NEW YORK — When Rangers general manager Chris Drury started down this path a little over five months ago, first getting Barclay Goodrow and his $3.642 million cap hit out the door via waivers and then trying and failing (for the moment) to get Jacob Trouba’s $8 million cap hit out the door, it seemed as though the Rangers were entering a new phase.
More ruthless. More business. Less togetherness.
Now that Trouba is gone, after a busy week that included contentious conversations involving Drury and head coach Peter Laviolette following Monday’s 5-1 loss to the Devils, the Rangers are firmly on this new path. And while the newly created cap space and roster flexibility are undoubtedly good things, there are still some things left to wonder about what Drury has chosen to do.
If you get the result you wanted — needed, really — but you also burn some people on the way there, is the journey worth the outcome?
Lots of different things can be true about this course of action. The first is that it was necessary — in a salary-cap world, you cannot have a third-pair defenseman who plays 15-17 minutes a night taking up 9 percent of your cap space. Not if you want to be a real contender. As the same was true for Goodrow, who finished his Rangers tenure with a flourish in last spring’s playoffs but was still a fourth-liner making more than most any fourth-liners in the league, it was doubly so for Trouba.
He was a good captain. A good player for the first five seasons of his time in New York. But the broken ankle he suffered late last season took a bite out of his game in the playoffs and then this season, as even Trouba admitted in his first media session as a Duck, the summer trade attempt made him less effective as a captain and the leader of the Rangers.
Thank you Jacob for your leadership, passion, and impact in the community. Best of luck in Anaheim. pic.twitter.com/wuiFUoroJm
— New York Rangers (@NYRangers) December 6, 2024
There wasn’t enough left to try and work through, not with the team having lost six of seven. Not with owner James Dolan and Drury seeking changes from within.
And not when there seemed to be no other Ranger willing to fill the void left by a distracted and beaten-down Trouba. There were too many times during the 1-6-0 slide when the Rangers looked disinterested, a far worse epithet to throw at a team than just plain bad. Not succeeding is one thing; not seeming to care is something else entirely.
So now Trouba is gone. Artemi Panarin, who produced most of the Rangers’ offense in Friday’s win, said there were more voices heard throughout Friday than usual. “We try doing the job what he did usually,” Panarin said. “Just more guys. Young guys too. Just support each other.”
That is the hope in making such a drastic change, that not just the veterans who have alternate captain’s As on their sweaters will step forward but the next generation, which hasn’t needed to take charge with so many vets on the roster, has its say.
But there is also an implied threat in the Trouba situation: If we can dump him, we can dump you, too. A third of the way into a season that’s supposed to be a Stanley Cup or bust for this Rangers team, is that the right message being sent from the GM’s office? Not many teams win these days through fear-based motivation and certainly not to carry them through 55 more games and possibly four playoff rounds.
The other bit of business Drury accomplished on Friday, getting Igor Shesterkin signed for a pretty reasonable $ 11.5 million AAV over eight years, felt not just like a PR move to win back the affection of some Rangers fans who might not have wanted Trouba gone but also an important pivot. The one Ranger who needed to feel all these moves were leading to something good is the goalie, who has shown through his excellent early play and his mediocre recent stretch that the Rangers will live or die with Shesterkin this season and now many more after this one.
To let that contract situation linger would have been a tempting fate by Drury. Now he has his goalie, Shesterkin has his record contract and the Rangers can focus on remaking themselves without having to start from scratch in net.
Vincent Trocheck spoke after Friday’s win of a cloud hanging over the players’ heads this week. Is it gone with Trouba’s departure? Maybe. The Rangers have more cap space than just about any playoff team and can look to add something significant, either in the short term, closer to the March 7 trade deadline or even in the summer. The biggest offseason worries are now K’Andre Miller, Kaapo Kakko and Will Cuylle — the latter of whom would have been ripe for an offer sheet had the Trouba and Shesterkin situations gone into June.
But if the group Trouba left behind doesn’t get back to its winning ways consistently, the far easier thing to do than add is subtract. Finding a trade partner for a big-time player with a big-time contract in December is nearly impossible; doing so without giving up one or more of the Rangers’ good, young players or prospects is completely impossible.
The Senators scoffed at a Brady Tkachuk rumor on Friday. If that’s the guy the Rangers think will move the needle, are you giving up Alexis Lafrenière for him, as the Sens would surely want as a starting point in talks? That doesn’t seem productive unless Drury feels the core is unworkable no matter what.
The Rangers should give their guys time to absorb the Trouba move and see whether they can find some new leaders in their room. Kreider, also called out by Drury in his reply-all message to the league’s GMs, hasn’t really had to fill that kind of role. Now, at 33, maybe it’s time to find out if he can. Mika Zibanejad, with a full no-move clause but still having his name mentioned in trade talks, may need to know if he can be that guy too.
Adam Fox, most days quiet as a librarian, may have to decide whether he wears an A because he’s Adam Fox or because he can be the young guy who carries a message through the room. Cuylle has emerged not just as a reliable player but a reliable speaker, willing to be critical of his team when needed in front of the media. Maybe leadership is his calling.
You don’t need a room full of captains to be successful in this league. But you also have to find out if there are any hidden leaders once the captain goes. Now’s that time. Oh, and they also have to win games and look better than they have in a few weeks, Friday’s win over the sluggish Penguins notwithstanding.
The middling Kraken and the 32nd-place Hawks come in Sunday and Monday. Then a trip to Buffalo. The East is so watered down by mediocrity this year that the Rangers could very easily get this season back on track without having to do much heavy lifting, given their talent from Shesterkin on out.
What Drury and Laviolette need to see is some will. Some bite. Some fire. It’s been missing and now, with the one Ranger who provided lots of that over his five-plus years gone, someone has to bring it back. The wins should come. The energy must, or all this maneuvering will be for nothing — and Drury will be left with no more business to fix it.
(Photo: Charles LeClaire / Imagn Images)
