The New York Rangers expressed a strong desire for a quick retool during their breakup day, emphasizing their aim to be a competitive playoff team soon.
Key points
Rangers held breakup day interviews
Team aims for a quick retool
Desire to be playoff-caliber soon
Comments made by Chris Drury and Mike Sullivan
Players expressed commitment to future direction
Mentioned in this story
Chris DruryMike Sullivan
New York Rangers
Brad Penner-Imagn Images
Brad Penner-Imagn Images
Words may not be actions, but words certainly speak volumes in their own right.
During the New York Rangers’ breakup day and in their individual exit interviews on Friday from Chris Drury to Mike Sullivan to all of the players, there was a clear message being sent regarding the team’s future direction.
The Rangers are signaling their intent to become a competitive, playoff-caliber team sooner rather than later.
Of course, that vastly contradicts Drury’s letter sent out to fans on Jan. 16 outlining the Rangers’ plan to retool the roster, trade some of the organization's key players, and get younger as a whole.
Drury’s message held an awfully similar tone to the Rangers’ 2018 letter to fans issued by the franchise's previous management group, in which was followed up by a multi-year rebuild.
However, it doesn't appear as if Drury, Sullivan, and company want to go down that same path.
Sullivan has expressed that he believes the Rangers can be more proactive in jumpstarting their competitive window instead of going through a long restructuring of the roster, typical in most rebuilding teams.
He shared that same sentiment on Friday with more time to decompress on the 2025-26 season.
“I think we have the ability to improve and get better in the most immediate future,” Sullivan said. “When you look at our team this year, for most of the year, we were right in the hunt. With some tweaks to our roster, get some guys healthy again, I think we have the ability to become a competitive team.”
The Blueshirts came into the 2025-26 campaign fresh off signing Vladislav Gavrikov to a seven-year, $49 million contract, while Sullivan left a 10-year partnership with the Pittsburgh Penguins to become the head coach of the Rangers, with the hopes of reviving their Stanley Cup aspirations that once seemed promising just one year before.
Q&A
What did the New York Rangers communicate during breakup day?
The Rangers conveyed their intent to quickly retool and become a competitive playoff-caliber team.
Who spoke about the Rangers' future direction during breakup day?
Chris Drury, Mike Sullivan, and all players participated in the exit interviews discussing the team's future.
What is the Rangers' goal for the upcoming season?
The Rangers aim to establish themselves as a playoff-caliber team sooner rather than later.
How did the Rangers' players react during exit interviews?
Players sent a clear message about their commitment to the team's future direction and competitiveness.
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In spite of Drury’s competitive mindset, the Rangers struggled out of the gate, and by January, it was apparent that they would likely not make the playoffs.
"What I'll tell you is that did I anticipate some of the challenges that we had this year? Probably not,” Sullivan said. “I wouldn't be being honest with you if I said otherwise, but I just think that's the nature of pro sports.”
Shortly after the letter was released, the Rangers traded their franchise leader in points since the 2019-20 season, Artemi Panarin, to the Los Angeles Kings in exchange for prospect Liam Greentree and a conditional 2026 third-round pick.
Outside of the Panarin deal though, Drury didn’t put his words from the letter into action, as he only made a couple of other minor trades leading up to the trade deadline, and notably held onto veteran forward Vincent Trocheck, who was heavily rumored to be moved.
Now, a Rangers team that just finished in last place in the Eastern Conference standings with a 34-39-9 record and 77 points, are conveying a sense of confidence about the immediate future.
“I'm not going to get into the timelines,” Chris Drury said on how close the Rangers are to becoming a playoff team. “I think we have a lot of good players. We have a lot of talented players. As we said in the letter, certainly wasn't good enough to that point and we're trying to retool and find some different ways to have success. I do like a lot of our pieces, and I'm excited to begin the offseason and take a deeper look at it and try and figure out how to be better.”
What led to this desire for a quick retool?
If you look around the NHL, there are teams that have been able to fastrack their rebuild and become competitive quickly, adding some young talent to an already established core, including the Washington Capitals, Boston Bruins, and the Penguins.
That is the model the Rangers appear to be looking to copy. Drury emphasized building around the team’s “core” players in his letter. These “core” players are likely headlined by Adam Fox, Igor Shesterkin, J.T. Miller ,and Mika Zibanejad.
There also has to be a level of buy-in from the core players, which seemed to be on shaky ground after the letter was released.
The main source of uncertainty came from Fox, whose noncommittal comments about his future with the Rangers sparked a wave of speculation.
That initial uncertainty from the team’s top point producers has suddenly turned into unwavering optimism, something strongly made transparent during Friday’s exit interviews.
"I’ve been here for 10 years. I’ve gone through the ups and downs. For me, yeah retool or whatever, but you just look around the league and see how fast it can go,” Zibanejad said. “I’m optimistic, especially with the young guys coming in, too, and playing. I don't feel like we need a whole lot. I want to be here to turn this around."
The Rangers ended the season on somewhat of a high note, winning five of their last seven games at home.
This hot stretch was viewed as a sign of optimism by Drury and potentially even gives him more of a reason to jump on this trend of embarking on a quick retool as opposed to a mythical rebuild, whether that line of thinking may be irrational or not.
“Although the result of the season was not what we had hoped for, we were encouraged with how the team played to close out the year after the Olympic break,” Drury said. “The brand of hockey we played over the last few months gives us something to build on going into next season.
“We are excited with the future holds with the players we have in our roster, the prospects that we've already drafted, and 11 picks we have in the upcoming draft. We're determined to take the momentum we've created and carry that forward for the 2026-27 season.”
While we haven’t seen this plan of a shortened retool put into action just yet, and there’s no direct evidence to point toward the Drury going in that direction over the offseason, the words heard during breakup day were a clear indication that the Rangers are looking to be a competitive team in the near future, to the possible detriment of the organization.
