The 2023–24 New York Rangers took a jump up from the previous year under the guidance of Peter Laviolette, with him successfully implementing the changes we in this brand anticipated him conducting after taking the reins from Gerard Gallant. They captured the Presidents’ Trophy and made their way to the Eastern Conference finals; however, they’d ultimately be defeated by defending Eastern champions/eventual Stanley Cup winners the Florida Panthers. The Rangers don’t really need to enact drastic alterations to win their first Stanley Cup since 1994 and GM Chris Drury knows that. Let’s take a moment to assess how this summer went for them in correspondence with maximizing this competitive window.

As you’d expect, the activity level was fairly minimal from NYR this summer, primarily making quiet/reasonable depth signings such as Sam Carrick, Casey Fitzgerald, Benoit-Olivier Groulx, and Ryan Lindgren. However, the Drury regime did make one noteworthy trade by acquiring RW Reilly Smith from the Pittsburgh Penguins in exchange for a 2027 second round pick and a conditional fifth rounder in 2025. One of the needs they did have was plug up the “top six RW” hole that has been plaguing them. Smith is this at a reasonable cost, though, without much time left on his deal, is a temporary solution. That said, despite his inability to produce alongside Pittsburgh’s top talents, he will nevertheless be valuable as a 45-50 point season player who drives play and primarily produces at 5v5, a place with more need for supplemental assistance in scoring and creating goals for the Rangers than on the power play (by far).

With only four picks in the 2024 NHL Entry Draft due to more immediate competitive aspirations, the Rangers had a subdued couple of days at the Vegas Sphere. They did pick up D EJ Emery (US NTDP, committed to the University of North Dakota) at 30th overall. Not exactly knocking down the doors as an offensive producer, he is reliable mostly as a shutdown guy and excels in the role, using his four-way mobility/skating prowess and positioning. He posted a +34 last year for the US NTDP. While his pathway to the pros is long, it is easy to imagine him excelling in that role in a top 4 spot in the NHL down the road. We’ll see what happens for him with the Fighting Hawks beginning this fall. 119th overall pick C Raoul Boilard had a good campaign for the QMJHL’s regular season champions the Baie-Comeau Drakkar, registering 62 points and a +27, making him a solid value pickup that might be a bit underrated (see: FloHockey not having him in their top 100). LW Nathan Aspinall of the OHL’s Flint Firebirds was their selection at 159th, he is a tall one at 6’7″ and will probably spend the next couple of years rounding out that frame (he is just 190 lbs at the moment per EliteProspects) and heading towards an inevitable future as a net front specialist. LW/C Rico Gredig (an overager from NL’s HC Davos) was their final selection at 191st overall. He made a bit of a splash in the pros this year as an 18/19 year old with 4 points in 28 games, so I think that’s worth a look in the sixth round. There was a lot of work to do here, as was inevitable, but the Rangers got some great potential with their first round selection and might’ve found at least one diamond in the rough on day two.

With them just going through the motions for the most part, I think I’m going to assign the Rangers a B- grade for this offseason. The Smith acquisition probably works for what it is in the short term, but one has to wonder when they’re really gonna double down on getting a bonafide RW that helps their competitive aspirations in the long run. That said, I think the Drury regime has done well at fiscal responsibility (they’re pretty close to the cap right now but that’s probably a better outlook than other teams with similar aspirations and looks even better when contrasted with teams that are not as well constructed or competitive having to play shorthanded) and not overreacting, which is part of why the picture has looked good for them. Additionally, they landed a legit future DFD at exactly the point in the draft where you should be looking to add that kind of player. It’s hard not to respect that.