As Canadiens soar, Rangers clearly worse off 5 years after front-office upheaval

Chris Drury presided over his first NHL Draft as New York's GM and president soon after being promoted to both jobs. Nick Homler / NHLI via Getty Images Today marks exactly five years since a pair of successive events altered the course of NHL history. On May 5, 2021, New York Rangers owner James Dolan first informed team president John Davidson and general manager Jeff Gorton that they were being fired. Shortly thereafter, Dolan met with associate GM Chris Drury and came away convinced that the then-44-year-old was ready for both vacated roles. It was a sequence of decisions that stunned Rangers fans, players and team employees alike. It also set multiple franchises and front-office careers on new paths. Davidson, a beloved former Rangers goaltender and broadcaster who lasted just short of two years atop the front office, quickly returned to the Columbus Blue Jackets as president and alternate governor before eventually transitioning to a senior advisory position. Gorton landed in Montreal six months later as the Canadiens' executive vice president of hockey operations. Initial returns favored the Rangers, who appeared in the Eastern Conference finals two of the first three seasons following the firings, while Gorton and Davidson had to start over with teams near the bottom of the standings. But those trajectories have dramatically shifted in the last two years. Gorton and the Canadiens, in particular, are riding high behind a proven rebuild philosophy, having seemingly arrived as a Stanley Cup contender by upsetting Eastern Conference favorite Tampa Bay Lightning in the first round of the NHL playoffs. Drury, meanwhile, still has full authority over New York's hockey operations and personnel. But as he's increasingly put his own stamp on the organization, those early successes have given way to the Rangers tumbling faster than anyone saw coming. The roster has been gutted of the skill required to keep pace in today's game, leaving them at the mercy of bouncing ping-pong balls in Tuesday's 7 p.m. NHL Draft Lottery -- a far cry from where Dolan hoped the franchise would go when he promoted Drury half a decade ago. While multiple league sources believe no single breaking point caused the dismissals of Davidson and Gorton, a five-game losing streak at the end of the 2020-21 season certainly didn't help. The cringeworthy finish included two straight shutout losses to the rival Islanders followed by an infamous May 3, 2021 defeat against the Capitals, during which Tom Wilson punched defenseless Rangers forward Pavel Buchnevich in the back of the head and rag-dolled a much smaller Artemi Panarin. The incident became a talking point around the league, with the Rangers issuing a scathing statement on May 4 at Dolan's behest after the NHL's head of player safety, George Parros, decided to fine Wilson rather than suspend him. Davidson and Gorton were unaware of the statement until it went public and were displeased about being blindsided by it, according to two people familiar with the events: a reflection of a growing disconnect within the organization. Behind the scenes, Dolan and Glen Sather -- the longtime team president who transitioned into a senior advisory role shortly before Davidson's hiring in 2019 -- felt the roster was failing to live up to its talent following the 2019 signing of Panarin. They perceived a lack of urgency in management and had lost confidence in its ability to push the Rangers to the next level. This represented a shift from the rebuild strategy that had been agreed upon a few years earlier. Dolan was one of the driving forces behind a Feb. 2018 team letter to season-ticket holders that tasked Gorton with constructing a younger, more sustainable model. In the two years that followed, Gorton executed 24 trades and made 18 draft selections. There were plenty of blemishes, particularly a pair of top-10 picks in Lias Andersson (No. 7 in 2017) and Vitali Kravtsov (No. 9 in 2018) who turned out to be busts. But Gorton's general emphasis on accumulating assets and gathering talent led to a prospect pool that ranked among the league's best in the late 2010s and early 2020s. His final draft in 2020 turned out to be his best, featuring six players who have appeared in NHL games. Staying on the rebuild path may have led to a longer leash for the Davidson-Gorton front office, but the Panarin deal -- as well as a 2019 trade for future captain Jacob Trouba and back-to-back years of lottery fortune netting the No. 2 pick in 2019 (Kaapo Kakko) and No. 1 in 2020 (Alexis Lafrenière) -- raised expectations. Eventually, it also contributed to Davidson and Gorton losing their jobs. The Rangers combined to go 64-51-11 over the next two seasons, but the COVID-19 outbreak disrupted their playoff push in 2019-20 and they missed the postseason entirely in a pandemic-shortened 2020-21. Dolan wanted to accelerate the process and suggested moving on from coach David Quinn in favor of a more experienced