The circumstances for Chris Drury’s ascension to General Manager and President were quick and somewhat unexpected. It started with THAT game against the Capitals on May 3rd, 2001 which saw Tom Wilson embarrass the Rangers on their home ice. Two days later owner Jim Dolan had fired both President John Davidson and General Manager Jeff Gorton had been fired and installed Gorton’s deputy as successor to both of them.
Perhaps less surprising was seeing Glen Sather alongside Drury as he spoke to the media on May 6th, a day after he got the job. The veteran hockey man had direct access to Dolan, and it certainly got the rumor mill going.
Was it a coup?
There has never been any direct evidence that Chris Drury was part of any sort of pre-planned effort to take over the GM role from his boss. He was highly thought of by both the league and the organization, and had previously declined interview requests from the Panthers and Penguins to stay with the Rangers following the end of his career.
Drury pointed noted that no promises were made to him as he became Assistant GM – and GM of the Rangers’ AHL affiliate – perhaps aware that his sudden promotion could at least have the appearance of an inside job.
Why Davidson and Gorton were fired was hardly a mystery, with Jim Dolan obviously embarrassed by the Capitals game, and already growing impatient with a rebuild that was officially started less than two and a half years prior, before the COVID pandemic had hit and disrupted the NHL’s scheduling for the 2019-20 and 2020-21 seasons.
Whether Sather whispered in Dolan’s ear is an altogether another story, and one that will likely never be known for certain, but his appearance alongside Drury did forever link the two.
As one of those targeted, Jeff Gorton – now Executive Vice President of Hockey Operations for the Montreal Canadiens – is rumored to still hold some grudges with the Rangers. Whether that is directed at Dolan, Drury or both is not clear, but the annual assessment of the two teams as potential trading partners always carries a caveat that it may be hard to do as a result of “bad blood”.
A rough introduction
Firing then head coach David Quinn and extending Ryan Lindgren for three years at a reasonable $3M annual average value were relatively mild start to his tenure, but the results were decided more mixed as the Summer progressed.
Tony DeAngelo was bought out after being suspended for much of the season following an altercation with Alexandre Georgiev, and the mildly surprising Colin Blackwell was made available – and claimed – in the expansion draft. Blackwell would later say he felt a little sore at the Rangers for making him available, but the goal was to get bigger.
The trade market though was where Drury had his first missteps, dealing away underperforming 4th liner Brett Howden to Vegas, and then later acquiring the aging Ryan Reaves in a separate move with the same club. Barclay Goodrow was then acquired for a draft pick which was fine until the terms of the contract were announced. The two-time Cup winner with Tampa earning himself a six year contract with a modified no-trade clause included for $3.642M average per year.
The next day he pulled the trigger on the anticipated trade of Pavel Buchnevich, sending the first line right wing to the St Louis Blues in exchange for the underwhelming return of a second round pick and fourth-liner Sammy Blais.
Those moves along with the additions of defensemen Patrick Nemeth – later traded with picks to Arizona to get him off the books – and Jarred Tinordi – claimed by the Blackhawks off waivers in his second season, seemed to be a direct response to the Tom Wilson incident, and looked to the outside eye to be a result of an inexperienced GM learning on the job.
Issues begin to surface
While Drury was looking to make the Rangers “harder to play against”, stories began to surface around how the relationship between prospect Vitali Kravtsov and the Rangers had begun to deteriorate. As Arthur Staple reported in the Athletic, the break appears to appear to have started in 2019, when the Hartford GM Chris Drury accused the then 19 year old of having “quit” on the team as he ditched the AHL to return to Russia.
Kravtsov did eventually return for the 2020 “bubble” playoffs as part of the extended roster, but was reportedly called out by Drury in front of other players for his conditioning.
Further to that, there were rumors that Drury was never in favor of the pick of Kravtsov as the 9th pick of the 2018 NHL Entry Draft. I was unable to find much supporting evidence for this, so whether or not he held Kravtsov to a higher standard is debatable.
