The New York Rangers have had a bumpy road in 2024-25. They’ve battled injuries for most of the season, including their starting goaltender, Igor Shesterkin, and star defenseman, Adam Fox. The poor luck caused the Rangers to sit outside a playoff spot as we approach the NHL Trade Deadline. It isn’t a place the Rangers thought they’d be in at this point in the season, but it will take some work to get out of it.
The team has already shown they are willing to make bold moves to fix their team. It started when they acquired JT Miller for a reunion from the Vancouver Canucks. Since joining, Miller has been a stud for the team, scoring six points over his last five games. The Rangers are also 6-3-1 over their past ten games, leading them to success if they can continue that form with Miller on the roster. Much of that work has also been done without Fox.
It’s hard to count out the Rangers in the Eastern Conference. However, the question is whether it’s in their best interest to be buyers in this market.
Rangers fans’ dream should be a mini-retool at trade deadline
New York City might be the most challenging city in the United States to have a losing team. The city’s fickle fans make the possibility of a rebuild for the Rangers very discouraging. The New York Knicks could make a run in the NBA this season, and the New York Yankees will be in the World Series race again. The last thing the Rangers’ ownership wants is to fall even further behind these teams in popularity, which is possible if the team goes through a rebuild.
The good news for the Rangers is that they have plenty of long-term pieces signed that can return the team to glory. The team has lost in the Eastern Conference Final in two of the past three years, but its results in those series show it wasn’t close to the other contending team in the East. Is it a culture issue that has them crumble under the bright lights? It’s hard to say. However, we do know it seems like this core can’t get it done.
The addition of Miller this season is a good first step toward making this team’s core more challenging to play against. However, there are still some more moves to make. Reilly Smith, on an expiring deal, was already traded back to the Vegas Golden Knights on Thursday in exchange for a third-round draft selection. This is a good start.
Chris Kreider and Mika Zibanejad could fetch good returns in this seller’s market. Zibanejad will be a more difficult contract to sell, but teams will likely line up for Kreider’s big-game experience. The Rangers need to retool in the worst way; this trade deadline is the time to do it.
Prospect pool will be a nightmare if front office doesn’t get to work
CapWages has an informative graphic that shows a team’s picks for the subsequent three drafts. If the team traded away their picks, it has that logo blurred out. When looking at the Rangers’ subsequent three drafts, there are too many blurred graphics for a team that hasn’t had much success other than a few Eastern Conference Finals appearances.
The Rangers don’t own their first five picks in the 2025 draft, with their first coming with the Carolina Hurricanes’ second-rounder. They have some other teams’ picks in the third and fourth rounds, but they’ve traded away most of their own. They also don’t have their picks in the second and fourth rounds of the 2026 and 2027 drafts. It’s bad news, but the team’s future outlook isn’t good when they sit with limited picks and out of a playoff spot at the trade deadline.
The Rangers are also 19th in The Athletic’s 2025 Prospect Pool Rankings. However, other than Gabe Perreault, there isn’t much to excite fans in the Big Apple. The future outlook is why trading a player like Kreider or even a struggling K’Andre Miller could be what the team needs to regain some draft capital and get things back on track.
The good news for the Rangers is that the teams they’re competing against are perpetual underachievers: the Columbus Blue Jackets, Ottawa Senators, and Detroit Red Wings. Fox’s health plays a big factor, but New York should sneak into a playoff spot. If they can get hot down the stretch to give themselves a shot and also recoup some assets, it’d be the best-case scenario.
The nightmare scenario would be buying and hurting their future outlook even more to give this team a better chance with all their current question marks.
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