bench boss, according to a league source. Davidson and Gorton, on the other hand, believed the timeline was on track and planned to add to New York's roster that summer, when they'd have increased salary cap flexibility due to shrinking penalties from the buyouts of Henrik Lundqvist and Kevin Shattenkirk. They never got that chance, with Dolan firing both on May 5. That same day, Dolan met with Drury and promoted him on the spot without interviewing other candidates. At the time, Drury was considered a rising young executive. He'd previously interviewed for GM positions with the Florida Panthers and Pittsburgh Penguins, but withdrew from consideration to accept an upgrade in title with the Rangers (from assistant GM to associate in February 2021). That indicates he may have known, or at least hoped, that he'd eventually get a crack at the big job in New York, but none of the sources interviewed for this story were aware of any assurances. Once Drury was promoted, he immediately shifted his attention to addressing what he saw as the roster's primary deficiency: grit. First he acquired two-time champion Barclay Goodrow from the Lightning and signed him to a six-year deal with a $3.64 million average annual value, an excessive cap hit for a forward who would spend most of his time on the fourth line. A week later, he traded a top-line winger in Buchnevich -- a restricted free agent whom the Rangers thought would be difficult to fit on a long-term contract -- to the Blues for a second-round pick and Sammy Blais, a young forward who they hoped would add size and physicality but instead quickly fizzled due to injury and ineffectiveness. Drury would later add veteran brawler Ryan Reaves and limited defenseman Patrik Nemeth, with the latter turning out to be the worst move of the bunch. It cost New York two second-round picks just to get rid of Nemeth's modest $2.5 million AAV the next summer. And yet the Rangers took off in 2021-22. A Gorton-assembled core blossomed under the hands-off coaching style of Gerard Gallant, whom Drury had brought in to replace Quinn, tying for third in franchise history with 52 wins before going on a surprise run to the conference final. Drury helped fortify the roster with his best trade deadline to date, acquiring forwards Andrew Copp, Tyler Motte and Frank Vatrano and defenseman Justin Braun. All four were rentals, though, signaling a strategy of sacrificing draft picks for short-term fixes that would deplete New York's pipeline over time. As the Rangers morphed into contenders, Gorton observed from north of the border. After joining the Canadiens as their VP of hockey operations in late Nov. 2021, and hiring Kent Hughes as his GM, Gorton quickly entered a period of aggressively acquiring picks, prospects and other assets. In the first eight months after Hughes was hired, Montreal executed 13 total trades. Out went players who helped the team reach the Cup Final in 2020, including Artturi Lehkonen, Tyler Toffoli, Ben Chiarot, Alexander Romanov and Shea Weber. In came 10 new draft picks, four of which were first-rounders, plus a slew of younger players. It reinforced Gorton's philosophy of throwing as many darts as possible to increase the chances of hitting bullseyes. The Habs already had a foundation in place with forwards Cole Caufield and Nick Suzuki and defenseman Kaiden Guhle coming up through their system, then hit the lottery for Gorton's first draft at the helm and went against consensus by drafting forward Juraj Slafkovský No. 1 overall in 2022. That same year, they used a second-round selection acquired from the Oilers to nab eventual Calder Trophy-winning defenseman Lane Hutson. Those picks were critical, but Gorton and Hughes also weaponized their capital to target players they viewed as long-term fits, such as Kirby Dach, Noah Dobson and Alex Newhook (who scored the series-clinching goal against the Lightning). Some especially savvy maneuvering occurred with Sean Monahan, who came with a first-round pick attached as part of an August 2022 salary dump from the Calgary Flames, then rehabilitated his game and earned Montreal another first-round pick (plus a third) in a February 2024 trade with the Winnipeg Jets. While Gorton was accumulating assets in Montreal, Drury was surrendering them in pursuit of New York's first championship in three decades. His most aggressive deadline came in 2023 when he landed forwards Patrick Kane and Vladimir Tarasenko, among other acquisitions. But Kane was compromised while playing through a hip injury that would require surgery and the team struggled to gel with its new star power. The Rangers went 47-22-13 behind Igor Shesterkin's goaltending and strong special teams but were overmatched at five-on-five while being ousted by the younger and faster Devils in the first round. That led to Gallant's firing, with another veteran coach, Peter Laviolette, coming on board to guide New York to a franchise-record 55 wins and its fourth Presidents' Trophy in 2023-24. The Rangers reached the conference final for