Drury fires his second coach
At the end of the 2022-23 season, the Rangers tamely fell to the New Jersey Devils in the first round of the playoffs, after having made the Eastern Conference Finals the year before. Head Coach Gerard Gallant appeared to be out of ideas as New York blew a 2-0 series lead to lose 4-3 in game 7.
Reports surfaced shortly after that Gallant and Drury had gotten into a shouting match following a 3-1 loss in Game 4 that tied the series at 2-2. Earlier in the season, Gallant had been speculated to be on the hot seat following a lifeless 5-2 loss to the lowly Chicago Blackhawks in which captain Jacob Trouba was ejected from the game, tossing his helmet and calling out his team mates as he exited the ice.
With a record of 11-10-5 following the game, the Rangers would respond to their leader, finishing out the year with a 46-22-13 record that saw them finish second in the Metro division behind the Carolina Hurricanes.
The removal of Gallant seemingly came after the player exit interviews were conducted by Drury – without Gallant as was the GMs standard operating practice – and suggested that Gallant’s casual approach to strategy was no longer effective for the Rangers.
A final firing
Through his first two years in the job, Drury had largely cleaned house in the front office, targeting scouts and staff that he believed were not performing or that he disagreed with, and replacing them with his own choices. One name that survived through much of the initial purge was well-respected trainer Jim Ramsey, who had been with the organization for almost three decades, starting the season after the Rangers won the Stanley Cup in 1993-94.
On May 19th, 2023 the Rangers parted ways with the well-respected trainer in abrupt fashion. While no official reports exist on how the two parties parted, there is this disturbing thread that suggests it was Jim Dolan who made the decision, for no other reason than he’d replaced everyone else that had been associated with the 30 years without a Cup.
While Drury does not come off particularly well, it suggests a dynamic that exists between Dolan and Drury (and Sather before him), that suggested the Connecticut native will not be replaced any time soon. The owner seeing someone over his own heart who appreciates his abrasive style.
The move was further compounded when the Rangers did not even acknowledge Ramsey’s return to the Garden with the Canadiens, though Chris Kreider and a handful of other Rangers did skate over to him to before the game.
Summer “bloc” buster
After a second run to the Eastern Conference Finals, with a similar failure to match the intensity of the best team in the East, Chris Drury hinted at changes over the Summer. Handcuffed by the Salary Cap, Drury had been unable to make much in the way of significant additions over the 2023 off-season, and looked set to open up his options.
The first shoe to drop was the placement, and claim by the Sharks on fourth liner Barclay Goodrow. After becoming a favorite of Gerard during his two-years, Goodrow had seen his ice time and opportunity drop significantly under Peter Laviolette. His interactions with the media during a relatively non-productive regular season, also took on the tone of someone who wasn’t necessarily enjoying his time in the third year of his six year contract, though that perhaps changed following easily his most productive post-season campaign of his career.
The June 20th maneuver that saw him placed on waivers to get around Goodrow’s 15-team no-trade list appeared to leave the veteran unhappy, with Drury informing the player “15 minutes” before the move that he’d be going to the Sharks.
The move reportedly shook the Rangers core, who felt like not having the courtesy to talk to the 31 year-old before the move was unprofessional. The botched attempt to move Jacob Trouba a week later, compounding the issue further, as it appeared that Drury tried to make the transaction without talking to his captain about it.
Trouba ultimately was able to defeat the possibility by leveraging July 1st: the date that free agency opened up, and the same day his no-trade list was required to be submitted. In addition, it’s presumed that Trouba put Detroit on the list, as the named team to have had interest in him, further hampering Drury’s efforts to get something done before teams rushed to fill their roster holes in the open market.
Removing Goodrow’s $3.6M, and at the same time failing to remove Trouba’s $8M put Drury in a bit of a no-man’s land. He had burned bridges with his leadership core by removing one of them in Goodrow, and telling another – Trouba – that he was no longer wanted.
