Summer Musings: The Defensive Pairings, Scott Morrow, and More
The New York Rangers have made some major changes to their defensive core. Let's talk about that and more.
- I did a pretty comprehensive recap of the bigger moves Chris Drury has done so far in free agency here. I am not suggesting anything else major is coming. Long story short, I think he did really good work given the environment, and crushed the two biggest moves he made. They also really do change the dynamics a bit for opening night.
- Adam Fox - Vladislav Gavrikov is going to be the best top pairing the Rangers have had since Brian Leetch was on the team. I'm serious. I can't think of another top pairing off the top of my head the past 20 years that checks the boxes this one does. Obviously Gavrikov himself adds an element the Rangers really haven't had—a true shutdown defender—but if it allows Fox to get to another gear without carrying an anchor around for 20 minutes a night then it's an added bonus. And again—I can't stress this enough—$7-million is a damn steal in this market. Gavrikov is older, sure, but with a rising cap I really do think Shayna's model is a good tool to bank on here.
The market point towards defensive overpayments, but 7x$7M for Gavrikov is better than expected. Still a bit pricey, but he fits a big need on the left in New York pic.twitter.com/RBVbAVY5E6
— Shayna (@shaynagoldman_) July 1, 2025
- Which, of course, leaves us with the other two pairings. There's going to be far more ink to be spilled on this topic as the summer goes on, but I do think it's safe to say that as of right now I don't see any other major structural changes coming to the defense. The group that's here is the group that's going out there on opening night.
- How they are deployed is really the bigger question. To me, Scott Morrow (a key return in the K'Andre Miller trade) is the biggest question mark here. I'll outline why after the jump ...
