How Chris Drury avoids failing grade despite atrocious Rangers season

Yahoo

14-05-2025

The day he fired Peter Laviolette as coach on April 19, New York Rangers general manager Chris Drury took his fair share of the blame for an absolutely atrocious 2024-25 season, perhaps the most disappointing in franchise history.
'Leading into the season, given the success we had the last few years, we had high expectations. Quite simply, we fell short across the board,' Drury told reporters that day. 'Nobody here takes it lightly. We know our fans are frustrated and they deserve a better season than this. It starts with me. I need to do a better job and give the staff and players the opportunity to succeed.'
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He is right, of course. It always starts at the top of the organization, and this season is no different. Drury's fingerprints are all over this mess
But that doesn't mean Drury deserves a failing grade, even if the season itself was an epic fail.
Let's break it down.
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Grading Rangers GM Chris Drury: The bad
Peter Carr/The Journal News / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images
Might as well start with the negative. And there's no hiding from the fact that there's plenty of it.
First and foremost, Drury miscalculated how much he'd disrupt the locker room with how he handled the departures of respected veterans Barclay Goodrow and Jacob Trouba. He placed Goodrow on waivers to get past his no-trade clause and didn't communicate his plan in advance to the two-time Stanley Cup winner, who was claimed by the San Jose Sharks, one of the teams on his no-trade list.
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But that was just the start.
Drury mishandled trying to trade Trouba last summer, and was misguided in bringing the captain back to start this season. That was painfully evident at the start of training camp and in Trouba's lackluster effort and admitted lack of leadership, his biggest strength to the team.
True, not many of us could've predicted that the whole house of cards would fall inside the Rangers room because of the GM's heavy-handed approach in dealing with Goodrow and Trouba. But the bottom line is, it did. Drury didn't have a good read on his own players and it blew up in his face big time, not to mention submarined the season.
Then there was the leaked memo to the other 31 GMs in the League, saying that the Rangers were open for business, specifically naming Trouba and the longest-tenured Rangers player, Chris Kreider, by name. How exactly this became public is a great question, because Drury is notoriously private and tight-lipped about everything. But, again, bottom line, this backfired badly on the GM and his team.
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Kreider had a litany of injuries this season. But it was clear that one of the great goal scorers in franchise history was gutted by his name being dropped by Drury in trade talks. It was just another messy situation that caused more dissatisfaction and lack of motivation within the room.
That he botched these three things, and did so in such a public manner, certainly makes his grade this season trend down, way down. Complaints from Mika Zibanejad about lack of communication from management appear to be more on the player than Drury, so that shouldn't affect his final grade here.
Hamstrung by a tight salary cap, Drury's biggest move last offseason was trading for veteran forward Reilly Smith, with the Pittsburgh Penguins retaining some of his salary. That move didn't move the needle at all, both at the time of the trade and for the brief stretch he played for the Rangers before he was traded to the Vegas Golden Knights ahead of the deadline in March.
It's too early to grade New York's 2024 draft class. But top pick E.J. Emery clearly has a ways to go to develop his game after a so-so freshman season at North Dakota.
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Grading Rangers Chris Drury: The good
One thing that gets overlooked is that Drury, no dummy here, recognized during and after the 2024 Stanley Cup Playoffs that the Rangers needed to shake up their core. To do so, he needed to create more room under the salary cap. That's why he waived Goodrow and tried to get Trouba's no-trade list early on.
Drury clearly had eyes on a big move or two, either in free agency July 1 or via trade — or perhaps both. Without more available cap space, his hands were tied. Trouba and his agent didn't submit the no-trade list until the required July 1, leaving Drury no time to move the captain and his $8 million AAV in order to make a splash when free agency started.
Jessica Alcheh-Imagn Images
Though he erred badly in not moving Trouba at some point over the summer, Drury did well once he finally did trade the veteran defenseman Dec. 6 to the Anaheim Ducks. Drury got the Ducks to take on all of Trouba's contract, which carries through the 2025-26 season. That alone was a home run. But the Rangers also got serviceable defenseman Urho Vaakanainen back in the trade, as well as a fourth-round draft pick in 2025. Well done.
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In removing the contracts of Goodrow and Trouba, Drury created nearly $12 million in cap savings. A small part of that went to Smith and veteran center Sam Carrick, a free-agent steal with an AAV of $1 million.
Another chunk went to J.T. Miller, whom the Rangers acquired from the Vancouver Canucks on Jan. 31. It can be argued that you or I could've made that trade, since Vancouver was backed into a corner with limited options where to deal the contract-protected Miller, who was in a messy feud with Elias Pettersson. Miller wanted New York and got it when Drury shipped Filip Chytil, rookie defenseman Victor Mancini and a conditional first-round pick this year out west.
Miller's arrival begins the re-shaping of the Rangers core. His style of play and no-nonsense direct approach as a leader are a good fit for the Rangers. Though 32 years old, Miller was a solid add by Drury. And the fact that Chytil again sustained a head injury in Vancouver further justifies why it was important to move on from him, and get something of true value in return for the oft-injured center.
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To make this an even better trade, Drury needs to make the right decision on the conditional pick. The Rangers must decide 48 hours before the draft begins June 27 whether to keep it and give the Penguins their first-rounder in 2026, or retain next year's selection and pass along the No. 12 overall pick this year to Pittsburgh.
Drury also acquired rugged defenseman Will Borgen to fill Trouba's vacated spot on the right side of the defense corps. Borgen was a pleasant surprise, and landed a multi-year contract worth $4.1 million. Time will tell if Drury rushed too quickly into that extension for Borgen or if surrendering Kaapo Kakko in this trade was a big mistake. This season, though, Borgen's emergence made this move a net positive.
Adding more draft picks and young forward Juuso Parssinen ahead of the trade deadline in moves to unload pending UFAs Smith, Ryan Lindgren and Jimmy Vesey made sense. Adding defenseman Carson Soucy for a third-round pick was more of a head scratcher, though he remains under contract for next season.
On the prospects front, it was good to see two of Drury's first-round picks play some in the NHL this season. 2023 top pick Gabe Perreault got his feet wet over five games with the Rangers after he finished up strong sophomore season at Boston College and won another gold medal with the United States at the 2025 World Junior Championship (along with 2023 third-round pick Drew Fortescue).
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Brennan Othmann, the 2021 first-round pick, showed flashes in 23 games with the Rangers, largely in a bottom-six role. However, he didn't score a goal and finished with just two assists. Next season is a big one for the 22-year-old.
And a couple of Drury's later-round picks emerged. Mancini (fifth round 2022) made the big club out of training camp and then was a trade chip used to acquire Miller. Dylan Roobroeck (sixth round, 2023) led Hartford of the American Hockey League with 20 goals in his rookie pro season.
Final 2024-25 grade for Rangers GM Chris Drury: D+
Drury doesn't deserve nor receive a good grade for being in charge of this trainwreck of a season.
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But he doesn't get a failing grade either.
D+ sounds about right.
Now, let's see if he learned from his mistakes and can right this ship again in 2025-26.
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