The Obvious and Growing Rift Between Drury and Laviolette
Chris Drury has gone out to get new faces to join the team over the course of the year. It appears Laviolette doesn't see them in a similar light.
The 2025 Trade Deadline has come and gone, and the Rangers made a flurry of moves.
(Emergency Lindgren/Vesey podcast here and the Emergency Trade Deadline Day podcast here for your listening pleasure.)
We talked at length about many of these things, even going so far as to give grades for the Lindgren and Vesey trade, and spilled a few hours of content on the above linked podcasts. If you want more reading or listening, click those links. If you want a brief overview, here you go:
Out: Ryan Lindgren, Jimmy Vesey, Reilly Smith.
In: Juuso Parssinen, Calvin de Haan, Brendan Brisson, and Carson Soucy. (Plus a 2nd and 4th round draft pick this year.)
The Rangers, as expected, moved out expiring UFAs who they weren't going to keep, and brought in younger faces and re-stocked their draft cupboard. Harder choices were pushed to the summer where the Rangers could reassess the market and evaluate how to maximize value. Chris Kreider and Mika Zibanejad are the focus there. To a lesser extent—because the more I think about it the more I don't see how the Rangers can move on and replace him without spending more money—K'Andre Miller.
Removing that side of things, the Rangers also called up Brennan Othmann, Brett Berard, and have been forced to give Zac Jones time due to the Adam Fox injury. And finally, there was the waiver claim of Arthur Kaliyev earlier in the year.
There are a slew of new faces, opportunities to learn, and interesting options for the future that aren't part of the major issues that sunk this team a few months back. There are exciting paths available for kids with a drive and motor to prove they should get greater looks heading into next season, or if the Rangers should just move on. For an organization that made it abundantly clear with the J.T. Miller trade, and the stipulations on the first round draft pick they gave away to get him, that next year they absolutely expect to be competitive, this is a good non-risk opportunity to flood younger guys with elevated minutes and roles.
Except the head coach of the team—one who is almost guaranteed to be looking for another job this summer—doesn't much agree.
