ELIMINATED!

It was fitting that on a night when the Rangers actually played one of their better games of the season, it was their goaltending that let them down. Well, at least they had more than 10 shots on goal.

How the mighty have fallen. To think that only two years ago the Blueshirts won the Presidents' Trophy and advanced to the Eastern Conference finals for the second time in three seasons. In spite of what the analytics community was saying, they were legitimate Cup contenders, even if their window was one of the shortest in franchise history. 

And now, for the second straight season, there will be no playoff games at Madison Square Garden. The Rangers were officially eliminated from postseason contention last night in Toronto. They are currently second from the bottom in the NHL standings. So much for "No Quit in New York." I hope J.T. Miller kept the receipts for those T-shirts. Maybe he can get a Happy Meal for them.

As you probably noticed, I haven't been writing much about the Rangers this season for two reasons: One, the Knicks have been a far better story; and two, there's only so much bile I can spit up. Watching this team brings new meaning to the term self abuse.

There are many culprits in this tragedy, but none more egregious than J.T. Miller. Captain Clunker is now sadly part of two of the worst trades in Rangers history: the first was when he was dealt to the Lightning in 2018 for a package that included Brett Howden; the second was when he was reacquired last year from the Canucks for Filip Chytil and a first round pick. Jesus, talk about double dipping. 

With a few rare exceptions, Miller has been brutal this season. How brutal? Without him in the lineup, the Rangers are 7-5-2; with him in the lineup, they're 21-30-7. Since his return from I.R., he has no goals and only 4 assists in seven games. During that span, New York is 1-5-1. Prior to that, they had won their last three games.

This wasn't what the Rangers envisioned when they brought him back to Broadway. Clearly, something is wrong. If he's injured, he shouldn't be playing; and if he isn't injured, there's no excuse for his performance. Either way, there's no justification for keeping a player making $8 million AAV through 2030 beyond this season. Chris Drury may not like retaining dead cap space on the books, but in this instance, he really has no other choice. He must buy out Miller's contract over the summer and rid the organization of an albatross that will cripple his efforts at rebuilding the roster.

Here's what a potential buy out for Miller would look like:

2026-27: $2.92m

2027-28: $5.42m

2028-29: $5.42m

2029-30: $2.92m

2030-31: $1.92m

2031-32: $1.92m

2032-33: $1.92m

2033-34: $1.92m

At first glance, this may seem like a lot of money to eat, but with the salary cap scheduled to go from $95.5 million to $104 million next season and $113.5 million the following year, it's not as bad as it looks. By year five the cap hit would be less than what a bottom six forward would cost. The alternative is keeping a subpar player on an aging contract who will only take valuable minutes away from a younger, more promising prospect. Better for Drury to cut his losses than to continue throwing good money after bad. This would be the no brainer of the decade.

Speaking of no brainers, it is imperative that the Rangers find out what they have in their pipeline. Continuing to dress players like Taylor Raddysh and Conor Sheary when you have players in Hartford that could be called up and looked at is absurd. With ten games to go in the season, Drury and Mike Sullivan need to give as much ice time as possible to these players.

To some extent, they've already begun to do that. Tye Kartye (who was claimed off waivers from the Kraken) has been a pleasant surprise, scoring 3 goals and 6 assists in 14 games with New York, and averaging 14 minutes per game playing on the third line. Jaroslav Chmelar is another young player who has 2 goals in 18 games. And last night, Adam Sykora made his NHL debut.

But the biggest, most pleasant surprise has come courtesy of the top six. Gabe Perrault has 4 goals and 9 assists this month; Mika Zibanejad, with 32 goals and 37 assists this season, is playing his best hockey since 2022-23; and Alexis Lafreniere has 11 goals and 10 assists since Artemi Panarin was traded to the Kings in January. Five of those goals have come on the power play. Over the last 13 games, the trio has 20 goals and 26 assists. In an otherwise lost season, they've been one of the few bright spots on this team.

Vincent Trocheck - who was almost traded - has 3 goals and 6 assists since the deadline. If Drury doesn't get a good enough offer for him over the summer, he should keep him. A 2C making $5.6 million is very manageable in this league, especially one who averages 60 points per season and wins 57 percent of his face offs.

Look, there's no way to sugar coat this. The Rangers are a bad team, and they will likely be a bad team for the foreseeable future. The best thing Drury can do is not make the same mistakes his predecessor made by taking short cuts. He needs to build through the draft, develop his young prospects, and when appropriate, make smart trades. That's the way most successful teams have done it. 

It's the way the Rangers did it under Emile Francis and Craig Patrick. 

Fox Injury Could Be Blessing in Disguise for Rangers

Let's be clear: even with Adam Fox playing his best hockey in two years, the Rangers were still three points behind the Philadelphia Flyers for the last wild card spot in the Eastern Conference. Now that the former Norris trophy winner has suffered an injury to his left shoulder that will keep him on LTIR for at least a month - perhaps longer - the prospects for them making the playoffs went from slim to "Don't make me laugh!"

Win some, lose some, may be what you tell your kid after a tough loss, but in the world of collegiate and pro sports, there is no such consolation prize. To quote Bill Parcels, "you are what your record says you are." And right now, the Rangers are two games above .500. The best thing you could say about this team is that they're better in their own zone than last year's team. In 2024-25, they were 19th in the NHL with 255 goals against; in 2025-26, they're 11th with 71 goals against.

But while the defense has improved from last year, it has come at the expense of the offense. When the Rangers won the Presidents' trophy two seasons ago, Artemi Panarin had 34 multi-point games. This season, he has only six such games, registering six goals and 13 assists. The Blueshirts are 6-0 in those games. In the other 21 games, he has a paltry two goals and five assists, and New York has gone 7-12-2.

By no means is the Bread Man the only culprit on this team. Something is clearly wrong with J.T. Miller. He has seven goals and seven assists in 25 games. Not counting the pandemic-shortened season of 2020-21, he is on track to finish with his lowest point total since his first full season with the Tampa Lightning in 2018-19. And it isn't just his lack of offense that is disconcerting. In a game against the Vegas Golden Knights earlier this season, he appeared to give up on a play that led to a Vegas goal. He was called out by Steve Valiquette in the post-game show.

At the risk of repeating myself, this is not a good team; decent yes, but hardly good. Good teams don't go 2-8-1 at home, and they don't get shutout in five of those losses. In the salary cap era, only one team - the 2015-16 San Jose Sharks - has made the playoffs with a losing record at home. And unlike that Sharks team which went to the Stanley Cup finals, there is nothing about this Rangers team that would lead a reasonably objective person to believe they are contenders. Far from it. 

Well fate appears to have intervened just in the nick of time. With Fox out for the foreseeable future, Chris Drury now has the excuse he needs to finish what he started last year, and what his predecessor Jeff Gorton tried to do: a thorough rebuild. Barring a James Dolan meltdown - always a possibility with him - the Rangers should be sellers at the trade deadline. 

Think about it. What is the rationale for keeping this roster together? That maybe, just possibly, they go on a late-season run and sneak into the playoffs, only to be bounced in the first round? The 2017-18 Rangers could've done that, but even Gorton knew that was not a sustainable plan. So he sent out his memo and broke up the core. Face it: the bill comes due for all teams sooner or later, and if we're being totally honest here, this team's bill has been marked "past due" for quite some time.

