Can Chris Drury Trade for the Second Overall Pick?

The New York Rangers lost the NHL draft lottery Tuesday night, falling to the mathematically lowest possible position they could at fifth overall.

This has taken the Rangers firmly out of the "instant needle-moving" tier of Gavin McKenna and Ivar Stenberg and into the "more of a crapshoot" territory with Chase Reid, Caleb Malhotra, and maybe to a lesser extent Keaton Verhoeff and Carson Carels.

But that doesn't mean there isn't a path for the Rangers to get up where they wanted to be.

San Jose also won the lottery, moving up to the second overall pick in the upcoming draft. You probably don't need me to remind you that the Sharks are blessed with a wealth of young forwards like Macklin Celebrini, Will Smith, my Quinnipiac son Collin Graf, and former second overall pick Michael Misa. Not that they wouldn't want another high-end forward—you can never have enough—but they might be far more inclined to go after one of the potential high-end defenseman available at the top of the draft.

Enter Chris Drury with the New York Rangers' fifth overall selection and a current roster player. Is there a trade to be made here that makes sense?

I actually think there is, and I'm not just drinking the Kool-Aid.

There were rumors linking the Rangers and San Jose together with Braden Schneider closer to the trade deadline, but that obviously didn't come to fruition. I don't have a firm idea of how much fire there actually was with the smoke. But this does make a lot of sense for a few reasons, so let's dig into them.

The biggest reason is Drury and San Jose general manager Mike Grier have a wonderful relationship dating back to their time as roommates together at Boston University. Grier and Drury had the shadow agreement for the waiver claim of Barclay Goodrow a few years ago that seemingly precipitated the events that tanked the Rangers for two years and counting. There's a path forward here that involves the two of them having discussions about this that isn't hard to see.

The problem is the Rangers sit at a position where the defenseman San Jose might like in the draft might not be. Malhotra's 13-13-26 line in 15 playoff games has already rocketed the hype to a new level, and I would be astounded if he's still available for the Rangers to pick at five. That might help ease Grier's hesitation if he truly wants one of Reid or Verhoeff, but I've gotten a sense out there that Reid has cemented himself as a step above Verhoeff. That means,Grier might only really want Reid, and not want to put himself at fifth where he might not be available.

Now, there is another aspect here: Schneider.

I think this is a rare case where our (the fanbase and the media) have more of a negative perception of the player than the wider audience does. Normally we're overestimating the return, like Playstation trades of depth guys for Conor McDavid. But this one seems like the reverse.

We've heard the Rangers talk about Schneider like he's a part of the future, signal that he's untouchable, and putting him off limits in the eventual J.T. Miller trade. However, we have seen the Rangers block Schneider from natural paths that had become available to him growing with the team, make trades to ensure he wasn't required to be a top-four defenseman, and only put him on the top pair when the playoffs were out of reach and there were injuries to Adam Fox.

All that said, Schneider is a 24-year-old right-handed defenseman—a coveted position in the NHL. Factor in he's an RFA under team control and he has 43 playoff games under his belt already and you can see why his name was tossed around in trade rumors all year.

If Grier can get Schneider and the fifth overall pick, how much more does he need to be convinced to part with the second overall pick? Does he even need any more?

Skeptically I would think he would want more than that. But if the perception of Schneider around the league is, "he's young, tough, and whatever shortfalls he has are due to the Rangers sucking and we're getting him at the right time," then maybe not.

Either way, these are conversations Drury should be having.

And maybe he already is.