Chris Drury destroyed the Rangers almost singlehandedly
January 1, 2026
Spent a lot of time and over 2300 words on this. Wanted to share here too. Happy new year everyone.
35 comments
Nothing mistated here. This guy is a million times worse than Sather.
Drury has been a disappointment but the team drafting back to back busts at 2nd and 1st overall is what killed any chance the franchise had at developing into a long term contender
Couldn’t agree more.
The Buch trade is rightly singled out as a huge factor.
I have moved to focus my ire on the KAM deal, where Drury traded for a defense prospect who was struggling at the playing defense part of his game.
There is no excuse for Drury seeing how offensively challenged his lineup was and not doing what it took, adding even if he had to, to get Nadeau in that deal. With Jackson Blake taking off like he has and with all the veterans they have, Nadeau is blocked and likely could have been had in the right deal.
It is so sad! This is my first Rangers season without my father and I am trying my hardest to not give up on this year.
Almost??
“The Rangers aren’t bad enough to tank with Adam Fox and Igor Shesterkin. They aren’t good enough to win either. Chris Drury destroyed the Rangers in five short years. And there is no end in sight.” This is our reality for the next 7-10 years.
Wrong. #1 issue is Dolan. Drury is the puppet.
Great writeup, Dave. I’d add that neglecting Hartford and turning it into a wasteland is also a big factor in the Rangers problems in developing skaters. Drury was GM of Hartford for a few years before the coup.
We know
Every last word is spot on. Truth be told I haven’t watched since the some time last season. With the state of my life and the world, I couldn’t do one more depressing thing (NYR). I’ll be back when Drury is gone, until then; Go Ducks!
Drury is chaotic and reactive.
Watching his on the job training as he dismantles something I care about is disappointing.
There are no scoring kids in the pipeline, the vets are old, slow, and complacent, and there are no free agents of note.
If Drury had a plan, it’s not panned out. And rooting for a team whose management considers informing the fans as beyond the pale, well, it’s becoming a tiring exercise.
This team lost me after last seasons’ temper tantrum, and they haven’t been good enough, or improving, or hopeful enough for me to show them another season of grace.
Drury doesn’t have a plan and Dolan doesn’t want to win enough to rebuild. And neither of them care if the fans are disgusted with what they put on the ice.
Unfortunately that leaves the fans without many options.
This is the product the management is willing to put on the ice. And senseless cheerleading aside, it’s not very good, and it not turning into something much better. You can see it in Sullivan press conferences.
Drury has no plan. Dolan doesn’t want to win. And Sullivans out of ideas.
Not great, Bob.
Drury is bad but Kakko and Laff being butt cheeks also killed them.
Great article. It was spot on. It’s going to be a rough several years ahead of us.
The “off season barbecue?” I missed this. Can someone fill me in pls?
Spot on.
It bears mentioning – a gm that did absolutely nothing would’ve been better. Got gifted Fox, luck of Kakko + Laf (even if they’re not what we hoped it’s still better than picking later in the rounds for a coin flip NHLer), Lundqvists heir, free agents wanting to play here… just had to not screw it up. And he threw it in the trash in his first season.
Legit if you’re a pack fan this isn’t a shock . Guy was horrible horrible in Hartford should have been fired there .. he has no business being a Gm has no clue what he is doing
Not to really defend Drury because he is terrible, but those ECF runs were based on a little bit of Fools gold. I mean yes he made needless changes just for the sake of making changes and he has no real plan or vision other than play hard, but I don’t think there are very many of us here who were like ohh yea we are definitely winning the cup
Dolan, Sather.
Let us all enjoy new years in peace
I’ll put it more simply to everyone defending Drury that the team core was “never going to win.” How many Cup winning teams went in as clear favorites that were going to just murder everybody else?
Every winning team has had a share of lucky breaks or tough spots. The Panthers last year got taken to Game 7 by the freaking Leafs, even after knocking their goaltender out of the series. The Oilers were arguably one hot goaltender away from edging them out both years. Brad Marchand is an “aging vet” that contributed greatly to the Panthers run.
Even when we didn’t go that deep in the playoffs, we had a chance. As long as you’re in contention, you have a chance, and talent (players, coaches, scouts, whatever) want to join the ride.
If you don’t even make it to the show, you don’t even have a chance. And it leads to dark times. Just take a look at how shitty the Leafs are this year after they also had to just blow it all up. Last year they took the Cup winners to Game 7. This year they’re as bad as we are because “this core is weak!”
Early 2000s all over again.
Not only is he a terrible GM but also seems like a total insufferable asshole. What did we do to deserve this? Pure pain
That was a good read. It’s important and helpful to see how Drury’s tenure as a whole got this team to where it is now, instead of being fooled by the Reddit comments of “Drury masterclass” on the posts about how he got out of a stupid contract he shouldn’t have offered in the first place.
I was nervous about Drury’s hiring after being a fan of Hartford and seeing what he did to that team, and my feelings were validated immediately. I’ll never get over that Buch trade and how it altered the course of this franchise.