Those players with no-move clauses like Mika Zibanejad, Panarin and Miller will be impossible to move, I know, but the others should be no problem.  Among the others, Drury needs to waive Conor Sheary right now. Keeping him makes no sense. Taylor Raddysh scored a few goals early in the season, but has done virtually nothing since. Maybe he could get a fourth round pick for him. And before he becomes untradable, Alexis Lafreniere needs to go. If Drury could get Will Borgen and a couple of draft picks for Kaapo Kakko, he should be able to fetch more for the former first overall pick. Carson Soucy is having a good season. But he will be a UFA next summer and will be looking for a long-term extension. He's just the sort of player other teams will be looking to add at the deadline. And under no circumstances should Drury re-sign Panarin. If he won't waive his NMC, thank him for his time on Broadway and let him walk.

Next, bring up the kids, and play them - all of them. Gabe Perrault, Brennan Othmann, Scott Murrow, Brett Berard, Matthew Robertson. It's time to see what's in the cupboard. And by play them, I mean more than six minutes per game. This probably wasn't the deal Mike Sullivan agreed to when he took the job, but deals change all the time. Besides, where's he gonna go, back to Pittsburgh? In case you haven't noticed, the Penguins are doing just fine without him. In fact, between the two teams, the Pens have a better shot of making the postseason than the Rangers.

Is there a risk in doing another rebuild? Of course there is. But keeping the status quo is unacceptable.

Make That Definite: the Rangers Aren't That Good

About three and a half weeks ago, I wrote a piece titled: "Is It Possible That Maybe the Rangers Just Aren't That Good?" The Rangers had just lost to the Calgary Flames 5-1 to drop their record to a woeful 3-5-2. They couldn't score at home and their top six looked more like a bottom six. "It's time to admit a painful truth," I wrote, "this team may not be as talented as I and others like me thought they were."

Well with less than a week to go before Thanksgiving, it's time to remove the word "maybe" from that title. The sad truth is that the Rangers simply aren't that good. It's not that they haven't had some good moments. They had a 2-0 win against the Canucks in Vancouver and a 3-2 OT win against the Kraken in Seattle; the latter quite possibly the most complete game they've played in over a year. And scoring six goals on only 18 shots against the Nashville Predators at the Garden constitutes front-page headlines these days. 

But apart from those games, and maybe a couple more, 2025-26 is looking remarkably similar to 2024-25, when the Rangers missed the playoffs by just six points. In fact, New York is on track to finish this season with 82 points, three less than they had all of last season. 

It's unsettling to discover that this franchise went through a four-year rebuild just so it can have a three-year window, but that appears to be the case. This core looks old and slow. Apart from Adam Fox and Will Cuylle, every player who was counted on to produce for this team is seriously underperforming. Below are the adjusted point totals for each player over an 82-game schedule.

I'll cut Vincent Trocheck some slack because he missed a month on LTIR, but there's no excuse for players like Artemi Panarin, Mika Zibanejad, JT Miller and Alexis Lafreniere. In 2023-24, the Bread man had 31 multiple point games on his way to a 120 point season. This season, he's had only four such games. 

The problem with Panarin is that if he's not scoring, he's pretty much useless. He doesn't kill penalties and he's the last player you want on the ice if you're protecting a lead. Thursday night in Colorado, two of his turnovers led directly to Avalanche goals: one by Nathan MacKinnon, the other by Cale Makar. Both times the Rangers were ahead by a goal. With him slated to become a UFA at the end of the season, it's highly unlikely that Chris Drury will re-sign him.

Miller and Zibanejad were supposed to be this dynamic duo that would give the Rangers a legit number one line. So far, they've looked more like third liners. Indeed, at times, Noah Laba's line has looked more impressive than Miller and Zibanejad's. As for Lafreniere, he's looking more and more like a bust with each passing game. When Dave Maloney starts calling you out, you know you're bad.

The special teams that were supposed to be the hallmark of this team have been anything but. Thursday night was only the second time this season that the Rangers scored more than one power play goal in a game. They scored twice with the man advantage against the Penguins in Pittsburgh on October 11.

Igor Shesterkin, the rock upon which this franchise was built, look's nothing like the former Vezina trophy winner Drury rewarded with an eight-year, $92 million contract extension a year ago. Indeed, his backup, Jonathan Quick, is having a better season than he is, and for a tenth of the price.

And to think Mike Sullivan left Pittsburgh for this. I don't know promises Drury made to him, but given that the Penguins are currently ahead of the Rangers in the standings, I hope it was worth it. Let's face it, Scotty Bowman wouldn't be able to turn this middling team into a contender. James Dolan may not want to admit it, but the guy he entrusted to run this ship has run it straight into the ground.

I have been a Drury defender from day one; I'm done defending the man. He is currently the GM of a franchise that is in danger of missing the playoffs back-to-back seasons for the first time since Jeff Gorton had that title. And with no tangible plan to fix what's wrong, the prospects for the next several seasons are bleak, to say the least.

And the worst part about what's going on is that while the Rangers spin their wheels, across the Hudson, the Devils are the only team in the New York metro area with a shot at going deep in the playoffs; to the east, the Islanders are very quietly having their best season since 2020-21, when they were one win away from advancing to their first Stanley Cup final since 1984. The Blueshirts are dangerously close to reliving the nightmare of the '80s when they were outplayed and outclassed by their suburban rivals.

It's no longer too early in the season. Twenty-two games is enough of a sample size. The alarm bells are going off. The ship is listing badly and the outlook is dire.

All that's left is for the band to play "Nearer My God to Thee."

Record Setting

First, the good news: So far this season, Igor Shesterkin has stopped 103 of 106 shots on goal. His backup, Jonathan Quick, has stopped 20 of 21 shots on goal. Together, the pair have a combined save percentage of .969, by far the best in the league. More good news, over their last three games, the New York Rangers have thoroughly outplayed their opponents, out-chancing them 95-56; and 29-12 in high danger chances.

Now for the bad news: Despite all that, the Rangers are 2-3-0 under Mike Sullivan. As if that weren't bad enough, they are the first team in the 107 year history of the NHL to be shut out in their first three home games. Now that's what I call record setting.

In the five and half decades I've been following this team, I thought I'd seen it all. Injuries to key players, fluke goals, bad giveaways, bad luck, no luck at all. But I never saw this coming. Then again I never saw the Mets collapse either. And to add insult to injury, Chris Kreider, who Chris Drury traded over the summer, has scored four goals in three games for the Anaheim Ducks. The Monday morning quarterbacks are already in mid-season form.

There are two ways of looking at this. 1. The Rangers have been victimized by some pretty damn good goaltending, which for them is a switch since usually it's the other way around; 2. They lack the firepower to finish in the offensive zone.

If I had to guess, I'd say it's a little bit of both. Let's be honest, after being the beneficiaries of Igor's heists over the last few years, it was inevitable that the pendulum might swing back, if only for a while. The hockey gods do have a sense of humor, you know. But with Vincent Trocheck on LTIR and Artemi Panarin clearly not himself after sustaining a pre-season injury, that's hardly the 1985 Edmonton Oilers out there.

