Coming off of an extremely disappointing season, the New York Rangers are in a spot similar to where the Philadelphia Flyers were in 2021. They were expected to compete, but instead had a complete letdown of a season. Was it just a blip, or will their competitive window close further?
Their offseason, in one sentence
Some might call it an “aggressive retool”.
Rangers’ biggest addition
There’s little debate to be made; Vladislav Gavrikov is by far the biggest on-ice addition that the Rangers made this offseason. Gavrikov, 29, was the top defenseman on the market and signed a seven year contract with an average annual value (AAV) of $7,000,000. Expected to be Adam Fox’s long-term defensive partner, Gavrikov should help fix the Rangers’ defensive woes at even strength (ranked bottom-10 in shots, chances, and goals against at five-on-five) as well as boost the penalty kill.
They also added Taylor Raddysh, who had carved out a nice role on the Presidents’ Trophy-winning Washington Capitals team last season. At two years and a measly $1,500,000 cap hit, Raddysh is a low risk, high reward pick up for a relatively top-heavy Rangers team that could use some additional scoring depth. Raddysh finished the season with 7 goals and 27 points in 80 regular season games.
Rangers’ biggest loss
When it comes to the Rangers’ biggest loss, there’s really only two options; Chris Kreider or K’Andre Miller. Coming off a down year, the Rangers traded Kreider to Anaheim in exchange for forward Carey Terrance (a second round pick in 2023, 59th overall) and a 2025 third round pick. In doing so, they also freed up $6,500,000 in cap space, which did help them afford the Gavrikov move.
At the time of the trade, Kreider had been the Rangers’ longest tenured player, appearing in just over a thousand games over the course of his career (883 regular season games, 123 in the playoffs). Kreider had the least productive season of his career last year, with just 30 points (22 goals) in 68 games. He dealt with a number of injuries, and still put up a more than respectable goal total, so there is reason to believe in a potential resurgence with Anaheim. The Rangers will be looking for Will Cullye, who was rewarded for having a nice breakout season with a two-year, $7,800,000 contract ($3,900,000 cap hit), to step up in Kreider’s absence.
Then there’s Miller, who was sent to Carolina in a sign-and-trade that saw the Rangers receive 22-year old defenseman Scott Morrow (a second round pick in 2021, 40th overall) and two 2026 draft picks; a conditional first, and a second. Miller, 25, is an exciting defenseman who has averaged over 20 minutes a night since entering the league, and has the tools to be a quality top-four defenseman. The Rangers, with little space and clearly some questions on whether or not to commit to Miller long-term, found a trading partner in the Hurricanes. Without Miller, the Rangers’ projected second defensive pairing does look worse on paper, though that may be a necessary evil in order to give Fox the best partner they could feasibly get for him in Gavrikov.
Other stuff they did
When a team falls well below expectations, often times it’s the coaching staff takes the biggest hit. So it’s no surprise that the Rangers decided to move on from Peter Laviolette and jump on the opportunity to bring their former assistant coach Mike Sullivan back into the organization, this time as the bench boss. While the Rangers had originally retained two of Laviolette’s assistants, they too went on to pursue other opportunities, with Dan Muse actually filling the vacancy left by now-Rangers head coach Sullivan in Pittsburgh. Ex-Rangers head coach David Quinn will once again be behind the bench for New York, as well as Ty Hennes, both of whom had been assistants under Sullivan in Pittsburgh. Alright, that’s a lot.
Sullivan is one of the more respected coaches in the league, winning back to back championships with the Penguins (gross) and an impressive .602 points percentage over ten years there. Much like the Flyers with Rick Tocchet, the Rangers are hoping a new voice can get them moving in the right direction. They also named JT Miller captain. Sure, why not.
Are they better or worse right now than when they started the offseason?
The Rangers are, on paper, better than they were at the start of the offseason. Sullivan is seemingly a coach who can help drive positive results, though he hasn’t been the head coach of a team without the two-headed monster of Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin since 2006. Gavrikov fills the open spot next to Fox, and should be a significant upgrade over Ryan Lindgren, who the Rangers moved ahead of the trade deadline. Losing Kreider hurts, but now entering his 14th pro season, it’s fair to say he’s not the impact player that he used to be. More minutes for an impressive and still developing Cuylle is a positive runoff effect, and Raddysh is an underrated addition who can help recoup some of the value lost by Kreider’s departure — if not add more. He not only produced at a higher rate, but also had far better shot impacts at five-on-five than Kreider did last season, per HockeyViz. Losing Miller hurts, but Gavrikov’s impact does enough to swing the pendulum here.
The long-term outlook
As it was with Henrik Lundqvist, the Rangers will always have playoff potential as long as Igor Shesterkin is in the crease. While they may have missed the playoffs entirely this past season, the Rangers are clearly in win-now mode. Their most impactful forward, Artemi Panarin, turns 34 in a few weeks and is in the final year of his contract. Mika Zibanejad, Vincent Trocheck and Miller are all 32, Gavrikov is 29 and Fox is 27. Their core is getting up there in age by hockey standards, making a quick turnaround a necessity or else more major changes will be on the way.
As we said, their five-on-five play left a lot to be desired, but perhaps even more important will be fixing their power play. They had the 5th-worst power play by both success percent, and goals per minute. The generated shots and chances well (ranked second, and fifth) but could not finish this past season. If the Rangers are to make the playoffs, that will have to improve.
Don’t count them out, or count them in, really. The Rangers will have to prove that they’re a different team than they were a season ago, and a better one at that. They have the pieces to do it and a it wouldn’t be surprising to see them challenge for the top spot in the Metro this season.