I just wish I had Dolan’s email address so I could send your write up to him. Thanks for your work here!
This guy has sucked life out of this franchise since he’s played for them. Hated him since even then. When he became gm I wanted to give up on this team. I didn’t because I love them but he really makes it hard to care until he’s gone
The actions of Chris Drury have actively made me dislike this team and I hate it sooooo much
Been saying this for at least 3 years now
Drury hasn’t been great but all his bad moves are tied to how bad Lafreniere and Kk are
I don’t understand how anyone liked this fuck. Because he played LLWS in Connecticut? He killed us on the Sabres in the playoffs. He was one of our worst free agent signings in history, which is hard to do, and he’s been out of his depth as the GM. Maybe we’ll play short dressed skaters at the deadline again so we can force through the salary of an injured has been. Maybe we can cut the knees out from under our captain again and jettison him off across the country. Maybe we can do the same thing to one of the most popular guys, and best playoff performer, in the room. Fucking Drury.
He had a LOT of help from Gorton, Sather and Dolan
The fact he’s worse than Gorts is an astounding measure of his ineptitude tho and he absolutely deserves a metric ton of the blame for making us way worse than we were already destined to be with all the horrendous drafting and the bad extensions we had ALREADY seen under Gorts
Well written. I have been bemoaning the Buch trade since the day it happened and it is truly the lynchpin of the rangers roster issues since then. Throwing away the youngest player in the top six to retain everyone else that was already 30+ at the time and then spend every season since wasting assets trying to replace him.
And I’m not saying buch is some insanely good player but he was good ENOUGH! He had and still has a lot of good hockey in the tank and there was no fucking reason to get rid of him.
Fuck drury.
I didn’t know Drury was sitting in a luxury box with an Xbox controller making the players on ice not shoot.
Blame Drury all you want but it does not matter who the GM is or who the coach is. The players on the ice are the ones responsible for our record. Mika, who is paid to score goals, barely registers any SOG in a game. Blame him. The guys on ice just keep passing on the PP because everyone is looking for the perfect setup and then no one shoots. Blame them.
If the players aren’t executing, that isn’t the GM’s fault. Doubly so when it ain’t like the GM can easily ship out guys with NMCs to fix things. You can get rid of Drury but the next GM will have the same exact problem. What then? Blame them for the players not executing? Blame them for these guys playing like they got vacations already planned for when playoffs start? Nah man. Blame the players. They own our current record because they’re the ones responsible for it.
Stopped reading at “Matt Rempe is a useful forward”.
My only goal for this season was to have fun. Drury managed to ruin that seemingly achievable goal.
35 comments
Nothing mistated here. This guy is a million times worse than Sather.
Drury has been a disappointment but the team drafting back to back busts at 2nd and 1st overall is what killed any chance the franchise had at developing into a long term contender
Couldn’t agree more.
The Buch trade is rightly singled out as a huge factor.
I have moved to focus my ire on the KAM deal, where Drury traded for a defense prospect who was struggling at the playing defense part of his game.
There is no excuse for Drury seeing how offensively challenged his lineup was and not doing what it took, adding even if he had to, to get Nadeau in that deal. With Jackson Blake taking off like he has and with all the veterans they have, Nadeau is blocked and likely could have been had in the right deal.
It is so sad! This is my first Rangers season without my father and I am trying my hardest to not give up on this year.
Almost??
“The Rangers aren’t bad enough to tank with Adam Fox and Igor Shesterkin. They aren’t good enough to win either. Chris Drury destroyed the Rangers in five short years. And there is no end in sight.” This is our reality for the next 7-10 years.
Wrong. #1 issue is Dolan. Drury is the puppet.
Great writeup, Dave. I’d add that neglecting Hartford and turning it into a wasteland is also a big factor in the Rangers problems in developing skaters. Drury was GM of Hartford for a few years before the coup.
We know
Every last word is spot on. Truth be told I haven’t watched since the some time last season. With the state of my life and the world, I couldn’t do one more depressing thing (NYR). I’ll be back when Drury is gone, until then; Go Ducks!
Drury is chaotic and reactive.
Watching his on the job training as he dismantles something I care about is disappointing.
There are no scoring kids in the pipeline, the vets are old, slow, and complacent, and there are no free agents of note.
If Drury had a plan, it’s not panned out. And rooting for a team whose management considers informing the fans as beyond the pale, well, it’s becoming a tiring exercise.
This team lost me after last seasons’ temper tantrum, and they haven’t been good enough, or improving, or hopeful enough for me to show them another season of grace.
Drury doesn’t have a plan and Dolan doesn’t want to win enough to rebuild. And neither of them care if the fans are disgusted with what they put on the ice.
Unfortunately that leaves the fans without many options.
This is the product the management is willing to put on the ice. And senseless cheerleading aside, it’s not very good, and it not turning into something much better. You can see it in Sullivan press conferences.
Drury has no plan. Dolan doesn’t want to win. And Sullivans out of ideas.
Not great, Bob.
Drury is bad but Kakko and Laff being butt cheeks also killed them.
Great article. It was spot on. It’s going to be a rough several years ahead of us.
