having a top-six role because Kreider was still on the team. This was a mistake the Rangers cannot repeat going forward.
Rangers Must Stop Giving Big Contracts to the Wrong Players
Management also has to stop giving out long-term, big-money contracts to players who don’t play big roles on the team. In Drury’s first offseason with the team, he signed Patrik Nemeth to a three-year deal and fourth-liner Barclay Goodrow to a six-year deal. At the time, the team wanted players with experience to help them move out of a rebuilding phase, but it backfired.
Those deals cost the team Pavel Buchnevich, an up-and-comer who should have had a bright future with the team, but instead was moved because management wanted to spend the money elsewhere. One year later, the Rangers had to give up three draft picks for the Arizona Coyotes to take Nemeth, while Goodrow lasted three seasons before he was placed on waivers last offseason and was claimed by the San Jose Sharks.
Everyone knew it would be a disaster when Jacob Trouba was signed to an eight-year deal worth $8 million per season after he was traded to the Rangers from the Winnipeg Jets in the 2019 offseason. His entire situation from last offseason can be seen as the start of the Rangers’ downfall this season. They wanted to move him, but he didn’t want to go, and it became public knowledge. It turned into an ugly situation that ended with them basically forcing him out by threatening to put him on waivers like they did with Goodrow. While Drury didn’t sign the Trouba contract, he was left to deal with it and its no-trade clause. If Drury is running this team for the foreseeable future, he needs to make sure the same mistakes doesn’t happen again.
The Rangers signed two big contracts this season, giving Lafreniere a seven-year deal and Igor Shesterkin an eight-year deal. While it’s too early to determine if these deals will hold up, Lafreniere has struggled this season, and no matter how good Shesterkin has been, his $11.5 million average annual value will limit management’s ability to improve other positions. These are the deals to keep an eye on to see if the Rangers have learned their lesson yet.
This season has been a complete disaster for the Rangers. From Stanley Cup aspirations to fighting for points just to make the playoffs, the drop-off has been shocking. As of now, we can expect an offseason of change, and these changes are needed. The Rangers must learn from their past mistakes if they want to be contenders going forward.
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