It's telling that the Rangers leading goal scorer is Adam Fox with three. No one else has more than one. Last night against the Oilers, the best line on the ice for the Blueshirts was Sam Carrick centering Adam Edstrom and Matt Rempe. They combined for three of New York's ten high-danger scoring chances. 

For this team to have any chance of making the playoffs, let alone advancing, they are going to need their top six to produce. And by produce, I mean more than four goals. Mika Zibanjead leads the league in shots on goal with 22, which is nice to see, but he has found the back of the net only once. That isn't going to cut it. Until Trocheck returns, he has to take up the slack.

And while Panarin gets back to his old self, the spotlight is on Alexis Lafreniere. This is his sixth year in the NHL and the former overall number one draft pick still has yet to deliver on his promise. Aside from the game against the Sabres in Buffalo, he has been virtually invisible so far this season. It's time for him to shit or get off the pot.

Look, I'm not going to panic. J.T. Miller has a point when he told reporters after the game, "Let’s not make this bigger than it is. It’s game five. A lot to like about our game. It’s a unique situation, but let’s not blow this out of proportion here." However, if they're still having trouble scoring after twenty games, I'd start worrying.

For now, as an old manager of mine used to say, "It is what it is." The Rangers have played five games this season; they've lost three of them. Not the start they wanted, but it's still early.

2025-26 Rangers and NHL Preview

Back in May, I wrote that there were some "interesting parallels" between Chris Drury hiring Mike Sullivan and Neil Smith hiring Mike Keenan.

In the 1991-92 season, the Rangers won the Presidents' trophy but did not win the Cup. They struggled mightily the following season, missing the playoffs. Under Keenan, the Blueshirts went on to win their first Cup in 54 years. 

In the 2023-24 season, the Rangers won the Presidents' trophy but failed to win the Cup. They struggled mightily the following season, missing the playoffs. No doubt Drury is banking on lightning striking twice.

Of course for a franchise that has won exactly one Stanley Cup championship since World War II, Drury is going to need more than lightning striking twice. He might need a category five hurricane.

That being said, I thought Sullivan was the right choice at the right time for this team. While he hasn't made the playoffs since the 2021-22 season, he is well respected and appears to have the right demeanor for a veteran roster whose window is still open, if barely.

However, there's a difference between being the right choice and being a miracle worker. Two seasons ago, the Blueshirts overachieved under Peter Laviolette. The following season, they crashed and burned and Laviolette was fired. For Sullivan to succeed, three things will have to happen.

The power play has to improve. Under assistant coach David Quinn, the Penguins power play went from 15.3 percent (24th) in 2023-24 to 25.8 percent (4th) in 2024-25. Last season, the Rangers power play finished 17.6 percent (21st). The hope is that Quinn can replicate what he did in Pittsburgh for a team that missed the playoffs by six points. 

The bottom six has to produce. The prevailing sentiment is that the top six will pull their weight. Mika Zibanejad should benefit from playing a full season with J.T. Miller, and Artemi Panarin will once again lead the team in scoring. It's the bottom six that is the concern. If Noah Laba, who made the roster after a solid preseason, is the real deal, the Rangers may finally have a legit 3C.

Cut down on the goals against. In 2023-24, the Rangers allowed a 5th best 226 goals against; in 2024-25, they allowed an 11th worst 255. Among teams that made the playoffs last season, only the Montreal Canadiens gave up more goals (265). Signing Vladislav Gavrikov to play alongside Adam Fox should give New York its best defensive pairing since Ryan McDonagh and Dan Girardi a decade ago. Carson Soucy, though, remains a question mark.

Prognosis: Despite a so-so preseason, I remain optimistic about this team's ability to bounce back. No, I do not think they will win the Metro, much less the Presidents' Trophy, but I do think they will make the postseason; they have too much talent not to. Based on where they finished last season, if they manage to avoid another November swoon, they could win an additional five to seven games, which should be good enough for third place.

Prediction: 45-30-7, 97 points.

Below are my predictions for the rest of the league. As per usual, I will pick the top three teams in each division, both wild cards for each conference, and the close, but no cigar contingent. 

Eastern Conference:

Metropolitan Division:

Carolina Hurricanes: Year after year, the hockey "experts" underestimate this team; and year after year, they are proven wrong. 

New Jersey Devils: Losing Jack Hughes down the stretch killed them last season. If he stays healthy, they should challenge for the division lead.

New York Rangers: Mike Sullivan and his coaching staff will fix what went wrong last season. 

Atlantic Division:

Toronto Maple Leafs: As strange as it may seem, losing Mitch Marner will help them, especially in the postseason. 

Tampa Bay Lightning: They may have been eliminated by the Panthers in the first round, but this is still very much an elite team with a Hall of Fame coach behind the bench.

Florida Panthers: Losing Matthew Tkachuk and Aleksander Barkov to injuries - the latter for the season - is a helluva gut punch. But thanks to Bill Zito, this is the deepest roster in the NHL.

Wild Cards:

Washington Capitals: They overachieved last season; I doubt that happens again this season.

Ottawa Senators: This is a good, young core that has a bright future, led by Brady Tkachuk, Matthew's younger brother. 

Close, but no cigar: 

Montreal Canadiens: Someone needs to explain to me how this organization gave up two first round picks for Noah Dobson. Me thinks Jeff Gorton strikes again. 

New York Islanders: Their future looks bright with Matthew Schaefer; it's their present that is the problem.

Western Conference: 

Central Division:

Dallas Stars: They have one of the deepest forward groups in the NHL. Had it not been for Pete DeBoer, they likely would've gone to the finals last season.

Colorado Avalanche: Their top four players are arguably the best in the league; it's their depth that could prove problematic come the playoffs.

St. Louis Blues: Everyone is sleeping on this team, which makes no sense given their roster and the fact that they have one of the best goalies in the league.

Pacific Division:

Vegas Golden Knights: Kelly McCrimmon went all out during the offseason to sign Mitch Marner. This could be the most talented roster he has ever assembled.

Edmonton Oilers: Connor McDavid has basically given his GM two years to assemble a team around him capable of winning the Cup. Good luck with that. 

Los Angeles Kings: A good mix of youth and experience will get this team across the threshold. 

Wild Cards:

Minnesota Wild: Bill Guerin was smart to lock up Kirill Kaprizov. Now he has the cap space to build around him.

Utah Mammoth: Something special is brewing in Salt Lake City. 

Close, but no cigar:

Winnipeg Jets: On the bright side, we won't have to watch them choke in the postseason. 

Anaheim Ducks: Chris Kreider will re-discover his scoring touch. It won't be enough for his new team.

Playoffs:

Eastern Conference Finals: Lightning over Hurricanes 4-2

Western Conference Finals: Stars over Golden Knights 4-3

Stanley Cup Finals: Stars over Lightning 4-3

Year End Awards:

Presidents' Trophy: Vegas Golden Knights

Art Ross Trophy: Connor McDavid, Oilers

Hart Trophy: Nikita Kucherov, Lightning

Norris Trophy: Quinn Hughes, Canucks

Vezina Trophy: Igor Shestrkin, Rangers

Jack Adams Award: Glen Gulutzan, Stars

Conn Smythe Trophy: Mikko Rantanen, Stars

Exploring Drury's Options After Sending His 2025 Pick to Pittsburgh

Earlier today, the New York Rangers announced that they were sending their 2025 first round draft pick - 12th overall - to the Pittsburgh Penguins and retaining their 2026 first rounder. The move completes the trade in which the Rangers acquired J.T. Miller from the Vancouver Canucks back in February for a top-13 protected number one. The Rangers had until 48 hours before the Draft to decided which pick they were keeping. The reason it's going to Pittsburgh and not Vancouver is because the Canucks traded it to the Pens in the Marcus Pettersson deal.

