2025 Rangers Report Cards: Chris Drury

This post is part of an ongoing series of Rangers Report Cards, grading the performance of each member of the 2024-25 New York Rangers. To view more report cards in this series, go here.

This time last year, I began Chris Drury’s report card by saying he has done far more good than bad since taking over as the general manager and president of the New York Rangers in 2021. Now, however, this past season has raised a ton of justifiable concerns in what is becoming a critical point of Drury’s tenure as an executive with the Rangers. We know that he is James Dolan’s guy and he is going to stay here for the foreseeable future, but there are definitely more criticisms that can be made as we grade his past year as the Rangers General Manager.

Performance 

The Summer 

On June 18th, just a week or so before the NHL Draft and about a month after the Rangers were eliminated in the Eastern Conference Final, Barclay Goodrow was placed on waivers as a potential method of saving salary cap space. This was problematic for a number of reasons. For starters, he had trade protection so whether or not he should have been waivable is a bit of an ethical gray area. Secondly, Goodrow and his camp were apparently blindsided by this and felt that it was not handled the way it should have been, and many players that remained on the team felt similarly. Lastly, it was a curious decision in the sense that Goodrow became a key contributor for the Rangers down the stretch of their series with Florida which is precisely why they got him in the first place—to be that kind of playoff x-factor. 

The biggest issuewas that Goodrow was evidently an invaluable part of the leadership and overall culture of that Rangers locker room, to the point where the situation had a lingering effect on the rest of the team. Which brings us to the next issue that took place during the summer. Barclay Goodrow wasn’t the only “lame duck” on the Rangers salary cap. In fact, he wasn’t the only one with a letter on his jersey that was at risk of losing his job. Rumors regarding Jacob Trouba’s future with the team were spreading like wildfire all summer long. To the point where we all thought for sure he was going to be a Detroit Red Wing by the end of the NHL Entry Draft. 

We don’t need to revisit that whole situation but, in the end, Drury obliged and allowed Jacob Trouba to start the season status quo, as captain of the New York Rangers. If you’re going to be a cut-throat general manager you cannot half-ass it, for lack of a better term. After the summer that Trouba, Drury, and the New York Rangers had, Drury should have had the foresight to know that things would not be able to carry on as normal into a new season. It may have started off fine, but things hit the fan rather quickly and the end result was the team quitting on themselves because another one of their friends got traded, this time, the Captain. 

To make a long story short, Drury should have had better conversation with Barclay Goodrow and should have ripped the band aid off with Jacob Trouba before the season began. The sooner those things were handled and dealt with, the less likely this team falls apart in November and December. This is something that is going to be right up there with the Pavel Buchnevich trade regarding Chris Drury mishandlings and decisions that did more harm than good. 

Free Agency

None of that is to even get into what Drury actually did to add to this team over the summer. To be fair, there weren’t many changes. He went out and acquired Reilly Smith on retained salary for a second round pick and a conditional fifth. Theoretically, that was an incredibly fine trade. Smith rounded out the Rangers top nine forward group, and was as close to a perfect-on-paper solution for the right wing hole they had, especially with consideration to what they paid for him. 

Other than that, the Rangers signed Sam Carrick to a 3 year, $1 million AAV contract. Really nothing wrong with that seeing as he’s a cheaper Barclay Goodrow that could be buried in the minors if things went south and in his first season of that contract, he arguably went above what was expected. For AHL depth, he signed Casey Fitzgerald, who quickly became Hartford’s captain; B.O. Groulx, who has some potential; and brought back Chad Ruhwedel, who even I continued to forget was still with the organization. He also worked out a bridge deal for Braden Schneider, and extended Ryan Lindgren and Kaapo Kakko with one-year deals. All of which was tidy business, as usual. 

You can say many things about Chris Drury’s tenure as general manager of the New York Rangers. He’s done a lot of good, some bad, and a decent amount of things that could simply be labeled as “tidy bits of business.” One thing that’s become clear, at least in certain perspectives, is that Drury has either learned from certain mistakes and/or found ways to get out of them. Barclay Goodrow and Jacob Trouba being two of the most recent examples of that. 

The Contract Extensions

There were two significant clouds hanging over the New York Rangers as they entered the season. Igor Shesterkin was entering the final year of his contract that would leave him an unrestricted free agent at the end of the season, and Alexis Lafrenière was due for an expected raise. Drury decided, as he should have, to take care of those matters as soon as he possibly could. Now I know Lafrenière really struggled as the season went on but based on how last season went and how he started this season, all signs pointed to getting an extension done sooner rather than later was going to be in the Rangers’ best interest. 

As for Igor Shesterkin, the negotiations took longer than Drury and many fans might have liked, but still got it done by early December. You’re entitled to whichever kind of opinions you may have, but Igor Shesterkin deserves every penny of that contract and comes as a major success for the Rangers. May I remind you all, that the $11.5 million AAV he signed for, is less of a cap hit percentage than Henrik Lundqvist once upon a time signed for. Sure, it’s more money, but the percentage of the cap is the more relevant stat here. 

All things considered, Drury gets full marks for how these extensions were handled. After the season Lafrenière had, it’s valid to have concerns about that deal almost a year later, but realistically last year was such a disaster, certain things should be taken with a grain of salt, and I would consider this one of them. If he gets off to a slow start and struggles again next season, it’s a different conversation. 

The Memo

The infamous trade memo that I will forever be referring to as “The Memo Heard Round The World.” The New York Rangers were not performing the way they should have been and Drury was not about to let that fly, to the point where he sent out a memo to all the GM’s in the league to state that he and the Rangers were open for business, and that included Jacob Trouba and Chris Kreider.

