The New York Rangers surprised a lot of folks last season, and not in a good way. An Eastern Conference Finalist in the 2023-24 season, the Rangers failed to make the playoffs last year, falling apart in the second half of the season amidst a string of controversial roster moves and underperforming veterans. The poor play and negativity surrounding the team led to a string of roster moves that saw New York move on from several long-serving veterans and pivot to younger players and new veterans, as well as a new voice behind the bench in head coach Mike Sullivan. All of the moves point to the Rangers trying to compete for the playoffs this season and get back to the top of the Eastern Conference standings, but have they done enough to get there? The Rangers are effectively hoping to redeem themselves this upcoming season after letting last year get away from them due to a litany of factors, and it’s always difficult to bet against a group seeking redemption, especially when a two-time Stanley Cup Champion is leading them.
The Rangers swung for the fences in their coaching search and landed one of the best in the business in Sullivan. The former Pittsburgh Penguins bench boss is a proven winner and has always garnered the respect of his players, especially his stars. Sullivan effectively navigated some prominent personalities during his time with the Penguins, but was able to get the best out of almost all of his players. The Penguins were a dumpster fire when Sullivan took over in 2015, and it appeared as though Pittsburgh was well on its way to squandering the primes of Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, Kris Letang and Phil Kessel. However, once Sullivan took over, the Penguins went on an unprecedented run of dominance that saw them win two Stanley Cups in his first 19 months on the job.
Sullivan can hardly be blamed for the ending of his time in Pittsburgh, as the Ron Hextall years took the Penguins from legitimate Stanley Cup contenders to a team that has missed the playoffs for three straight seasons. Those final three seasons saw Sullivan nearly guide some bad Penguins rosters to the playoffs, only to fall just short of the postseason. However, in New York, the Rangers are built to win now, even if they have spent the last nine months moving on from many veterans. Sullivan will be tasked with getting the most out of Mika Zibanejad and several other Rangers who had a down year last season.
The coaching change was hardly the only move New York made this summer, as the Rangers shipped out longtime veteran forward Chris Kreider and a 2025 fourth-round pick for Carey Terrance and a 2025 third-round pick. Kreider was an effective forward for a lot of years in New York, but the writing was on the wall for the past year that he would be shown the door. He could flourish again in Anaheim alongside some of their young stars, but the Rangers did well to get back two future assets in exchange for the aging veteran. The move didn’t do much to improve this season’s roster; however, it opened up valuable cap space that allowed the Rangers to make other moves.
Aside from Kreider, the Rangers also moved on from defenseman K’Andre Miller in a trade with the Carolina Hurricanes. Miller figured to be a top-four fixture in New York, but the Rangers opted to cash in on the two-way defender and did okay to get back defensive prospect Scott Morrow in the trade, along with a conditional first-round pick and a second-round pick. While the trade weakened the Rangers for the next season, they did immediately turn around and sign Vladislav Gavrikov to a seven-year deal, which should improve their shutdown defense and help on the penalty kill. Now, the move to essentially replace Miller with Gavrikov will improve team defense. It does come at an offensive cost as Miller is the far superior offensive contributor; however, his defensive game leaves a lot to be desired.
Overall, it’s hard to call the Rangers’ defense improved, given that they are currently constructed to deploy Carson Soucy and William Borgen as their second pairing behind Gavrikov and Adam Fox. Now, no disrespect to either man, but that pairing isn’t likely to scare too many opponents, and it could allow teams to matchup favorably against that second pairing, exposing what can best be described as an average defensive core.
Upfront in the forward group, the Rangers didn’t do anything other than re-sign Matt Rempe, Adam Edstrom and Juuso Parssinen. The Rangers do have Gabriel Perreault in the fold now, but it’s hard to say whether or not he is ready to make an impact at the NHL level.
The Rangers do still have a solid top line with Artemi Panarin, Vincent Trocheck and Alexis Lafreniere. Still, outside of that, it’s hard to say what they will get from J.T. Miller, Zibanejad and the second line. If Miller and Zibanejad play the way they have in the years leading up to last year, the Rangers should see improvement as a team. However, if Zibanejad and Miller can’t reach previous levels, it will handcuff the Rangers and put a ton of pressure on their top line.
In the end, Igor Shesterkin’s play will likely decide the fate of the Rangers as it did last year. If Shesterkin can get back to his Vezina Trophy-winning level of play, the Rangers will probably be good enough to come out of the Metropolitan Division. But if he plays the way he did last season, the Rangers could fall to the bottom of the Eastern Conference standings in a hurry. New York is not built to win with average goaltending and will likely require a Vezina-caliber season from Shesterkin to get a sniff at the playoffs.
Ultimately, the Rangers are banking on significant internal improvement as well as the rub from Sullivan’s coaching and a bit of youth being injected into the lineup. It’s not what you would call a foolproof plan, but there is a remote possibility that the Rangers are better thanks to the minor tweaks and Sullivan’s coaching. That being said, there is also a possibility of a learning curve for Sullivan in New York, and perhaps the pressure of the Big Apple brings a more challenging environment for Sullivan to pad his resume.
In any event, the Rangers roster is worse than the one that left the ice at the end of last season, and Sullivan is going to have to find a way to light a fire under the holdovers who performed poorly last season. He’s done it in the past and gotten career years out of many players, so it remains to be seen just how much Sullivan can extract from this poorly constructed roster.
Photo by Charles LeClaire-Imagn Images
Not even a little. They’ll miss the playoffs again. They signed Shesty to that huge extension in his prime all for nothing.
They improved their coaching!
Gabby is a nice move but truly they just did not do enough. The blue line is worse and you’re asking two guys in their 30s to have come back years on the second line. If iggy has an average year they miss the playoffs. They have quick as a back up but he can not carry this team for long stretches
This is a top line top pairing team. They need a couple of guys in the middle six and the bottom four to have career years to make the playoffs. There is a chance as there is not as much depth in the east. You have 6 or 7 teams including the Rangers that are almost identical who will all fight for the wild cards