The New York Rangers’ 2022-23 season ended in disappointing fashion. They blew a 2-0 series lead in round one to their hated adversaries from across the Hudson, the New Jersey Devils, and lost in seven games. Subsequently, Gerard Gallant resigned from his head coaching position. The team now finds itself in a position where they are searching for answers on how to get more satisfactory results going forward. Let us take a look at how GM Chris Drury and the organization have done this summer in their efforts to take the next steps.

Handcuffed by their tough cap situation and the quagmires of re-signing RFAs Alexis Lafreniere (still unresolved at the time of writing) and K’Andre Miller (will be covered shortly), the summer of 2023 for the Blueshirts has been headlined by one-year deals for veteran players. This is coming off the heels of trading for rentals like Patrick Kane and Vladimir Tarasenko who were not able to deliver them to the promised land, but there is some room for optimism with these signings. Bringing on LW Blake Wheeler is an excellent move by Chris Drury. No, Blake’s not going to be a superstar sniper/playmaker like in his 90-point years, but think about this: He’s coming in at $800K and still has good offensive upside as he enters his late 30’s at the end of this month. This is a solid acquisition where the risk is virtually non-existent. Damien breaks down Wheeler’s potential value to the team here. The combination he could serve as part of alongside a player like Mika Zibanejad, Artemi Panarin, or Chris Kreider could be pretty impressive. The team also gave D Erik Gustafsson a one-year, $825K deal. He will likely be on the third pairing (there is some chance he may end up as 7th D, but we’ll see), and has the potential for offensive productivity to the tune of 30 points a year as he has shown in the past. It is not a lock, but this could end up being a good impact signing. The final noteworthy veteran pickup was G Jonathan Quick. At his peak, the Connecticut native was arguably both the greatest American goaltender in NHL history and the greatest Los Angeles King ever. Nowadays, he is relegated to a backup position and serves as a more than capable coach-to-player liaison (having done exactly this for Bruce Cassidy with VGK during their Stanley Cup run). At $825K for one-year, we will see how Quick performs in contrast with Jaroslav Halak as backup to Igor Shesterkin. D K’Andre Miller was given a two-year, $7.7 million extension in restricted free agency. Miller had a career offensive year last season and also is seventh in the league in takeaways amongst all defensemen since his rookie season in 2020-21 (reference: https://www.sportsnet.ca/nhl/article/rangers-sign-kandre-miller-to-two-year-7-744m-contract-extension/). He is a solid two-way defenseman, and we will see how he performs in this new era of Rangers hockey. The team also gave C Nick Bonino a one-year, $800K deal, in the hopes the 35-year-old defensive forward can well-serve their bottom six. This effectively rounds out the highlights of their free agency activity to this point. Some other small-time deals include C Tyler Pitlick; D Connor Mackey; RW Alex Belzile; D Mac Hollowell; D Ty Emberson; and D Brandon Scanlin.

The replacement head coach for Gerard Gallant came in the form of Peter Laviolette. After 22 years of service as a head coach in the NHL, the Franklin, MA native finally returns to the organization he spent the most years of his professional playing career with, including his sole NHL appearances (12 games in the 1988-89 season). He is one of the most accomplished American-born coaches in NHL history, with 1,430 regular season games coached, a record of 752-503-25-150 W-L-T-OTL, a Stanley Cup championship win with Carolina in 2006 and two further Stanley Cup Final appearances (2010 with Philadelphia, 2017 with Nashville). While some might paint this as a re-tread or consider Laviolette a dinosaur, the eye test suggests that the wheels simply fell of the Capitals’ group this past year as they missed the playoffs for the first time since 2013-14 (Christian and I cover this in some detail on the first BSH Cast, which can be found on the Meta platforms). He might mesh well with this Rangers group, and he deserves to be given a shot.

There was some excitement for Chris Drury and the Rangers organization at the 2023 NHL Entry Draft. They were able to select RW Gabe Perreault at 23rd overall. The son of thirteen-year retired NHL vet Yanic Perreault, the former Chicago Mission AAA player was touted as a potential top 15 selection (FloHockey had him ranked 11th) and fell all the way to the Blueshirts. Perreault put up 132 points in 63 games for the US NTDP last year (a single year record for the program) and is expected to devastate Hockey East on a stacked Boston College team this coming season alongside three fellow elite former US NTDP players in the form of Flyers prospect Cutter Gauthier (#5, 2022 NHL Entry Draft), and his former linemates, Capitals prospect Ryan Leonard (#8, 2023 NHL Entry Draft) and Sharks prospect Will Smith (#4, 2023 NHL Entry Draft). They further took D Drew Fortescue, another US NTDP product and BC commit, who is very respected as an athletic defenseman by different scouting/prospecting sources. The front office also took D Rasmus Larsson, who put up 34 points in 50 regular season games and posted a +24, and further added 5 points in 6 playoff games for Västerås IK J20. The Swede will be playing for Northern Michigan University starting in 2024-25. The team took C Dylan Roobroeck from the OHL’s Oshawa Generals at #178. An over-ager, he put up 53 points in 68 games this past year. Their final selection at #183 was LW Ty Henricks from the Muskegon Lumberjacks (and previously the Fargo Force) of the USHL, who is committed to play for Western Michigan University in 2025-26. Overall, the Draft became a little less exhilarating for the Blueshirts after Perreault, but having one of the biggest steals of the draft makes for a good outing.

Overall, while there are still some question marks hanging over the Rangers, I think they equipped themselves well here, and have room for hope in this new chapter under Laviolette. Between a decent free agency, a good coaching hire, and an absolute dunk of a round one pick, I think I will give the Rangers a B grade to this point. The Lafreniere fiasco is something that needs addressing, however, and it may be needed to fully assess the picture going forward for the Blueshirts.