So what does this mean?

For starters, I don't think it means that Chris Drury believes next year's pick will be higher, e.g., better. For his sake, it better not be. Indeed, the prevailing sentiment around the NHL is that this team, even with all its flaws, is much better than what it showed last season. That doesn't mean the Rangers will win the Presidents' Trophy, but it does mean they should make the playoffs. Why else would Drury hire Mike Sullivan to coach the team if he didn't feel that way?

That's why this move was so vital. Holding onto next year's first round pick provides Drury with five possible options.

One: An Offer Sheet. For almost a month now the scuttlebutt around the league has had the Rangers signing J.J. Peterka of the Buffalo Sabres to an offer sheet. There was just one hitch. If they kept their '25 first rounder, the Rangers wouldn't have one to send to Buffalo in the event the Sabres couldn't match the offer. An offer sheet with an AAV of $7.02 million per would require a first and third round pick as compensation. Here's the thing, though: based on the CBA, even if Drury front loaded the offer sheet with signing bonuses in each year, the highest salary he can pay Peterka in year one is $8.775m: $8m signing bonus and $775k base. Difficult, but hardly insurmountable for Buffalo. But in the end, why would the Sabres bother matching an offer for a player who has made it clear he doesn't want to be there?

Two: Leverage. Drury doesn't actually have to sign Peterka to an offer sheet; he can just threaten to do so. Indeed, if he plays his cards right, he might be able to negotiate a deal with his counterpart Kevyn Adams in which he keeps his first rounder and gives up, say, Gabe Perrault, Brennan Othmann and a third round pick for Peterka or Alexis Lafreniere and Braden Schneider for Peterka and Bowen Byram. Drury would then have to sign both players to long-term deals.

Three: Trade deadline acquisition. If the Rangers have the kind of season Drury expects them to have, he can use that pick to land a player at the deadline that can hopefully put them over the top. And with the salary cap going up to $104 million in the 2026-27 season and $113.5 million the following season, he could acquire a player with term without worrying about going over the cap, something he couldn't do in past years.

Four: Keep it. There's no law that says you have to trade your pick. If the Rangers unexpectedly shit the bed again this coming season, that first round pick will come in handy along with all the other picks the Rangers will accumulate by being sellers at the deadline. But, I stress, this is unlikely. 

Five: Trade a player on the roster for another player or pick in this year's draft. K'Andre Miller's name has been mentioned as a possible trade chip to acquire a forward or perhaps a draft pick in the upcoming draft. As I mentioned in an earlier piece, the defenseman has regressed over the last couple of seasons and remains an enigma. Perhaps a change of scenery would be best for both parties. 

The drama continues. 

We'll know soon enough what Drury's intentions are.

Drury Retools on the Fly

To paraphrase that classic line from the Mel Brooks movie Blazing Saddles: "Memo? We don't need no stinkin' memo!"

Regardless of how you feel about Chris Drury, he's never been one to pussyfoot around when it comes to making changes to the roster. Coming off a season in which the New York Rangers won the Presidents' trophy for the first time in nine years, Drury took a long, hard look at his team and concluded it wasn't good enough to win the Stanley Cup. So he went to work.

Barclay Goodrow was waived in June; Jacob Trouba was traded to the Anaheim Ducks in December for Urho Vaakanainen and a 2025 fourth-round pick; Kaapo Kakko was traded to the Seattle Kraken - also in December - for Will Borgen and a '25 third and sixth-round pick; Arthur Kaliyev was picked up off waivers from the L.A. Kings in early January; Filip Chytil was traded to the Vancouver Canucks, along with Victor Mancini and a conditional first-round pick, at the end of January for J.T. Miller; Ryan Lindgren and Jimmy Vesey were traded to the Colorado Avalanche in March for Calvin de Haan, Juuso Parssinen and a '25 second and fourth-round pick; Reilly Smith, who was acquired from the Pittsburgh Penguins over the summer, was traded to the Vegas Golden Knights the day before the trade deadline for Brendan Brisson and a '25 third-round pick from the San Jose Sharks; and, then Drury sent that third-rounder to Vancouver yesterday for Carson Soucy.

In just nine months, Drury has turned over almost a third of his roster. Think about it: Jeff Gorton needed two years to "rebuild" the Rangers; his successor appears to have "retooled" it in less than half that time. More importantly, by resisting the urge to give up draft capital going after high-priced rentals at the deadline, he has put himself in position to add the pieces he needs over the summer to get this team back into contention for the 2025-26 season. And unlike that 2017-18 team, this team still has a chance to make the playoffs, even with the last two disappointing OT losses. 

Really, if you think Drury sucks as a GM, all I can say is you either haven't been paying attention or you don't know much about hockey. The fact is this is a tougher, grittier team than the one that got eliminated by the Florida Panthers in the Eastern Conference finals last year. If anything, Drury should get credit for smelling the caffeine and cutting his losses. I guarantee you the same people who are calling for his head now will erect a statue to him if this team goes on to win a Cup in the near future.

The more I think about it, the more this Rangers team reminds me of the 1992-93 team. If you recall, that team also struggled after winning the Presidents' trophy the year before. Neil Smith acquired Kevin Lowe and Esa Tikkanen during the season, and even though the Blueshirts missed the playoffs, they went on to win the Cup in 1994.

Now I'm not predicting history will repeat itself here; after all, that Rangers team had Mark Messier. And as good as J.T. Miller is, no one who isn't high on crack would ever confuse him for The Captain. But there is a quality Miller possesses that this core has sadly lacked the last few seasons that is already beginning to rub off on his teammates. If Drury can add a few more players like him over the summer, who knows what could happen. If I had to grade his moves, I'd give him an A minus.

Which leads me to my first NHL post trade deadline rankings in two years. I'll just do the top five teams in each conference. 

Eastern Conference:

Florida Panthers: They were already the front runners going into the deadline. With the addition of Seth Jones and Brad Marchant, they are the prohibitive favorites to come out of the conference. 

Tampa Bay Lightning: Julien BriseBois reacquired Yanni Gourde and landed Oliver Bjorkstrand to beef up his bottom six. The goaltending speaks for itself.

Washington Capitals: What a turnaround for a team that barely squeaked into the playoffs last season. They're big and explosive, and they're well coached.

Toronto Maple Leafs: They added some beef on the blue line, but as always, it'll come down to what the fab four do.

Carolina Hurricanes: They traded a point per game player for a player who scored 6 points in 13 games. Then when that player said he wouldn't re-up with them, they traded him for a player who's scored 29 points in 59 games. BTW, they still don't have a 2C or an elite goalie, but then you already knew that.

Western Conference:

Vegas Golden Knights: They reacquired Reilly Smith, but that's about it. Truth is, they didn't need to do much to this roster. They're already loaded.

Dallas Stars: They stole Mikko Rantanen from the Carolina Hurricanes for two first rounders and a bottom six forward. I see a Dallas / Vegas conference final. 

