The New York Rangers have spent the last few years trying to remind everyone they belong in the league’s top tier, and that pressure has only sharpened the spotlight on what comes next.
Former NHLer turned analyst Mike Rupp believes that next move may still be the kind of swing that changes everything. On his read, Chris Drury and the Rangers have been trying to line themselves up for a major strike, even if the big Broadway move hasn’t happened yet.
“I think we’re in a spot here where I think Chris Drury and management was looking towards this past summer. I think they were trying to position themselves in a way to go big, whatever that meant, the big, big-name players that were out there that we saw get absorbed by their current teams in a lot of situations… I also think that they have always had an eye on Connor McDavid and that situation and monitoring that.
So I think there’s probably a plan to do something big. It just hasn’t come to fruition up to this point,”
McDavid, 29, is set to begin the first year of the two-year, $25 million extension he signed with the Oilers in October. He’s coming off a huge 2025-26 season, one that produced 138 points - 48 goals and 90 assists - and earned him the Art Ross Trophy.
For now, McDavid’s priority remains the same: winning a Stanley Cup in Edmonton. But if the Oilers stumble in 2026-27, the conversation around his future will get louder fast.
There will be no shortage of teams linked to him if that happens, and the Rangers figure to stay in that mix as long as they’re back in the hunt themselves. It’s New York, after all.
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Oilers Face A Long-Term Roster Squeeze Around McDavid And Draisaitl
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Oilers Fans Just Got A Tough Reminder About Darnell Nurse
Darnell Nurses place in Edmonton has been under the microscope for a while, and the latest reminder of why the conversation never really goes away comes back to the contract the Oilers committed to him. His big extension looked like the price of doing business after a strong breakthrough season, and the organization was trying to secure a top left defenseman in a market that was never going to make that easy. In the moment, it felt like the kind of move a contender makes when it believes it has found a cornerstone.
Now, with the benefit of hindsight, the deal sits in a much tougher light because of the way Nurses performance and the teams circumstances have evolved. Edmonton has spent enough time dealing with injuries and roster pressure that every major contract gets judged against what else the club could have done, and Nurse remains one of the clearest examples of that tension. The Oilers may not be revisiting the decision anytime soon, but the debate around it is still very much alive. [Read more 🡒]