When the Rangers hired Mike Sullivan, the reaction around the team was pretty straightforward: this looked like a real step forward. He came in with a reputation as one of the NHL’s best coaches, a guy who can tighten up a team defensively without suffocating the stars on the other end.
He had already won two Cups in Pittsburgh, and the second came with what the source describes as a questionable blue line at best. Nobody was penciling the Rangers in for a title in year one, but the expectation was simple enough - be better, especially in your own end, while the club moved into a new core.
The season opened with some obvious growing pains, and Sullivan’s first unpopular move came before training camp even started: bringing in David Quinn as an assistant. Quinn’s run as Rangers head coach left plenty of baggage behind, even if there was hope he could work better in a different role. Joe Sacco and Ty Hennes completed the staff.
As for the on-ice results, the Rangers never really found a clean rhythm. October brought just five wins, though the underlying numbers weren’t disastrous and the defensive structure already looked more organized.
November started with a promising 5-2-0 run, then things unraveled. The team basically played around .500 the rest of November and into December.
The real collapse hit after December 27, when the Rangers dropped 15 of 18 before the Olympic break. That stretch included the ugly 10-2 loss in Boston.
It wasn’t all on coaching or lineup choices, either. Igor Shesterkin and Adam Fox both went down early in that run, forcing Spencer Martin and Jonathan Quick to split the starts.
Braden Schneider got pushed onto the top pair on a blue line that was already struggling, and all of it came on top of whatever the problem was with JT Miller.
The finish had a little more life to it, though not much consistency. A six-game losing streak in March sat between a four-game winning streak and a stretch where the Rangers won four of five. In the end, it settled out to more of the same: .500 hockey down the stretch.
What Sullivan did manage to improve was the defense. That matters, because the Rangers’ bigger issue was not really stopping the puck - it was creating anything at all.
The team scored 238 goals, which ranked 22nd in the NHL. They allowed 250, which put them 15th.
Not great, but not a disaster either.
The deeper numbers tell the same story. Under Sullivan, the Rangers were at 54.7 CF/60, 57.28 CA/60, and a 48.85 CF%.
Their xGF/60 sat at 2.46, while their xGA/60 was 2.55. In high-danger chances, they posted 10.96 HDCF/60 and 10.20 HDCA/60, with a 51.79 HDCF%.
The broad takeaway is that the Rangers simply couldn’t generate enough offense or quality offense, which left them stuck in their own zone too often. Given that, it’s almost surprising the defense held up as well as it did.
The other major complaint centered on personnel decisions. Gabe Perreault didn’t become a top-six regular until winter.
Brett Berard and Scott Morrow kept getting moved around all season. Carson Soucy and Will Borgen kept logging heavy minutes despite ugly results.
JT Miller played through his issue and was mostly atrocious until after the Olympics.
At the same time, the coaching staff didn’t freeze out every young player. Perreault stayed in the top six after the Panarin trade.
Tye Kartye came in on waivers and made an immediate impact. Jaro Chmelar and Adam Sykora were brought up and looked like they might stick for the next season.
Noah Laba remained with the club all year, and Dylan Garand looked fine in his first cuppa.
The criticism of Sullivan and the staff on this front may have been a little heavy. Othmann and Berard never really clicked, and Morrow was blocked - and still is blocked for now - by others in the organization. There are more openings for kids this coming season, so this one still needs time before it can be fully judged.
In Other News...
Rangers May Be Heading Toward Another Painful Braden Schneider Decision
Braden Schneiders place in the Rangers long-term picture is suddenly looking less secure than it once did. The 24-year-old defenseman has not quite matched the early expectations that came with him, and with New York already carrying several blueliners on long-term deals while younger options continue to push into the conversation, his path to a steady role has become harder to define.
For a front office still trying to balance roster construction with salary cap reality, that creates a difficult kind of decision. Schneider is no longer just a player to monitor on the back end, but part of a larger equation about how the Rangers can address other needs without thinning out their defense too much, and the next stretch of his play could go a long way toward determining how aggressively management moves around him. [Read more 🡒]
Rangers Could Still Make One Intriguing Move Before Camp
With training camp approaching, the Rangers are still leaving room for one more move up front, and Shane Wright has emerged as a name worth watching. The Seattle center was the No. 4 overall pick not long ago, and at 22 he still fits the kind of young, controllable talent New York has tended to value when looking to deepen its forward group. For the Rangers, the appeal is obvious: a player who could slide into a third-line center role and give the lineup another option down the middle.
How New York would get there is the part still worth tracking. Any serious pursuit would likely force the Rangers to weigh pieces from a defense corps that already has its own internal value, and that kind of decision is never simple this late in the summer. Wrights situation has opened the door for speculation, but the real question is whether the Rangers decide the fit is strong enough to part with a useful young defender before camp opens. [Read more 🡒]