Colorado Avalanche: The additions of Brock Nelson and Charlie Coyle give them badly needed depth at center. Were it not for the Stars and Knights, they'd be the favorites in this conference. 

Winnipeg Jets: They might very well win the Presidents' trophy, and Connor Hellebuyck the Vezina. But I'll believe they're legit when I actually see them win in the playoffs.

Edmonton Oilers: Jake Walman will help them on the blue line, and Trent Frederic will give them some badly needed muscle up front. But Stan Bowman would've done better getting a goalie. 

And my pick for the Stanley Cup finals:

Panthers over Golden Knights 4-3

Rangers At the Break

Heading into the break, the New York Rangers record stands at 27-24-4. Their 58 points puts them just three behind the Detroit Red Wings for the final Wild Card spot. After a horrific December in which they went 3-10-0, the Rangers have gone 11-5-3 in 2025. The power play was 26.8 percent (7th best), while the penalty kill was 75.6 percent (tied with the Toronto Maple Leafs and Anaheim Dicks for 16th best). The team's save percentage was .897 (5th best).

Now before I get into what the Rangers need to do going forward, I wanted to take a moment or two to give a shout out to the NHL and the NHLPA. Regardless of what happens tonight in Boston, the Four Nations Face-Off Tournament has been an unqualified success. Not since 1996 have fans been treated to this kind of competitiveness within the sport in what basically amounts to an exhibition series. Kudos all around.

The only blemish has been Charlie McAvoy. The Boston Bruin and Team USA defenseman sustained an injury on a cross check in the game against Finland, which was apparently misdiagnosed by Team USA physicians. He subsequently developed an infection and was hospitalized in Boston. His presence will be sorely missed tonight against Team Canada.

Apart from that, though, if I were Gary Bettman and Marty Walsh, I would do everything in my power to make sure something like this becomes an annual event. You don't necessarily need a round robin like we saw in this tournament; but perhaps a best 2 out of 3 featuring a team from North America vs. a team from Europe would suffice.

Imagine what the lineups would look like:

Nathan MacKinnon, Connor McDavid, Sam Reinhart, Branden Pointe, Mitch Marner, Cale Makar, Auston Matthews, Jack Eichel, both Tkachuk brothers, Jake Guentzel, Quinn Hughes, Charlie McAvoy and Connor Hellebuyck going up against Sebastian Aho, Aleksander Barkov, Mikko Rantanen, William Nylander, Victor Hedman, Nikita Kucherov, Artemi Panarin, Filip Forsberg, Jesper Bratt, Mikael Granlund, Kirill Kaprizov, Andrei Svechnikov, Rasmus Dahlin and Andrei Vasilevskiy. I'll gladly take that any day over what the NHL laughingly calls an All-Star game.

Now back to the Rangers.

If this team is going to make the playoffs, they need to get serious. No more blown leads like they had against the Dallas Stars, Colorado Avalanche and Montreal Canadiens, all of which became OT losses. No more sleepwalking against a Pittsburgh Penguins team that was missing Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin. And no more reckless cross-ice passes in the offensive zone with 30 seconds left in the third period of a tie game that directly led to a regulation loss to the Avs. All told, the Blueshirts have given up six points over the last six weeks; six points they can ill afford to give up. If they had just three of those points back, they'd be tied with the Red Wings right now.

Starting Saturday, the Rangers need to go on a win streak. They play the Sabres in Buffalo, the Penguins in Pittsburgh and the Islanders at UBS Arena. Anything less than 3-0 against those teams is inexcusable. Indeed, between now and the end of the regular season, they probably need to go 20-7. If that seems like a tall order, it is. But that's what happens when you dig a hole as deep as the Blueshirts have.

In order to accomplish this herculean feat, the big boys are going to have to come through. Assuming Chris Drury doesn't clean house at the trade deadline - unlikely - it's time for Mika Zibanejad and Chris Kreider to pull their respective heads out their asses and wake the fuck up. Since the arrival of J.T. Miller, Zibanejad has 2 goals and 6 assists over his last 5 games. He needs to keep that pace up if this team has any chance of making the postseason. Likewise for Kreider, whose shorthanded goal against the Bruins proved to be the game winner.

Adam Fox also needs to step it up. It is unacceptable for a player as gifted as he is to have only four goals on the season, and keep in mind two of those goals were empty netters. Though he was never a particularly fast skater, this season he's looked more like Carol Vadnais than the former Norris trophy winner we all know and love. Vincent Trocheck has filled the leadership void created after Jacob Trouba was sent packing admirably, but even he needs to step it up offensively.

But while the players must ultimately bear the lion's share of responsibility for this nightmare of a season, their head coach isn't without blame. The fact is Peter Laviolette has been way too patient with this group. Case in point: Alexis Lafreniere. Over the last few weeks, the young winger has looked lost; his failure to back check has led to several glaring goals against. It is high time Laviolette employed some tough love and sat him for a game or two, if not for his sake than to send a message loud and clear that lack of effort will not be tolerated. You don't have to be John Tortorella to get your team's attention. 

Bottom line: The Rangers have the horses to make the playoffs. Whether or not they do depends on how badly they want it.

Five Worst Trades in Rangers History

Because the topic often comes up, I thought I'd give my two cents worth. As always, feel free to disagree with the order, or perhaps even add your own nominations.

1. Rick Middleton to the Boston Bruins for Ken Hodge: This trade has often been compared to the Mets sending Amos Otis to the Kansas City Royals for Joe Foy. But it's actually much worse. The Mets had won the World Series and had Tommie Agee in centerfield. Ed Charles had just retired and the Mets weren't sure if Wayne Garret could handle playing 3rd base full time, so you could almost forgive them for wanting to shore up what they perceived was a weakness on the infield. 

There is no such absolution for the Rangers. They were clearly in rebuild mode entering the 1976-77 season. John Ferguson was now in his second year as GM. Middleton was a young winger with enormous potential, while Hodge was a seasoned veteran whose best years were well behind him. Aside from the fact that Hodge had played with Phil Esposito during his Bruins days, there was simply no justification for making this trade. None.

2. J.T. Miller and Ryan McDonagh to the Tampa Bay Lightning for Libor Hajek, Brett Howden, Vlad Namestnikov, 2018 1st-Round Pick and 2019 2nd-Round Pick: The decision by Jeff Gorton to rebuild in the winter of 2018 was, in retrospect, the correct one. The window for this core was clearly closing, so it was time to break up the band. Where he fouled up was the return he got. Steve Yzerman clearly fleeced him on this deal. Of the three players who came over from the Lightning, only Howden - now a member of the Vegas Golden Knights - has had anything remotely resembling a successful NHL career. And the draft picks the Rangers received didn't amount to much either.

McDonagh, meanwhile, played an integral role in helping Tampa win two consecutive Stanley Cups, while Miller has become one of the NHL's premier centers, albeit playing for the Vancouver Canucks. By re-acquiring Miller last week, you could say Chris Drury has at least partially atoned for Gorton's mistake, though seven years after the fact.

