{"id":428768,"date":"2026-01-26T10:56:29","date_gmt":"2026-01-26T10:56:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/428768\/"},"modified":"2026-01-26T10:56:29","modified_gmt":"2026-01-26T10:56:29","slug":"rangers-gm-chris-drury-should-be-on-the-hot-seat-pro-hockey-rumors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/428768\/","title":{"rendered":"Rangers GM Chris Drury Should Be On The Hot Seat \u2013 Pro Hockey Rumors"},"content":{"rendered":"

The New York Rangers\u2019 communications release last week<\/a> showed the world a couple of things. The first was that the team was headed towards a retool, which was pretty evident to anyone who has watched them this season.<\/p>\n

The second was that the team needs to move on from the current general manager, Chris Drury<\/a>, but it\u2019s doubtful they will. The current predicament the Rangers are in can\u2019t be placed squarely at Drury\u2019s feet, but many of the issues the team is going through were the result of his roster management, and the fans have let him and the team know it<\/a>.<\/p>\n

When Drury first took on the role<\/a> of associate general manager in February 2021, it was clear he would eventually run an NHL team. It didn\u2019t take long.<\/p>\n

He was handed the job<\/a> as president and general manager in May 2021 after the Rangers missed the playoffs and fired president John Davidson<\/a> and GM Jeff Gorton. That was a banner day for Drury, but it came at a strange time for the franchise, which had been building a solid core of young players and was close to pivoting into a contender.<\/p>\n

At the same time, they had missed the playoffs four years in a row and were just two days removed from the notorious Tom Wilson<\/a> incident at Madison Square Garden<\/a>. Drury took control and hit the ground running in the summer of 2021.<\/p>\n

His summer was clearly shaped by what had happened to the Rangers during the Wilson incident on May 3, 2021. Drury single-handedly re-configured the team, and not in a good way, although they would enjoy some short-term success in 2022 and 2024.<\/p>\n

Drury fired<\/a> head coach David Quinn and replaced him with Gerard Gallant<\/a>. There was nothing wrong with that move, but Drury then spent the rest of the summer setting fire to the Rangers roster and ultimately a lot of cap space and assets.<\/p>\n

Drury started his summer by signing forward Barclay Goodrow<\/a> to a six-year deal carrying a $3.64MM AAV<\/a>, meant to bring toughness and grit to the Rangers lineup. It was a massive overpay, panned by many, who agreed that Drury gave too much term and money to a player who wasn\u2019t productive enough.<\/p>\n

A week later<\/a>, Drury moved Pavel Buchnevich<\/a> to the St. Louis Blues for Sammy Blais<\/a> and a 2022 second-round pick. The move, which might go down as one of the worst so far in the 2020s, effectively opened a massive hole in New York\u2019s top six that they didn\u2019t have a player to fill.<\/p>\n

As if the Buchnevich deal wasn\u2019t bad enough, Drury then signed Patrik Nemeth<\/a> to an ill-advised three-year deal<\/a> worth $7.5MM, which the Rangers had to burn two second-round picks to dump on the Arizona Coyotes a year later<\/a>. At the time, some folks might have claimed it was a good move to move on from Nemeth and open up cap space for other moves (which it was). However, eventually burning through cap space and assets catches up to you, as the Rangers have found out over the last year and a half.<\/p>\n

Right after signing Nemeth, Drury made another move to add toughness<\/a>, trading for Ryan Reaves<\/a> of the Vegas Golden Knights (for a third-round pick) and giving him a contract extension. Much like with Nemeth and Goodrow, Drury eventually realized he had made a mistake in acquiring the player and had to pivot. Reaves was shipped to Minnesota<\/a> 16 months after he was acquired for a fifth-round pick.<\/p>\n

The summer of 2021 began with Drury significantly misreading the Rangers\u2019 roster. Still, his poor work during that time is often forgotten because he made some good moves the following season at the 2022 trade deadline, acquiring the likes of Andrew Copp<\/a> and Frank Vatrano<\/a> and leading the team to the Eastern Conference Finals.<\/p>\n

The summer of 2022 and beyond saw better work from Drury, as he traded Alexandar Georgiev<\/a> for draft picks<\/a>, moved on<\/a> from Nemeth and Reaves, sent Nils Lundkvist<\/a> to the Dallas Stars for a first-round pick, and signed Vincent Trocheck<\/a> as a UFA. Trading Georgiev was necessary and was probably the best long-term move for the team, while sending Lundkvist to the Stars<\/a> was a gamble for both sides, but given his poor performance to this point, it was probably a clever play for Drury.<\/p>\n

