What do the Rangers do amidst a disappointing season?
The slide has been precipitous for the New York Rangers. Two seasons ago, they claimed the Presidents’ Trophy with a 114-point regular season. Last season was certainly a disappointment, but not irrecoverable, as they stumbled to 85 points and a playoff miss. This season, many fans and pundits expected a bounce back from the Blueshirts, but instead, the Rangers have continued their decline with 46 points through 48 games, putting them on pace for a 78-point season and last place in the Eastern Conference.
General manager Chris Drury and New York’s brass are in the difficult position of having a team built to win now, that simply isn’t winning. The Rangers aren’t well set up for a rebuild, but their on-ice product clearly demonstrates they’re not set up to win, either. How Drury decides to manage his roster ahead of the trade deadline will be fascinating to watch.
On Thursday’s episode of Daily Faceoff LIVE, hosts Tyler Yaremchuk and former NHL goaltender Carter Hutton discussed how the Rangers should proceed through this discouraging season.
Tyler Yaremchuk: Where do they go from here? It might be full-scale tear down, which is an insane thing to do when you have Mika Zibanejad signed for four more seasons at $8.5 million with a full no-move. J.T. Miller, four more seasons, he’s your captain, signed at $8 million, full-no move. You can’t just snap your fingers, trade a bunch of these guys, get a bunch of assets, and reset. Guys are just kind of locked in. I don’t know what you do if you’re Chris Drury. I know there were the fire Drury chants last night at MSG, but I feel for him because he took a big swing on Miller to try to get this team back into that Cup contender window. It’s backfired and now it feels like his hands are tied.
Carter Hutton: It feels like you can’t just rip it down to the studs because of the way the contracts are, and the no-movements. Then you have this goalie that’s making a ton of money on a team that doesn’t produce. It’s very interesting. I think back to that clip of J.T. Miller in the d-zone earlier in the year, where he just is checked out on the wall, and he gives up his man in the slot. What’s probably harder to swallow if I’m a New York Rangers fan, you look at the standings across the league right now, you’re never really out of it even after a bad start. You look at a team like Seattle, who’s kind of willing themselves into a playoff spot without the talent or the superstars. It feels like such a controllable fate for the New York Rangers when we talk about effort and attitude.
You can catch the full discussion and the rest of Thursday’s episode here…