At some point, an NHL owner needs to make a decision and ensure they have the right people in their hockey operations for the jobs. That’s the place the New York Rangers find themselves in a season that will likely end in catastrophe, just about a year after winning the Presidents’ Trophy. In fact, sports analysis website The Sports Daily estimated that the Rangers’ odds of qualifying for the postseason fell to around eight percent before Wednesday’s game against the Philadelphia Flyers.
Related: Rangers’ Top-Performing Players From a Disappointing 2024-25 Season
Particularly, a decision needs to be made on the guy who’s running the entire hockey ops department – general manager and president Chris Drury.
Evaluating Drury
No question, Drury has had some success, which is highlighted by two Eastern Conference Finals in his first three years at the helm.
Starting with his best moves, some of them have been on the contract front. This includes signing Vincent Trocheck to a seven-year deal at just around a $5.6 million cap hit and locking up franchise defenseman Adam Fox to a seven-year, $9.5 million average annual value (AAV). Trade-wise, dumping Jacob Trouba’s $8 million AAV and getting back draft capital along with Urho Vaakanainen was savvy work. It’s also important to credit the trade for Frank Vatrano, who played a pivotal role in helping the Rangers go on a Cup run in 2022. It remains to be seen how the J.T. Miller trade will age, but it’s hard to complain with only surrendering a first-round pick, Filip Chytil, and Victor Mancini (a player whose ceiling is likely as a third-pairing defenseman).
Many of Drury’s poor moves occurred during his first year as Rangers boss. This includes signing Barclay Goodrow to a ludicrous six-year $21.85 million deal just to play on the fourth line, and inking Patrik Nemeth to a three-year deal (who was later traded with a second-round pick) to clear cap space. Of course, let’s not forget the worst move of them all and one of the worst trades in franchise history, which was getting rid of star Pavel Buchnevich for a second-round pick and Sammy Blais.
Overall, Drury’s track record is quite mixed. The 48-year-old has spent quite a bit of time cleaning up the early mess he created with poor contracts – with the exception of Trouba – who was signed by the previous regime. We also can’t discount that he’s already fired two coaches in just four years – and things appear to be souring with his current head coach, Peter Laviolette, based on how the season has gone.
There Are Only 3 Options
Oftentimes in the NHL, whenever a team does not play up to expectations, the head coach usually gets most of the blame. The bench boss is always in the spotlight, whether that’s answering questions from the media at a daily press conference or preparing his team for a game.
General managers and presidents are around the team less and do fewer press conferences. But it wouldn’t be fair to exonerate Drury for the failures. In fact, we would argue, he shouldn’t get the opportunity to hire or fire another coach. It would be acceptable to fire Laviolette in favor of hiring two-time Stanley Cup champion Mike Sullivan, assuming the Pittsburgh Penguins decided to part ways with him after what will be a third straight season of no playoffs. Recently-fired John Tortorella is a maybe, given his proven ability to turn a losing team into a winner, like what we saw with the Columbus Blue Jackets and in his stint with the Rangers. So that’s one option – allowing Drury to pick another head coach, only if it’s one with an impressive resume and recent success.
Outside of that, how can Drury possibly justify firing another and hiring what would be his third head coach in the last five years? That’s not something Dolan should sign off on. Maybe he doesn’t have the right person running his hockey operations if Drury needs to fire a coach every 1–2 years.
That then leads to the next option, which is the nuclear one – fire both Drury and Laviolette. Of course, whenever an owner needs to step in and hire somebody, it’s never ideal. Dolan, since taking over as owner in 1999, has really only conducted a major search twice for an executive: Glen Sather, who just last year left the organization for good after originally joining them in 2000, and John Davidson, who spent just two seasons as the team’s president. So a big firing by Dolan has been unprecedented in his almost 27 years as the team’s owner. But yet, so is missing the playoffs. So, if a change is needed to move the organization forward, then the 69-year-old needs to act. Dolan, who also owns the New York Knicks, did hire a pretty savvy executive in Leon Rose, who has turned a once hapless and hopeless franchise into nearly a championship contender.
The only other option is to keep both Laviolette and Drury, which will not please any fans after a nightmarish season. But is it that crazy? That’s if Dolan decides to keep Drury around and Sullivan doesn’t come available. It would be one final chance for a partnership that has shown its capability of finding success after a run to the Eastern Conference Final last season. Maybe a mental reset after a wild season that was surrounded by nonstop trade rumors will benefit the group. Maybe Drury will be able to find a legitimate top-pairing defenseman for Adam Fox. But it’s certainly not going to be a popular decision if Dolan decides to bring everyone back.
Right now, there aren’t that many great options. That could change if Sullivan gets fired. Everybody will be screaming to hire the Marshfield, Massachusetts native and relieve Laviolette. But it would be irresponsible to ignore Drury’s mixed track record during his reign. There’s a strong case for the owner to clean house after the season ends. But that decision will be up to Dolan, and it’s something he needs to consider. The one thing he just can’t do is keep Drury around and let him hire the next hot assistant coach or college/American Hockey League coach and hope he turns into the next Jon Cooper. That was an acceptable move for Drury a couple of years ago, not in 2025.