3. Mike Ridley and Kelly Miller to the Washington Capitals for Bobby Carpenter: On paper, this trade made perfect sense. Phil Esposito had replaced Craig Patrick as Rangers GM and was looking to make his bones. Carpenter checked all the boxes: size, speed, you name it. It should've been a slam dunk. Except Carpenter was a flop on Broadway, registering a measly 10 points in 28 games before Espo dealt him to the LA Kings for Marcel Dionne. 

Ridley and Miller, on the other hand, would go on to have successful careers playing for the Caps, while Carpenter eventually finished his career with the New Jersey Devils, a shell of the player the Rangers thought they were getting when they traded for him. The moral of the story is quite simple: the grass isn't always greener on the other side of the street.

4. Sergei Zubov and Petr Nedved to the Pittsburgh Penguins for Ulf Samuelsson and Luc Robitaille: The post Stanley Cup years were very difficult ones for Neil Smith. At times, he didn't know which direction he wanted to take: retool or stay with the core. After the Rangers got swept by the Philadelphia Flyers in '95, he panicked and traded two of his more talented players for an admittedly physical defenseman and a veteran forward whose best years were behind him.

Zubov would go on to win another Cup with the Dallas Stars in 1999, while Nedved enjoyed his best season playing on a line with Mario Lemieux and Jaromir Jagr. Oh, and by the way, the Pens beat the Rangers 4-1 in the second round of the '96 playoffs. Sometimes the best trades are the ones you don't make.

5. Jean Ratelle and Brad Park to the Boston Bruins for Phil Esposito and Carol Vadnais: After the Islanders upset the Rangers in the 1975 preliminary round, it was clear this core was done. Emile Francis knew in his heart what he needed to do and that was rebuild. Instead, he swapped stars with the hated Bruins.

While Espo and Vadnais played an integral role in the Rangers getting to the finals in '79, there's no denying the fact that Boston got the better of this trade. Ratelle, Park and Middleton (see above) gave fans in Beantown years of excitement, while Rangers fans had to endure three seasons of misery until some of their younger players developed under a new front office regime.

It's Miller Time

Make no mistake about it, the New York Rangers were twenty minutes away from not only losing their fourth straight game, but from finding themselves on the exit ramp as far as the playoffs were concerned. After a crushing loss to the Colorado Avalanche in the final seconds of regulation, the Blueshirts followed that up with two uninspiring performances against the Carolina Hurricanes and Boston Bruins. The reason they were only trailing the Vegas Golden Knights 2-1 going into the third period was because Jonathan Quick was keeping them in the game. Their postseason hopes were on the brink.

That's when the prodigal son came through. With the Rangers on the power play, J.T. Miller took a cross ice pass from Artemi Panarin and fired a shot towards Adin Hill that he was unable to handle. Mika Zibanejad pounced on the loose puck and deposited it in the back of the net to tie the game. A few minutes later, K'Andre Miller blasted a shot from the left point that beat Hill cleanly to give New York a 3-2 lead. And with under two minutes left in regulation, and the Rangers on another power play, Panarin scored the insurance goal to ice the game. J.T. Miller assisted on that goal as well.

In just two games since returning to the Rangers, Miller has two goals and two assists. He was the lone bright spot in Boston, scoring twice and leading the team with six shots on goal. Against Vegas, he was a plus 2 and was on the ice for three of the Rangers four goals. His presence has been felt both on the bench and on the ice. How significant has Miller been? Mika Zibanaejad had his best game of the season with a goal and two assists, playing on Miller's right side with Panarin on the left. The trio combined for two goals and six assists. It's no exaggeration to say that every time that line was on the ice they were creating scoring chances. 

Peter Laviolette has gotten a lot of criticism this season - most of it justified - for the way his team has played. But his decision to unite his three best offensive players is, for now at least, an unqualified success. Most coaches would've just buried Zibanajead on the third line given the way he's played, but Laviolette realized - correctly, I might add - that if this team is going to make a run at the playoffs, it will need contributions from number 93. Credit him for that much.

But it wasn't just the three points Zibanejad registered that was noteworthy. He looked like a man possessed out there. He battled all game long. He kept the puck in the zone on the Rangers first power play goal. Frankly, I haven't seen him play with this much intensity in well over a year. If Miller can motivate this guy, this might just go down as the most consequential Rangers trade since October of 1991. Yes, I went there. But before you get on my case, I'm not suggesting that J.T. Miller is Mark Messier. I may be old but I'm not senile. What I am suggesting is that Miller, like Messier before him, is a passionate player who can't stand losing. I'm positive that's what led to his "leave of absence" earlier in the year, which eventually led to his exit out of Vancouver. Sometimes you're the cancer; other times you're the cure. In this case, Chris Drury is hoping it's the latter.

And speaking of Drury, his detractors might end up eating crow before the season is out. Since last summer he has unloaded both Barclay Goodrow and Jacob Trouba without retaining a cent of their respective salaries; acquired two stay at home defensemen in Urho Vaakanainen and Will Borgen who have solidified a blue line that was as leaky as the RMS Titanic; and landed a number one center in Miller for a player whose next shift might well be his last and a lottery protected first round draft pick. 

As a result of his wheeling and dealing, the Rangers currently have $9.3 million in available cap space, which translates to $16.5 million in deadline cap space, meaning if the Rangers actually do make a run at the postseason, Drury will have a boatload of cap space at his disposal to further tweak this roster. Maybe he isn't Mr. Congeniality, but the guy knows his shit. He's ten times the GM Glen Sather ever was. 

But all that may be irrelevant if the Rangers don't make the postseason. After last night's win, they're currently five points out. Between now and the NHL trade deadline on March 7, the Blueshirts play eleven games. All but three are against teams that are currently in the playoffs. Conservatively speaking, New York will have to win at least eight of those games in order to get within striking distance of a wildcard spot; no small feat given how erratic they've been. 

Indeed, for the Rangers to avoid being only the third team in NHL history to miss the playoffs after winning the Presidents trophy the season before, they will likely have to go 21-8-1 over their last 30 games. They would then finish with a record of 46-31-5 for 97 points. And even that might not be enough to get in. That's how tight the playoff race is in the Eastern Conference this year.

The problem with digging a hole halfway to China is that sometimes you wind up closer to downtown Beijing than you do to midtown Manhattan.

How the Rantanen Deal Impacts Drury's Pursuit of J.T. Miller

In the first blockbuster trade of the 2024-25 NHL season, the Colorado Avalanche sent Mikko Rantanen to the Carolina Hurricanes in exchange for Martin Necas, Jack Drury and two draft picks - a 2025 second rounder and a '26 fourth rounder. The Chicago Blackhawks, as part of the deal, agreed to retain 50 percent of Rantanen's salary and sent Taylor Hall to the Hurricanes in exchange for a '25 third round pick. 

Leaving aside for the moment that Blackhawks GM Kyle Davidson is a shoo-in for the patsy of the year award for getting a lousy third rounder in exchange for eating half of $9.2 million and relinquishing a still serviceable forward, the Avs are the clear winners here. They get an outstanding young winger under contract next season who is having a career year and a solid checking center for a pending UFA they likely weren't going to be able to re-sign. 

While Rantanen is a better player than Necas, he's not that much better. The fact is this trade does nothing to address Carolina's two biggest needs: elite goaltending and depth at center. Two years after losing Vincent Trocheck to the New York Rangers, the Hurricanes still haven't found a replacement for him. Jesperi Kotkaniemi is at best a 3C. Not only aren't the Canes a better team, you could make the argument they're worse off now than they were before the trade. And if it turns out they can't re-sign Rantanen, this will go down as the most expensive rental in league history. 