There have been solid moves by Drury, but unfortunately for the Rangers, the wins have been far outweighed by the losses. The rest of 2022 saw the Rangers claim Jake Leschyshyn<\/a> off waivers and sign defenseman Ben Harpur<\/a>. They also locked up<\/a> forward Filip Chytil<\/a> to a four-year deal that seemed fine at the time but would eventually be moved in the 2025 J.T. Miller<\/a> trade.<\/p>\n

The Trocheck signing<\/a> yielded immediate results, as the Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania native was a seamless fit with the Rangers, providing two-way play and offensive numbers above his career average. Trocheck has offered tremendous value to the Rangers as he crosses the halfway point of his seven-year deal, and he is in the midst of a solid season with New York despite the team\u2019s poor play. Given the rising cap, Trocheck could be a valuable trade chip, although it\u2019s likely the Rangers will want to hang onto him if they are, in fact, completing a retool.<\/p>\n

The 2023 trade deadline was one to forget for Drury, as he went all in, trading for Vladimir Tarasenko<\/a>, Niko Mikkola<\/a>, Patrick Kane<\/a> and Tyler Motte<\/a>. The moves for Mikkola<\/a> and Motte didn\u2019t push many assets out the door, nor did the Tarasenko trade<\/a>. But trading for Kane<\/a> was a move that probably didn\u2019t need to happen after the Tarasenko trade, and it relieved the Rangers of another three draft picks in exchange for a Kane<\/a> who wasn\u2019t playing at full capacity due to a hip injury.<\/p>\n

The wheels came off for the Rangers in the first round of the 2023 playoffs, as they fell to the New Jersey Devils in seven games, in what could best be described as an uninspired performance that showed a lack of leadership.<\/p>\n

Drury spent the summer of 2023 overcorrecting this issue, but it appeared to work as the team reached the Eastern Conference Finals once again in 2024. Drury signed aging veterans Blake Wheeler<\/a>, Nick Bonino<\/a>, Jonathan Quick<\/a>, Riley Nash<\/a> and Erik Gustafsson<\/a> to low-cost short-term contracts, which produced mixed results. Quick and Gustafsson played well for New York, while Bonino, Wheeler and Nash had minimal impact and didn\u2019t finish the year on the playoff roster. Given the low cost of acquiring the players, they were worth the gamble and, once again, provided Drury with some small wins.<\/p>\n

However, in 2024, the wheels really began to come off for the Rangers shortly after they signed goaltender Igor Shesterkin<\/a> to a record-breaking,<\/a> $92MM, eight-year extension.<\/p>\n

The deal came on the heels of the team trading captain Jacob Trouba<\/a> to the Anaheim Ducks to create cap space to sign Shesterkin. Trading Trouba<\/a> made a lot of sense given his high cap hit and minimal production in New York. He\u2019d become a lightning rod for criticism, and it became apparent that the team wanted to get rid of him the prior summer, which they eventually did.<\/p>\n

For whatever reason, that series of events appears to have fractured the Rangers\u2019 dressing room, and they\u2019ve never been the same since that fateful weekend in December 2024.<\/p>\n

The team has fallen off considerably, and Drury has shown little direction, at times appearing to rely solely on gut instinct. This is, of course, the perspective of an outsider, but the results are what they are. This is a flawed hockey team that has always been flawed, even when it reached the conference finals. Shesterkin\u2019s play masked many of the team\u2019s shortcomings, and Drury overvalued his own roster as a result. Perhaps Drury can lead the Rangers back to contention, but given his work over the past five years, it doesn\u2019t seem likely.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s tough to evaluate the last 12 months in a vacuum. Still, Drury has made some franchise-altering moves, including trading for J.T. Miller<\/a>, moving Chris Kreider<\/a> to Anaheim, trading K\u2019Andre Miller<\/a> to Carolina, and signing Vladislav Gavrikov<\/a>. It\u2019s tough to gauge how everything will work out, but Kreider is flirting with a 30-goal season in Anaheim, while Miller could set a career high in points with the Hurricanes. Miller and Gavrikov have struggled this year, leading to a negative early return on some significant moves Drury made.<\/p>\n

Also, the strange Calvin de Haan<\/a> situation from last spring<\/a> raises questions about morale within the Rangers organization right now. You either sell winning or you sell hope, and right now the Rangers don\u2019t have either to sell. Drury is locked in under a contract he signed less than a year ago, but given how things have worked out, the Rangers probably need to look elsewhere for someone who can build a championship roster.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The New York Rangers\u2019 communications release last week showed the world a couple of things. The first was…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":428769,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[377],"tags":[337,5,35,697],"class_list":{"0":"post-428768","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-hockey","8":"tag-chris-drury","9":"tag-hockey","10":"tag-new-york-rangers","11":"tag-pro-hockey-rumors-originals"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/115961042368739215","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/428768","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=428768"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/428768\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/428769"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=428768"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=428768"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=428768"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}