The New York Rangers cannot stop shooting themselves in the foot. The “James Dolan Error” has become a tragedy of epic proportions. The Rangers have gone from President’s Trophy winners in 2024 to not even qualifying for the playoffs a year later. The team, under the management of President and General Manager Chris Drury, has become an embarrassment.
On Friday, the Rangers announced the hiring of Mike Sullivan as their latest head coach. Sullivan replaces Peter Laviolette. Lavy replaced Gerald Gallant, who replaced David Quinn.
Sullivan comes to the Rangers after “mutually” parting ways with the Pittsburgh Penguins. “Sully’s” record in Pittsburgh is misleading. Yes, he has two Stanley Cup rings. However, his job performance has been a major disappointment since the second Cup win in 2017.
On Sullivan’s watch, the Penguins lost in the second round in 2018. That happens. However, the club proceeded to lose in the first round three times (2019, 2021, and 2022). They lost in the qualifying round during the 2020 playoffs in the Bubble. In each of the last three seasons, Pittsburgh failed to even make the playoffs.
Do the Rangers really think this coach will magically turn things around?
The Rangers like to say “hockey is different here”. They’re almost right. Instead of “different” , however, they should say “difficult”. Rather than firing Laviolette, the Rangers should have canned Chris Drury. Only the Rangers would reward a demonstrably terrible GM by giving him a contract extension.
Drury has proven one thing in his time as the GM of the Rangers: he has no business being New York’s GM. For good reason, Ranger fans are calling for the roster to be overhauled. It will not happen, and the blame belongs to Drury.
Want to get rid of Mika Zibanejad? The player must first agree to waive his no-movement clause. He won’t. Zibanejad stated that he wants to return. No-movement means exactly that: no trade, no waivers. Thanks to the way Drury structured Zibanejad’s contract, a buyout is unrealistic.
To get around the salary cap back when Zibanejad’s contract was written, Drury made the base salary just one million dollars. The rest is given as an annual signing bonus. Here is where it gets ugly.
Under the terms of the CBA, NHL contracts can be bought out at two-thirds of the cost of the salary. Most fans know this. What some do not know is any signing bonus cannot be bought out. Let’s do some math, shall we?
Original Cap Hit– $8,500,000
Minus Buyout– $ 666,667
Actual Cap Hit– $7,8333,33
That $7,833,333 is counted against the Rangers salary cap each year for the remaining five years of the contract. The Rangers would save all of $666,667 of his $8,500,000 average annual value (AKA cap hit).
It would be cruel of me to share Adam Fox’s and Artemi Panarin’s salary cap hits. Igor Shesterkin’s contract extension has not even begun. New York cannot buy out his new contract, even if they wanted to. This severely limits the club’s ability to address weaknesses elsewhere.
At best, the Rangers can move Chris Kreider via trade or buyout. That’s as close to moving contracts as Drury can get in cap dollars. That’s just the money part of the problem.
Would anyone like to talk about the Ranger’s prospect pipeline? The Hartford Wolf Pack had 11 players under the age of 24 when the season ended. Among the 11 remaining players, four are goalies. Two goaltenders are restricted free agents come July 1.
There are nine unsigned prospects. One is not going to be signed. That leaves five forwards and three defensemen. One defenseman, Rasmus Larsson, played a freshman season at Northern Michigan in 2024-25. He entered the transfer portal. As of this writing, Larsson has yet to find a new home.
And finally, the Rangers in the 2025 NHL Entry Draft on paper have nine draft picks. On paper, Chris Drury must decide whether to turn this year’s first round pick over to the Pittsburgh Penguins or give them next year’s first round pick.
Ask any draft expert and they will tell you that the 2025 Draft is viewed as a weak one while the 2026 draft is viewed as a strong and deep draft. There’s roughly an 80 percent chance the Rangers will pick 12th this year. That is, if the Rangers keep the pick. Did I mention that the team have already given away their 2026 second- and fourth-round picks? Giving away next year’s first-round pick could do even more damage.
Somehow, Dolan gave Drury a contract extension to run the Rangers. The only running Drury will do is to run the organization into the ground.
Home › Forums › Rangers: Drury Has Made a Major Mess