the second time in three years, but their five-on-five deficiencies once again came to the forefront while being eliminated by the eventual champion Panthers. That roster featured 17 players who had been drafted, signed or acquired by the previous regime. There had been prior attempts to make a lasting splash -- New York was involved in trade talks for Jack Eichel and Jake Guentzel at various points -- but the summer of 2024 was viewed as the moment to pursue larger changes. In order to do that, though, Drury needed to trim salary. Goodrow and Trouba were identified as expendable, with the former claimed off waivers by the Sharks that June. The backdoor nature of the transaction didn't sit well with the player or much of the locker room, and the drama escalated when the Rangers tried to force a Trouba trade later that month. The captain used his 15-team no-trade list to block those attempts, with the resulting friction lingering into training camp and the 2024-25 season. The team was consumed by the rift and went on a 4-15 freefall from late November through the end of the calendar year. That spurred Drury toward a thorough dismantling, with Trouba agreeing to a Dec. 6, 2024 trade to the Ducks under the threat of waivers, followed by the trades of Kakko, Filip Chytil, Ryan Lindgren, Chris Kreider, K'Andre Miller, Panarin and other longtime Rangers. A new captain in J.T. Miller arrived in one of those deals, which is already aging poorly, but the majority of the outgoing players have yet to be properly replaced. A chunk of the newfound cap space was used to sign defenseman Vladislav Gavrikov last summer, but the only trade acquisition besides Miller who regularly suited up for New York this past season was defenseman Will Borgen. As a result, the product has crumbled. The Rangers missed the playoffs in a calamitous 2024-25, then fired Laviolette and hired two-time champion coach Mike Sullivan. It failed to halt the spiral, with New York finishing last in the conference and posting the NHL's third-worst record at 34-39-9 this season. If the player turnover has been fairly abrupt in New York, the change to the inner workings of its hockey operations department has been more of a slow burn. There were a few initial firings after Drury's promotion -- notably director of European scouting Nick Bobrov -- but a more thorough scouting transformation came months later. Gordie Clark, the longtime director of amateur scouting, did not have his contract renewed after being demoted the year prior, with director of North American scouting Chris Morehouse also leaving after the 2021 draft. Drury went on to keep three amateur scouts from the Gorton years while letting seven others go. Conversely, he retained four of the five European scouts who had been in place under Bobrov. Other departments have seen fewer changes. Kevin Maxwell, who was director of pro scouting for the entirety of Gorton's tenure, returned in that role last month after leaving the Blues' organization. Jim Sullivan, who ran New York's analytics under the previous regime, has risen to an assistant GM post, while Rich Dry has been retained as senior director of sports tech. The player development staff maintained the same leadership group until recently, when Jed Ortmeyer was let go following nine seasons as director of player development. The department has come under fire due to the Rangers' poor prospect hit rate, but rather than bringing in a fresh voice, Drury promoted another original Gorton hire, assistant director and former Rangers forward Tanner Glass. He'll be working with a new AHL coaching staff after Hartford coach Grant Potulny and assistants Jamie Tardif and Paul Mara were fired on Sunday, with the Wolf Pack's recent woes yet another example of a system that's gone awry. A few spurned employees have followed Gorton to Montreal. Among them are Bobrov, who's the Canadiens' co-director of amateur scouting, and Jim Ramsay, the head trainer who spent 28 seasons with the Rangers and whose surprising 2023 dismissal proved disconcerting for several veteran players. The ousters of longtime staffers such as Ramsay have produced a chilling effect inside the organization. That paranoia has been amplified by tightened restrictions on employees and a culture of secrecy that stems from Drury, who limits his interactions with fans and media and avoids in-person press conferences. That's another contrast with Gorton, who appeared on multiple podcasts last week alone. Most fans care less about transparency than they do about winning, which is the most obvious area where New York has come up short. Gorton's track record was far from perfect, but his Montreal success suggests the formula works if given enough time. Now Drury faces the challenge of revamping a regressing roster after signing his own version of the letter -- this one signaling a retool, not a rebuild. He still has Dolan's backing in spite of the recent struggles, but five years after the shocking upheaval, it's hard to argue that the Rangers are in a better place.