{"id":502228,"date":"2026-03-14T01:53:06","date_gmt":"2026-03-14T01:53:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/502228\/"},"modified":"2026-03-14T01:53:06","modified_gmt":"2026-03-14T01:53:06","slug":"rangers-have-important-things-to-build-on-in-final-weeks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/502228\/","title":{"rendered":"Rangers have important things to build on in final weeks"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>SAINT PAUL, Minn. \u2014 With the Rangers hovering over the <a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2026\/03\/12\/sports\/rangers-rip-jets-to-continue-winning-ways-at-worst-possible-time\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">bottom of the NHL standings<\/a>, it\u2019s easy to root for whatever outcome would most likely lead to general manager Chris Drury <a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2025\/07\/08\/sports\/gavin-mckenna-officially-commits-to-penn-state\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">announcing Gavin McKenna\u2019s name<\/a> on the draft stage at KeyBank Center in Buffalo this June.<\/p>\n<p>The worse the Blueshirts\u2019 record is by the end of the season the better the organization\u2019s draft lottery odds will be.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Certainly, a higher draft pick would be welcomed by a Rangers team that is actively looking to get younger.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Drawing the No. 1 pick for the second time in seven drafts feels like a long shot, but the Rangers learned there is no such thing in 2020, when the ping-pong ball with the organization\u2019s crest popped out of the machine and allowed the team to take Alexis Lafreni\u00e8re despite having the 14th-best odds.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SAINT PAUL, Minn. \u2014 With the Rangers hovering over the bottom of the NHL standings, it\u2019s easy to&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":502229,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5111],"tags":[5,2273,3328,35,5190,5193,4,465,36,43,350,336],"class_list":{"0":"post-502228","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york-rangers","8":"tag-hockey","9":"tag-igor-shesterkin","10":"tag-new-york","11":"tag-new-york-rangers","12":"tag-newyork","13":"tag-newyorkrangers","14":"tag-nhl","15":"tag-nhl-draft","16":"tag-rangers","17":"tag-sports","18":"tag-sports-columnists","19":"tag-sports-plus"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116225035924876120","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/502228","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=502228"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/502228\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/502229"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=502228"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=502228"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=502228"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}