Media Bytes: Fox Olympic Snub, State of the Rangers is Dire, Tuch

Welcome back to Media Bytes, a weekly column from Blueshirt Banter. Every Sunday, we’ll help you start the week right with a quick catch-up on the latest stories and developments around the New York Rangers and the broader NHL media landscape.

The full version of Media Bytes is for Blueshirt Banter members only. To read the full thing and get it delivered to your inbox every Sunday, become a member at Blueshirt Banter today.

This Fox Won't Hunt for Gold

1. Major news broke Wednesday evening: New York Rangers star defenseman Adam Fox won’t be heading to the 2026 Milan Olympics for Team USA. Despite a strong push on his behalf from GM Chris Drury, along with Team USA coaches Mike Sullivan and David Quinn, Fox didn’t make the final cut for the U.S. roster.

According to ESPN's Emily Kaplan, everyone involved "understood the decision," given how deep Team USA is on the blue line, even if they argued Fox's case as hard as they could. But that's the tension here. This isn't a case of a fringe candidate missing out. This is a former Norris Trophy winner, the engine of the Rangers' transition game, and one of the league's premier power-play quarterbacks being told there simply wasn't room.

From a pure talent perspective, Fox belongs in any conversation about the best American defensemen alive. But this decision was surely not made purely on talent alone. A follow-up report from New York Post reporter Mollie Walker suggests there's belief that Fox's poor performance during the 4 Nations Face-Off tournament "really put management off Fox." For as smart and productive as Fox is, mobility has also has never been his strong suit, and the Olympic stage leaves no room for error.

For Fox, there's no question the snub stings. "I don't think you have any expectation, I would say. I thought my play this year was worthy of it. Track record as well," Fox told reporters on Thursday. "It's out of my hands at a certain point. The decision is the decision. I guess that's how it goes."

Mike Sullivan also spoke to the situation, telling reporters that he and Fox have had "a number of conversations around this, and I will keep that conversation between Adam and I." Sullivan went on to explain that these Olympic teams that are being picked are "the best of the best," and that "there are very, very difficult decisions that have to be made." He was careful to note that they're doing their best to be as professional and straightforward as they can with all parties involved, but reiterated that the conversations—plural—he's had with Fox about this decision will remain between them.

All of this raises the question if this disappointment Fox is feeling settles into something heavier, like resentment, or if can he harness it into fuel to become an even better player on the ice?

The fact that Drury, Sullivan, and Quinn went to bat for him is at least a positive sign—an acknowledgment, internally, of how important he is to the Rangers' identity. That kind of advocacy can go a long way in the room, and may help New York avoid a Martin St. Louis-style scenario, where being left off the 2014 Canadian Olympic roster became the spark for a much larger problem. But there are no guarantees here.

Fox is a cornerstone player whose competitive pride runs hot. Everyone is saying the right things in the immediate aftermath of the decision, but if this lingers it has the potential to ripple well beyond a few hurt feelings.

For now, all anyone can do is watch how he responds. Only time will tell.

Tro-Checkin' in Milan

2. Friday morning brought the full reveal of Team USA's Olympic roster, and while Adam Fox's omission understandably dominated the discourse, two Rangers did make the cut: J.T. Miller and Vincent Trocheck. Their inclusion wasn't about box-score prestige so much as a philosophical statement about how this team intends to play.

Earlier in the week on 32 Thoughts, longtime Minnesota Wild reporter Michael Russo all but telegraphed the direction things were headed in his conversation with Elliotte Friedman. The decision-makers inside Team USA weren't simply stacking the lineup with star power—they were weighing something far more intentional. The conversations, Russo explained, centered on whether the roster needed forwards built for disruption: players who hound pucks, suffocate top lines, and drag games into the mud when the moment demands it. And that camp, as he put it, had real traction.

"With the way Connor McDavid, Cale Makar, and Nathan MacKinnon are playing,” Russo said, the feeling was that the U.S. couldn’t just march into the tournament with an All-Star revue and hope pure talent carries the day. They wanted forecheckers. Grinders. Men built for trench work. "I think they feel a very big need to have checkers on their team," Russo said. "So I think that guys like Brock Nelson and maybe a Vincent Trocheck ... I think they're very much in the mix."

As it turns out, Russo read the room correctly. But like the Fox decision, this approach comes with consequences. A wave of elite American skill—Cole Caufield, Jason Robertson, among others—will be watching from their couches. Robertson, in particular, was a focal point of the conversation, given that no one in the league has scored more goals since mid-November than the young Dallas winger.

Russo made it clear throughout the episode: Team USA is building a roster for a very specific kind of tournament. One that prizes match-up utility and defensive conscience over fireworks. But even he acknowledged the cost of that choice—that it could be "unbelievable" just how much high-end American talent winds up staying stateside, staring at a television, instead of lighting up the international stage.