Now for the main course: How does this trade impact Chris Drury's pursuit of J.T. Miller? In a word, it improves his chances. With Carolina now seemingly out of the picture and the Vancouver Canucks stuck in a corner, Drury's leverage to land the former Ranger has gone up considerably. Word has it that Miller is pulling a Patrick Kane by informing Jim Rutherford that he will only accept a trade to an Eastern Conference team, preferably the Rangers. If that's so, Drury can wait out his counterpart. 

Stat Boy Steven thinks an acceptable trade would be Filip Chytil, Adam Sykora and a first round pick for Miller (25 percent retained). I would go further and make the first rounder conditional on the Rangers making it to the conference finals. Otherwise, it's a second rounder only. 

Why trade Chytil, especially when he's under contract for the next two seasons at $4.43 million? The reason should be obvious enough. For all his talent, Chytil is a disaster waiting to happen. He missed all but ten games last season after sustaining a concussion in what looked like a rather routine collision with Sebastian Aho of the Hurricanes. Let's face it: every time he gets checked, it's a potential career ender. If Drury can move him for a two-way player that wins face-offs and who scored 103 points last season, he'd be a fool not to.

I know what you're saying - I read your posts on Twitter. Another 31 year old center who's under contract through the 2029-30 season. What on Earth could Drury be thinking saddling the organization with that much term? At least Neil Smith had a Stanley Cup to show for his eleven years in the front office. All Drury has to show for his efforts is two trips to the Eastern Conference finals. But ask yourself this question: if Chytil had been healthy during last year's playoff run, how many more games would the Rangers have won? Maybe it wouldn't have made any difference against a team like the Florida Panthers, or maybe it would've made all the difference in the world. The point is we'll never know. 

What we do know is this: betting on Chytil not to get injured again is like playing Russian Roulette with a loaded chamber. Aside from his leave of absence earlier this year, Miller has missed a grand total of five games over the last four seasons. That's about as durable as it gets in today's NHL. On his first day back in a Rangers uniform he'd be the team's number one center.

Bottom line, unless Vancouver is unreasonable, Drury needs to pull the trigger and make the deal. After going through a hellish December, the Rangers have turned their season around this month. The playoffs are now very much in sight. But making the playoffs is not the goal; winning the Cup is. If J.T. Miller can get them closer to that goal, it's worth taking a shot.

When It Comes to Trades It Takes Two to Tango

Even though the NHL trade deadline is still more than a month away, rumors are circulating about who might be on the move and where. On Twitter, Rangers fans are finalizing their post-Christmas shopping lists and, as is typical for them, coming up with some creative suggestions.

Of course, the problem with making a trade is that it invariably hinges on two things: 1. Who you're competing against; and 2. How willing both sides are to arrive at a mutually beneficial arrangement.

Regarding the former, it's obvious the Rangers aren't the only team looking to improve their playoff prospects by adding one or more players. The Bruins have been looking for a second-line center ever since David Krejci retired; the Panthers are in need of someone, anyone, capable of playing defense; and the Avalanche could use a goaltender. You can bet they, and a few other teams, will be burning up the phone lines between now and March 21 in an attempt to address those needs.

Regarding the latter, contrary to what the Twitterverse says, it's rare that one team gets the better of another. For a trade to be consummated, both teams have to be realistic about their demands. Remember the Jack Eichel standoff? The Sabres were adamant that they weren't going to part with the all-star center unless they received the proverbial king's ransom in return. In the end, what they got from the Golden Knights was a second-line winger, a future center, a first-round pick in 2022 and a third-round pick in 2023. Not a bad haul, but hardly what I would call a king's ransom.

The bottom line is, fans don't make trades, GMs do. And that's why, if I'm a Rangers fan, I wouldn't get my hopes up about Chris Drury going trade happy at or before the deadline. Yes, per Capfriendly, the Blueshirts will have a shit-load of cap space with which to add players at the trade deadline; more than any other team that's out there. And, yes, it's better to have more cap space than less, even if it's only temporary. But having cap space is one thing; being able to utilize it is another.

In the end, any moves Drury makes will come down to who he's willing to give up and, more importantly, who he's not willing to give up. If he can find a reasonable trade partner to deal with, he'll pull the trigger; if he can't, the Rangers will go into the playoffs as is. 

With that in mind, I thought I'd conjure up a few of the more realistic trades that Drury could make that would improve his team's chances come May. I'm not saying these are done deals, just doable.

From the Vegas Golden Knights: Reilly Smith for a second-round pick in 2022 and Vitali Kravtsov. The Golden Knights need to clear about $5 mill in cap space and the Rangers need help at right wing. Smith is a UFA after the season, so he'd be a pure rental. He's played for Gerard Gallant before and he's familiar with his system. A win-win for both sides. You hate giving up a kid like Kravtsov with so much potential, but after what happened at the start of the season, some fences can't be mended. 

From the Arizona Coyotes: Phil Kessel for a second-round pick in 2022. Like Smith, he'd be a rental, except he'd be a lot cheaper to acquire. I'll be honest, Kessel wouldn't be my first choice but he's been on two Stanley Cup championship teams in Pittsburgh and his playoff experience will prove invaluable. Plus, he beats the hell out of Dryden Hunt at right wing. As for the talk of Jakob Chychrun, forget it. At $4.6m over the next three years, he's way too expensive for a team that has several, more pressing needs.

From the Seattle Kraken: Mark Giordano for a second and third-round pick in 2022, a third rounder in '23 and Patrik Nemeth. Ron Francis agrees to take Nemeth's $2.5m contract off Drury's hands for the next two seasons in exchange for some badly-needed draft capital, and the Rangers add an experienced defenseman to solidify their third pairing.

From the Vancouver Canucks: J.T. Miller for Filip Chytil, Nils Lundkvist and 2022's first rounder. As I wrote in an earlier piece, the only way Drury goes after Miller is if he feels he can't re-sign Ryan Strome. Miller has one more year remaining on his contract at a very team-friendly $5.25m, so acquiring him won't hamstring the organization in their efforts to extend Kaapo Kakko in the offseason. Of all the potential trades, this one might be the most difficult to pull off because the Canucks will likely want Braden Schneider instead of Lundkvist, and according to Larry Brooks of The New York Post, Drury has labeled him untouchable.

From the Winnipeg Jets: Mark Scheifele for Chytil, Lundkvist, and a first and second rounder in 2022. His name has surfaced recently. He's signed thru the '24 season, but at $6.125m, he might be a little too expensive for an organization that has several players it will have to sign to extensions over the next couple of years. Like Miller, if Drury goes this route, it means Strome is gone after the season.

From the Dallas Stars: Joe Pavelski for a first and second round pick in 2022, Chytil, Kravtsov and Lundkvist. This will be an expensive acquisition, but as rentals go, it doesn't get any better than Pavelski, who at 37, is leading his team in scoring. I'm not even sure this haul will be enough to land him, that's how valuable he is. One potential roadblock: Dallas is still mathematically alive for a playoff spot, so they may not want to trade him, even for a "king's ransom."

