How Does Chris Drury Stack Up Against His Predecessors?

Before I begin, I'd like to state for the record that I am, by no means, an apologist for Chris Drury. I make it a point never to hold anyone's water. It's just that with all the vitriol the man has been getting over the last few weeks, a sober and objective look at his tenure as Rangers GM seemed to be in order. 

One of the advantages of being 64 years old is that I've had the "pleasure" of living through a litany of Rangers general managers over the last six decades, and with a couple of notable exceptions, their track record makes Drury look like Sam Pollock. By the way, if you don't know who Sam Pollock is, that might be your problem. I couldn't help but notice that the vast majority of the Drury haters on Twitter were probably in diapers or grade school the last time this franchise won a Stanley Cup. Perspective for many people these days is a four-letter word.

Anyway, one of the best ways to evaluate a general manager is to compare him with his predecessors. So with that in mind, I thought I'd go all the way back to the mid-1970s and start there. Hopefully this will help some of you through your "grief."

John Ferguson (1976 - 78). Ferguson replaced Emile Francis as GM in January of '76 and tore down what was left of the core Francis had assembled. His most "memorable" moves were trading Rick Middleton for Ken Hodge and (I hope you're sitting down for this one) bypassing Mike Bossy in the '77 NHL Draft for Lucien DeBlois. Yep, you heard right. Ferguson could've had one of the greatest pure goal scorers in NHL history and elected instead to take a player who couldn't carry Bossy's skates. Lucky for Fergie they didn't have Twitter in those days. Grade C

Fred Shero (1978 - 80). The Fog, as he was known, gets credit for signing the Swedes - Ulf Nilsson and Anders Hedberg - and for coaching the Rangers to the Cup finals in '79. But he also lost Nick Fotiu and Pierre Plante in the expansion draft that summer, took Doug Sulliman over Brian Propp in the NHL Draft and overpaid for Barry Beck. A painful reminder of why GM - head coaches rarely make it in the NHL. Grade B-

Craig Patrick (1980 - 86): After coaching the team to a surprising appearance in the '81 semifinals, Patrick hired his former boss Herb Brooks to run the bench. From '82 to '84, the Rangers had the satisfaction of knowing they were probably the second best team in the Patrick Division. Unfortunately for them, the Islanders just happened to play in the same division. The Blueshirts lost four straight years to their suburban rivals. Despite all that, Patrick did an outstanding job assembling an otherwise good team. He also drafted Mike Richter in '85 and Brian Leetch in '86. Grade A-

Phil Esposito (1986 - 89): Trader Phil's tenure in New York was marred by questionable trades and equally questionable hires. The worst of those trades was Mike Ridley and Kelly Miller for Bobby Carpenter. He then flipped Carpenter for Marcel Dionne. He gave up a first round pick to hire Michel Bergeron as coach, only to fire him on April Fool's Day. Espo might well have traded Brian Leetch had he not been fired in '89. Grade C-

Neil Smith (1989 - 2000): Without question, the franchise's best GM since Emile Francis, Smith's acquisitions of Jeff Beukaboom, Adam Graves, Mark Messier, Esa Tikkaknen and Kevin Lowe turned the Rangers into bonafide contenders. But it was his decision to hire Mike Keenan as coach in '93 and his deadline trades for Stephane Matteau, Brian Noonan and Craig MacTavish in '94 that helped end the Blueshirts 54 year Cup drought that spring. To be fair, though, he passed on the chance to land Brendan Shanahan in '96 and was principally responsible for driving Messier out of town in '97. Grade A

Glen Sather (2000 - 15): Perhaps the most polarizing GM to ever hold the position. During the first four years of Sather's reign, the Rangers failed to make the playoffs. His free-agent signings of Wade Redden and Bobby Holik are considered to be the two worst in franchise history. He also traded away Brian Leetch on his birthday after he pleaded with Sather not to trade him. It wasn't all doom and gloom during Sather's tenure. He hired Tom Renney, John Tortorella and Alain Vigneault as coaches, and under Vigneault, the Rangers advanced to the finals for the first time since '94. He also hired Jeff Gorton and Chris Drury as assistants. Grade B

Jeff Gorton (2015 - 21): Ironically, his claim to fame was that infamous 2018 memo informing the fanbase that the team was going into rebuild mode. He then ended the rebuild early by trading for Jacob Trouba and Adam Fox and then signing Artemi Panarin. But when it looked like the Rangers were going to miss the playoffs for the fourth straight season, owner James Dolan grew impatient. After the Tom Wilson incident at the Garden, he finally had seen enough. He fired both Gorton and his boss, team president John Davidson. Ironically, most of the current roster consists of players Gorton acquired either through the draft, trades or signings. Grade B+

Chris Drury (2021 - Present): The book is still out on Drury. He beefed up the team his first summer, and has used the trade deadline effectively to improve his team's prospects in the playoffs. But he's also had a couple of questionable free agent signings. After a disappointing loss in the Eastern Conference finals last year, Drury decided the core needed an overhaul. He successfully managed to unload the contracts of both Barclay Goodrow and Jacob Trouba without any salary retention, he re-acquired J.T. Miller from the Vancouver Canucks and he's revamped the defense corp. Regardless of whether the Rangers make the playoffs or not, he will need to make further changes to the roster over the summer. By far, this will be the most consequential offseason of his tenure. Grade B+

So there you have it: every GM the Rangers have had going back 49 years. The good, the bad, the ehh. Any reasonably objective assessment of Drury would conclude that he is far from the worst this organization has had. Indeed, one could argue that given what he's had to work with, he's done a fairly good job, hence the B+ grade.

But then what do I know? I'm just an old fart who's been watching this team since Richard Nixon was in the White House. And for your edification, that's a fucking long time!