The “off season barbecue?” I missed this. Can someone fill me in pls?
Spot on.
It bears mentioning – a gm that did absolutely nothing would’ve been better. Got gifted Fox, luck of Kakko + Laf (even if they’re not what we hoped it’s still better than picking later in the rounds for a coin flip NHLer), Lundqvists heir, free agents wanting to play here… just had to not screw it up. And he threw it in the trash in his first season.
Legit if you’re a pack fan this isn’t a shock . Guy was horrible horrible in Hartford should have been fired there .. he has no business being a Gm has no clue what he is doing
Not to really defend Drury because he is terrible, but those ECF runs were based on a little bit of Fools gold. I mean yes he made needless changes just for the sake of making changes and he has no real plan or vision other than play hard, but I don’t think there are very many of us here who were like ohh yea we are definitely winning the cup
Dolan, Sather.
Let us all enjoy new years in peace
I’ll put it more simply to everyone defending Drury that the team core was “never going to win.” How many Cup winning teams went in as clear favorites that were going to just murder everybody else?
Every winning team has had a share of lucky breaks or tough spots. The Panthers last year got taken to Game 7 by the freaking Leafs, even after knocking their goaltender out of the series. The Oilers were arguably one hot goaltender away from edging them out both years. Brad Marchand is an “aging vet” that contributed greatly to the Panthers run.
Even when we didn’t go that deep in the playoffs, we had a chance. As long as you’re in contention, you have a chance, and talent (players, coaches, scouts, whatever) want to join the ride.
If you don’t even make it to the show, you don’t even have a chance. And it leads to dark times. Just take a look at how shitty the Leafs are this year after they also had to just blow it all up. Last year they took the Cup winners to Game 7. This year they’re as bad as we are because “this core is weak!”
Early 2000s all over again.
Not only is he a terrible GM but also seems like a total insufferable asshole. What did we do to deserve this? Pure pain
That was a good read. It’s important and helpful to see how Drury’s tenure as a whole got this team to where it is now, instead of being fooled by the Reddit comments of “Drury masterclass” on the posts about how he got out of a stupid contract he shouldn’t have offered in the first place.
I was nervous about Drury’s hiring after being a fan of Hartford and seeing what he did to that team, and my feelings were validated immediately. I’ll never get over that Buch trade and how it altered the course of this franchise.
I just wish I had Dolan’s email address so I could send your write up to him. Thanks for your work here!
This guy has sucked life out of this franchise since he’s played for them. Hated him since even then. When he became gm I wanted to give up on this team. I didn’t because I love them but he really makes it hard to care until he’s gone
The actions of Chris Drury have actively made me dislike this team and I hate it sooooo much
Been saying this for at least 3 years now
Drury hasn’t been great but all his bad moves are tied to how bad Lafreniere and Kk are
I don’t understand how anyone liked this fuck. Because he played LLWS in Connecticut? He killed us on the Sabres in the playoffs. He was one of our worst free agent signings in history, which is hard to do, and he’s been out of his depth as the GM. Maybe we’ll play short dressed skaters at the deadline again so we can force through the salary of an injured has been. Maybe we can cut the knees out from under our captain again and jettison him off across the country. Maybe we can do the same thing to one of the most popular guys, and best playoff performer, in the room. Fucking Drury.
He had a LOT of help from Gorton, Sather and Dolan
The fact he’s worse than Gorts is an astounding measure of his ineptitude tho and he absolutely deserves a metric ton of the blame for making us way worse than we were already destined to be with all the horrendous drafting and the bad extensions we had ALREADY seen under Gorts
Well written. I have been bemoaning the Buch trade since the day it happened and it is truly the lynchpin of the rangers roster issues since then. Throwing away the youngest player in the top six to retain everyone else that was already 30+ at the time and then spend every season since wasting assets trying to replace him.
And I’m not saying buch is some insanely good player but he was good ENOUGH! He had and still has a lot of good hockey in the tank and there was no fucking reason to get rid of him.
Fuck drury.
I didn’t know Drury was sitting in a luxury box with an Xbox controller making the players on ice not shoot.
Blame Drury all you want but it does not matter who the GM is or who the coach is. The players on the ice are the ones responsible for our record. Mika, who is paid to score goals, barely registers any SOG in a game. Blame him. The guys on ice just keep passing on the PP because everyone is looking for the perfect setup and then no one shoots. Blame them.
If the players aren’t executing, that isn’t the GM’s fault. Doubly so when it ain’t like the GM can easily ship out guys with NMCs to fix things. You can get rid of Drury but the next GM will have the same exact problem. What then? Blame them for the players not executing? Blame them for these guys playing like they got vacations already planned for when playoffs start? Nah man. Blame the players. They own our current record because they’re the ones responsible for it.
Stopped reading at “Matt Rempe is a useful forward”.
My only goal for this season was to have fun. Drury managed to ruin that seemingly achievable goal.
https://preview.redd.it/lf7qc4vcaoag1.jpeg?width=1064&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=eb7246e862c712f0d9fd7cc5911546c39cd0b61b