From the Philadelphia Flyers: Claude Giroux for a first-round pick in 2022 and Chytil. Chuck Fletcher still believes the Flyers can make a push in the second half, so he might not shop Giroux. But let's say he's willing to part with him, the Bruins might come to the table with a better package. Charlie Coyle and a number one would definitely be better than the Rangers offer, and unless Drury wants to get into a bidding war, the asking price might be too steep. Still, Giroux would be a great addition for the Rangers at center, and as a rental wouldn't upset the apple cart.

Of all the potential trades I listed above, the two I think are the most likely to come to fruition are Smith and / or Kessel. The Rangers need help at right wing and both these players represent considerable improvements over what they have. Since they'd be rentals, Gallant can keep Alexis Lafreniere on the third line with Chytil and either Kakko or Barclay Goodrow. And if they land both, Gallant can slot Goodrow on the fourth line with Kevin Rooney and Ryan Reaves. I also think it's possible they get Giordano, though that begs the question, what does Drury do with Nemeth if Francis balks at taking him in a deal?

I still think at the end of the day, Drury would prefer to re-sign Strome, but if he can't, Miller remains a viable option over Scheifele. As for Pavelski, I predict Dallas will hold onto him, the Bruins will end up with Giroux, and the Avs will acquire Marc-Andre Fleury from the Blackhawks, making them the odds-on favorite to win the Cup.

In my next piece, I'll rate what I think are the top eight teams in each conference.

The Pros and Cons of Rangers Trading for J.T. Miller

Before I get to J.T. Miller, a word on the new Covid-19 protocols that the NHL and the NHL Players' association jointly announced. Beginning February 3, the league will no longer test fully vaccinated, asymptomatic players. Only players who develop symptoms will be tested, and if positive, will be isolated. The lone exception will be teams that travel across the border to Canada. In those instances, the protocols will be dictated by the "relevant health authorities." In other words, for teams in the lower 48, the NHL will adopt the NFL protocols; for teams in Canada, the Provinces will run the show.

It's a welcome sign that this league, which was forced to postpone dozens of games over the last six weeks, has finally admitted what the medical experts have been saying for a couple of months now: that while Covid-19 isn't going anywhere, for the vast majority of people who are fully vaccinated, the health risk is relatively small. In the end, pragmatism won out. Good for them, and good for the fans who will now be able to see their teams play at or near full capacity.

Now onto the main topic. Frank Seravalli of Daily Face-off is reporting that the Rangers are one of the teams interested in trading for the services of the Vancouver Canucks' center. 

Let's assume for the moment that Seravalli is right and Chris Drury is serious about re-acquiring the player his predecessor Jeff Gorton sent packing in 2017, along with Ryan McDonagh, in what is now considered one of the franchise's most lopsided trades. 

It would signal two things: 1. After returning home from a 3-2 road trip that saw them take over first place in the Metropolitan division with 54 points, Drury believes this team has a legitimate shot at a deep run in the postseason; and 2. Contract negotiations with Ryan Strome's agent don't appear to be going well. If I had to guess, I'd say it's mostly the latter that is driving this bus.

With Strome scheduled to become a UFA after the season, it's logical to assume he is seeking a rather long and substantial payday, say six years at around $7 million AAV. He's currently making $4.5 million. Given the cap constraints the Rangers will be under for the foreseeable future, such a contract would be too rich for Drury's blood. So unless he can talk Strome's agent down to a more mutually beneficial number, say four years at closer to $5.75M AAV, Drury's hands will be tied.

Hence the Miller speculation.

Of course, it wouldn't surprise me one bit to learn that Drury is floating the idea of a possible class reunion with Miller to force Strome's agent to come to the table. I can't be the only one who thinks it wasn't a coincidence that within 24 hours after Larry Brooks of The New York Post reported last October that the Rangers would only be interested in trading for Jack Eichel if they believed they couldn't re-sign Mika Zibanejad that the two sides miraculously came to an agreement on a contract extension. The more I see of Drury, the more impressed I become with him.

So, what are the pros and cons of J.T. Miller coming back to the organization that drafted him?

The pros:

1. Since his departure from Broadway, Miller has developed into one of the better pivotmen in the NHL, averaging just under a point a game over the last three seasons. With 38 points in 38 games, he is currently the leading scorer on the Canucks this year. As a Ranger, he would be tied with Artemi Panarin for second in team scoring, right behind Adam Fox, who has 39.

2. In addition to his offense, Miller is exceptional on draws. At 53.5 percent, he would be tops on the Rangers. For a team that has struggled winning face-offs over the last few years, this would be like manna from heaven.

3. Miller has one of the best team-friendly contracts in the league at $5.25 million AAV and is signed thru 2023. Re-acquiring him would give Drury the financial flexibility he needs to retain Kaapo Kakko, who is scheduled to become an RFA after the season. It also doesn't hamstring him if he wants to acquire a rental like Reilly Smith from the Vegas Golden Knights. Imagine a top line of Chris Kreider, Zibanaejad and Smith and a second line of Panarin, Miller and Strome, who I assume would shift to right wing. Now that would be a helluva one-two punch.

The cons:

1. Strome is gone. I've crunched the numbers over and over and there's no way the Rangers can afford to keep both Miller and Strome next season. Even if they decide to let Kakko walk - a bad idea - and they find someone to take Patrik Nemeth off their hands, they still don't have the room for both players. With the salary cap scheduled to increase by only one million to $82.5 in 2022-23 - and that's assuming the Omicron variant doesn't impact the league's bottom line further - a lot of teams are going to be faced with some tough choices next season, the Rangers no exception. Face it, this pandemic has really fucked things up royally.

2. The chemistry on the team could suffer. So far this season, the Rangers have been one of the most resilient teams in the NHL. They continue to defy the analytics gods who insist they aren't as good as their record suggests. They currently have the third-best penalty kill percentage in the league and their power play has been in the top ten for most of the season. They also boast one of the best goaltenders in Igor Shesterkin. His acrobatics in net have allowed them to win games they had no business winning. Trading for Miller could upset the apple cart, so to speak. There's no way of telling how Panarin would react knowing that Strome's days with the team are numbered. Drury would be taking a huge gamble potentially pissing off his top winger.

3. Despite Miller's team-friendly contract, Drury would only be kicking the can down the road an additional year. Come the '23 season, he'd be faced with the same dilemma he's facing now: a pending UFA he can't afford to re-sign. With no one in the system capable of stepping in - and let's face it, Morgan Barron is not the answer - Drury would have the daunting task of trying to find someone who can put up numbers comparable to either Strome or Miller, and who doesn't cost a king's ransom. Good luck with that.

So why Miller and not someone like Tomas Hertl of the San Jose Sharks? As a UFA, Hertl would be the ideal rental and Drury could land him without sacrificing any of his valuable assets. Then there's Claude Giroux. With the Philadelphia Flyers sinking faster than the Lusitania, a second-rounder and a couple of prospects might do the trick.

A rental, of course, assumes Drury can re-sign Strome. All things being equal, he'd probably prefer to do that. But if Strome's agent plays hardball, Drury may have no other option than to pull the trigger on Miller. Getting him won't be cheap. Vancouver will demand at the very least a first round pick, a young center who can develop - Filip Chytil makes sense - and a top prospect - anyone but Braden Schneider, Will Cuylle or Brennan Othmann.