For the second straight season the Rangers missed the playoffs. Off-season tinkering and the introduction of Mike Sullivan behind the Rangers bench was not enough to overcome a significant lack of production up front. Mid-season injuries to Igor Shesterkin and Adam Fox only hastened the issues, perhaps also contributing to the ultimate retirement of goaltender Jonathan Quick at the end of the season.

The problems were particularly acute on home ice, where the Rangers were shutout in their first three games and five times in their first seven. In fact of the six goals they did score in that span, five of them came in an OT loss to the lowly San Jose Sharks.

THE LETTER 2.0

Their road record kept them in the hunt early on, going 9-1-1 through their first eleven away from MSG to offset a 1-6-1 record at home as they hit the mid-point of November. A failure to string wins together though meant they were always on the bubble, and by the time Shesterkin and Fox got injured in the January 5th loss to the Utah Mammoth, playoff prospects were already looking dicey.

Twelve days later and Chris Drury made it official, publishing what was dubbed Letter 2.0 a reference to the original communication dubbed simply “The Letter”. The original communication was released almost eight years prior of February 8th, 2018, and signaled a significant rebuild for the Rangers. In the 2026, Drury promised to “retool” rather than a rebuild. His priorities to get younger and faster.

A Message from Chris Drury to Our Fans pic.twitter.com/JVimBJ59B7

— New York Rangers (@NYRangers) January 16, 2026

OFFSEASON CHANGES

Long time Ranger Chris Kreider had already been dealt on June 12th, but the changes continued on July 1st. In a widely anticipated move, 25 year old defenseman K’Andre Miller was dealt to the Carolina Hurricanes for Scott Morrow, a 1st and a 2nd. The 1st was moved in the following June as part of the Pavel Dorofeyev trade and the 2nd was used to draft defenseman Ben MacBeath.

The space freed up by Miller was then used to sign 29 year old free agent blueliner Vladislav Gavrikov to a seven year contract with an AAV of $7M. One year shorter than Miller’s deal and $500K less per year. Miller went on to win the Stanley Cup, so it appears it at least worked out for Carolina.

In other moves Drury added bottom six wing Taylor Raddysh on a two year deal, and depth players Justin Dowling, Derrick Pouliot and Trey Fix-Wolansky. Raddysh would suit up for 68 games on the season and Dowling 2.

CAMP SURPRISE

With the continued focus on “win-now”, it’s hard for young players to make impressions at camp. Juuso Parssinen had been penciled as third line center, and there was some excitement about the prospects of Morrow and Brennan Othmann’s chances to push for line up spots.

Othmann and Morrow both failed their assignments though, and were sent down in training camp as was Gabe Perreault. All three were seen as future members of the Rangers, though Othmann’s camp was sub-par compounding the previous season where he failed to convert his opportunity the previous season in 22 games. Drury wasn’t quite ready to give up on his former first-round pick though, and called him up again during the season to see if he could get his game going. He continued to struggle, and got traded at the deadline.

Perreault’s trajectory proved to be more positive , earning a one-week call-up in mid-November before finally returning for good on December 17th.

The standout though was Noah Laba. The 22 year old former had just signed his first professional contract in the Spring after finishing up with Colorado College, and made an immediate impression with his speed and work ethic. A little less impressive was defenseman Matthew Robertson. The 24 year old had a two game cameo to end the previous season in his NHL debut, and settled in as the go-to third pair defenseman on the left, starting in 72 of the 82 games.

A CHANGE IN PHILOSOPHY

While Laviolette had favored a man-on-man structure in the defensive zone, Sullivan utilized more of a zone system. The approach produced modest dividends, raising the Rangers league ranking from 19th to 15th in Goals Against, though would likely have been better if Fox and Shesterkin had not missed time. In their absence Quick struggled, and the mid-season signing of Spencer Martin out of the KHL proved only that he was likely not “the guy”.

A relative bright-spot early on though was the unexpected goal-scoring from Gavrikov who more than doubled his career high in goals with 14 including his first, second and third career power play goals. He also set a high in points (35) and power play points (6), having never registered a power play point in 435 NHL games.

The same could not be said of Will Borgen and Braden Schneider, with the latter in particular seeming to struggling with the extra responsbility. Matthew Robertson had a solid first full year as an NHLer, while Morrow showed solid offensive instincts while struggling defensively in limited time.

BREAD DELIVERY

While all eyes were on Panarin and Vincent Trocheck, Drury began his retooling by sending Carson Soucy – who waived his NMC, to the Islanders in return for a 3rd round pick. It was just the third time that the two teams have made a trade, and first time since Jyri Niemi was sent to the Rangers back in 2010.