A memo of misunderstanding
After getting off to a fast start against some lowly opposition, the Rangers began to see their season crumble following a familiar style loss to the Florida Panthers on October 24th. The Rangers again had no answer for the Panthers assertive style. The Rangers would win 7 of the next 10, but would hit a turning point on their yearly trip to the northwest which started with unconvincing wins over Seattle and Vancouver, before falling flat in losses to Calgary and Edmonton.
Following the Edmonton loss, Drury issued a memo that he distributed to each of his 31 counterparts, saying that the team was open for trade discussions, and singling out Chris Kreider and Jacob Trouba in particular as being available.
Two of the three remaining contracts that predated Drury’s tenure as GM – the other being Artemi Panarin, the memo did nothing to inspire the Rangers, leading to a 3-8-0 stretch in which the Rangers no only dropped out of the top teams in the Metro, but of the playoff race altogether, falling a point behind the second wildcard spot in the East.
From post-game conferences that saw veterans disappear or become available to the media, to wooden answers and lackadaisical play on the ice. The team appeared to take underperforming to a new level. Whereas it had started with a handful of key players like Kreider, Mika Zibanejad, Vincent Trocheck and K’Andre Miller, the post memo malaise quickly saw the intensity drop across much of the line-up.
In a matter of months, Drury had ripped the desire out of the club and caused a collapse that is has rarely if ever seen the like in professional sports.
Is Drury on the hot seat
As it stands now, there’s no indication that Chris Drury is under any threat. There even seems to be indications that Head Coach Peter Laviolette is not likely to be cut at this point, which leads to the likely conclusion that what we’ll see in the interim is a series of moves, as Drury attempts to remove those in the organization who are not aligned to his approach.
While not necessarily all aligned to the problem, it appears Kreider, Kaapo Kakko and Ryan Lindgren are the ones that will be the most likely to go. Kreider has already been explicitly named, and appears to be one of those who are most impacted by Drury’s management style. Kakko appears to have become increasingly unhappy, especially after appearing to be held accountable for other’s poor play in the form of a recent healthy scratch in St Louis.
The public comments show the level of fruitlessness in the current season, with the only seeming path out being the trading of players. Trouba was forced out, but perhaps a little relieved to be finally done with things, and others seemingly will be heading that way soon whether they like it or not.
Trying to reset your roster by trading your way out is a slow and difficult process, particularly mid-season. While Drury got creative by using the threat of waivers to move Trouba, he doesn’t have the same option to deal with those who hold No Movement Clauses, particularly the likes of Zibanejad and Vincent Trocheck – the latter having his NMC convert to a M-NTC on July 1st, 2025.
Even further complicating things, Zibanejad’s contract (along with the likes of Artemi Panarin) are front-loaded with bonuses, which keeps the annual cost down, but also makes the contracts essentially buy-out proof.
From time to time we do see players who are very unhappy get moved, so it does happen, but the risk of taking on a struggling player at a premium with no safety valve of a buy-out might make the list of willing GMs extremely small.
A Lost Season
Drury’s mismanagement appears to have cost the Rangers a chance at competing for the Cup this year. While there is an argument that the flawed Blueshirts had underlying issues already, by failing to address them in the Summer, and then compounding it with his abrasive style, Drury has effectively condemned the team and the fanbase to a fruitless year.
His seemingly lack of empathy for his players comes off as disrespectful and counterproductive, which in some ways mirrors the owner’s public persona, and is probably one of the main reasons the team has not been able to win a Cup in what will be 30 seasons this year – excluding the lockout year.
Drury is more likely to end up with a line-up that aligns to the early 2000s, a collection of individuals who are there for the paychecks, rather than a true team. Without everyone on the same page, the organization is likely to remain an also-ran until a change is made, and that change unfortunately does not seem to be imminent
Excellent article.