My two big problems with this: First, the Jacob Trouba of it all should have been dealt with in the summer. It’s clear they were headed for a messy divorce, and it shouldn’t have gone into the season. Regarding Kreider, there are two sides to that coin. If Drury was seriously going to trade him, maybe your longest tenured player deserves a heads up. Or maybe he doesn't. If Drury was just doing it to light a fire under him and the rest of the team, it clearly didn't work and Kreider deserved a lot more than to be a scapegoat. The bottom line is, this too did more harm than good for the team and became a major distraction. Whether or not that's really Drury's fault is a different story but regardless, it didn't go over well.

The Trades

After an atrocious stretch in November, Drury called his bluff and gave his captain an ultimatum: accept a trade, or go on waivers. Trouba chose wisely and decided to change coasts. Considering the alternative was to get no return at all for this player, Chris Drury pulled off a masterclass. To get Trouba’s entire cap hit off the books completely and pick up a young defenseman with a draft pick on top of it was extraordinary work. 

About two weeks later, with things continued to go poorly for the Ranger, Drury decided to make another big move. I’m sure a day is going to come where we’re going to look back on the Kaapo Kakko trade and label it as one of the many awful trades by this franchise. Although, with full context, getting a roster player and two draft picks for a disgruntled, younger player that was struggling to live up to his potential on a struggling team isn’t a terrible outcome by any stretch of the imagination. A slightly underwhelming return but likely as good as it was going to get given the situation. 

Drury completed two trades in January, one of which, a minor league swap that sent Ryder Korczak to Tampa for Lucas Edmonds. Korczak probably has more upside than Edmonds but I don’t suspect this to really matter much for either side. 

The other trade, however, resulted in Drury landing his big fish: reuniting J.T. Miller with the team that drafted him. Age and cap hit aside, the Rangers won this trade by a landslide. As much as it sucks to talk about this, Filip Chytil probably isn’t going to be able to keep playing in this league. I can’t stress enough how sad that makes me and so many other fans, but it is what it is. Victor Mancini is a serviceable player with some upside, but J.T. Miller was one of the most coveted pieces to be dealt ahead of this year’s trade deadline. On top of that, the Rangers got two younger defensemen in Erik Brannstrom and Jackson Dorrington. Remarkable business by Drury. 

The Trade Deadline 

We preached all season long that the Rangers needed to be conservative sellers if things did not improve drastically and that’s exactly what Chris Drury did. He turned Ryan Lindgren, Jimmy Vesey (and I guess Hank Kempf), Reilly Smith, and Erik Brannstrom into Jusso Parssinen, Calvin de Haan, Brendan Brisson, Nicolas Aube-Kubel, and several draft picks. One of those picks he flipped to Vancouver for Carson Soucy. If we separate the four trades, I’d give Drury a B+ for the Colorado deal, A- for Vegas, C for Buffalo, and a D+ for Vancouver. 

Colorado would have been full marks if it was a conditional first, but I don’t believe they had one to wager with, so it is what it is. 

Vegas was about as solid of a return as you could ask for at the time, the pick was only one round later than the one they gave up to get Reilly Smith AND you got a former first round draft pick on top of it. Outstanding work. 

The trade with Buffalo really didn’t need to happen. Had the Rangers made the playoffs, Aube-Kubel would have been a nice weapon in the arsenal to have, but that was not the case. Erik Brannstrom, in theory, would have been the more useful piece moving forward, but I’m not going to lose sleep over a 1-for-1 trade where neither player likely has much of a future in New York to begin with. 

Then came the Soucy trade. Looking back on it, especially with Calvin de Haan already here and Urho Vaakanainen getting extended, I don’t know why you needed to go out and get Carson Soucy. I saw the vision—really, I did—and especially with the player wanting to come here and waiving his clause to do so. But he was awful outside of that one game he scored in. Hopefully he can be more effective under Mike Sullivan, but Drury might be better off flipping him as soon as possible. 

More Contract Extensions 

This is where some of the doubt regarding what Drury’s plan exactly is starts to creep in. The Will Borgen extension wasn’t a red flag but it was something worth raising some questions over. Five years for a 28-year-old defenseman who, at best, is a fringe top four guy was curious at the very least, especially with a $4.1 million cap hit. However, with the proper supporting cast, I could see the vision. The cap is going up, and Borgen was doing well enough with the Rangers. So, fine, whatever, great. 

Then came the Urho Vaakanainen extension. A younger, former first overall draft pick, the Rangers are Urho’s third team in a short period of time, which isn’t necessarily a concern, but it is something to be curious about. Nonetheless, he was a pleasant surprise to some. He’s always been someone I was pretty high on and under the right circumstances, could amount to a quality NHL defenseman. As a cheap, bottom-pair option, there’s certainly worse bits of business to be done. I’d lean towards the fact that he earned the extension, good for him. 

Now Soucy wasn’t a contract extension but he was acquired at the deadline under the knowledge that he was signed through next season with trade protection. That’s where everything I just labelled positively for Chris Drury begins to crack. You just spent a collective $6 million on Will Borgen and Urho Vaakanainen. Adding Carson Soucy to that picture does not make a ton of sense. I don’t care how good Adam Fox is, he’s not turning a guy like Soucy into a top pair defenseman. The only situation that really makes sense is playing him on the bottom pair, likely with Borgen who he has successful history with but if that’s the case, why did he extend Vaakanainen? To be a seventh defenseman, maybe, but that’s a lot of money for replacement level players, Soucy included.

Grades

Author Grade: C

Banter Consensus: C-

Final Evaluation

We can be critical of how Drury handled certain situations—Goodrow, Trouba, the memo—but at the end of the day, the end results were just about the best he could do given the respective situation. He made the right moves in free agency, he did what he should have at the trade deadline, he took care of business with Shesterkin and Lafrenière, the season as a whole was a failure for the team but that falls more on the players than anything else.