Getting Panarin to waive his NMC proved to be more difficult. There were rumors of a large contract and solid offer from the Seattle Kraken, but Panarin ended up limiting the option to the Los Angeles Kings who offered a modest exchang: former late first round pick Liam Greentree and a third round pick. There were conditions that could have improved it to a second and a fourth if the Kings were to manage to win a couple of rounds in the playoffs. They didn’t.

MILLER LIGHT AND OLYMPIC GOLD

Team Captain J.T. Miller had been the big mid-season acquisition for the Rangers in 2024-25, but had struggled through much of the 2025-26 season. Injured in training camp, and picked up an upper body injury in December. He ended up sitting out several games during the middle of the season, giving the appearance he was trying to get healthy for the Olympics rather than putting the Rangers first.

Miller and Trocheck both saw 4th line time for the American team as they went all the way, defeating Canada in the finals and capturing their first Olympic Gold since 1980 at Lake Placid, NY. Adam Fox appeared to be disappointed that he wasn’t with them, and with where the Rangers were at. The lack of conviction in his future with the Rangers became a point of concern, sparking speculation about what might happen going forward.

TRADE DEAD-LINE DAY

With Fox and Shesterkin returning to playing following the resumption of action after the Olympics, the Rangers began a modest improvement in their performances, going 2-0-2 leading up to the deadline amidst a 6-1-2 run that took them into mid March, providing some hope for the future after a series of backsteps. Particularly encouraging was the performance of Perreault and Alexis Lafreniere who had found new life with Mika Zibanejad on the top line.

Trade deadline day proved to be a bit of a dud though, with only regular Sam Carrick – traded to Buffalo for a 3rd and a 6th, former first round pick Othmann – to Calgary for Jacob Battaglia, and misfit veteran minor leaguer Derrick Pouliot – to Chicago for Aiden Thompson being dealt.

Notably, Trocheck remained on the roster despite rumored interest from several teams including the Minnesota Wild, where Team USA and Wild GM – Bill Guerin, had just spent some quality time with the center on the way to the Gold Medal.

WINNING BY LOSING

The upturn in performances turned out to be unsustainable, the team finishing off the year 6-9-2 to finish bottom in the East and 30 out of 32 overall. Only Chicago and Vancouver had a worse record, and it gave them the third best odds of moving up in the draft. Not only did they not move up, they instead dropped two places, with the Maple Leafs and Sharks both leapfrogging the three worst teams in the league.

CHANGING DEVELOPMENTS

Having lead player development under Drury since his appointment, former Ranger Jed Ortmeyer was let go and replaced with his deputy Tanner Glass. The moves coincided with the firing of the AHL coaching team headed up by Ryan Potulny, who saw the Wolf Pack devolve into the worst team in the whole league.

During their respective tenures, the pair had delivered few if any impact player to the Rangers, with Laba and Perreault the best amongst them having spent most of their development time in the NCAA rather than under their oversight. Encouraging late season performances from Jaroslav Chmelar, Adam Sykora and Garand were not enough to save either’s job.

LOOKING TO THE FUTURE

Having accomplished only a modest amount of change, Drury went into the NHL Entry Draft looking to make a splash. First off were minor league trades of Brett Berard and Adam Edstrom. Neither player produced any return, with William Trudeau likely to be a depth defenseman in Hartford and Massimo Rizzo not even being qualified.

With the 5th overall pick, Drury then selected Latvian defenseman Alberts Smits, passing over the move offensively gifted Chase Reid – who later went to Seattle. If they’d had their choice, Drury probably would have taken either of the top three forwards that went before Smits, but all three of Gavin McKenna – 1st, Ivar Stenberg – 2nd and Caleb Malhotra – 3rd were gone.

For what it’s worth, Smits had been linked to the Rangers prior to the draft, as their top-rated defenseman, though that was not a view held universally by the scouts across the league.

With a late first-round pick acquired in the Miller trade, the Rangers were expected to make another selection late in the night, but things began mid-way through when it became clear that the Ducks were looking to move Mason MacTavish. It reportedly came down to a choice between the Rangers and Blues, with the Pat Verbeek ultimately opting to take the picks from St. Louis rather than a player from New York – thought to be Schneider.

Drury was still looking for help up front, so instead turned to Vegas. He acquired the 25 year old left wing, Pavel Dorofeyev from the Golden Knights in exchange for the hefty price of two first round picks (the late 2026 one, along with a top-10 protected 2028 first rounder, as well as Vegas’s own 3rd round pick – which was acquired from Buffalo in the Carrick trade).

The trade along with the Smits selection gave the Rangers faithful some hope for the Summer after a disappointing year.