The Rangers spent the offseason trying to dig out of one of the NHL’s most disappointing seasons, and at least one national analyst thinks they’ve done plenty to change the conversation.
The Athletic’s Dom Luszczyszyn ranked New York as the second-most improved team of the NHL offseason, placing the Rangers just one point in net rating behind the Nashville Predators for the top spot. His view was straightforward: the Rangers “did enough to get back in the playoff mix next season.”
That kind of praise would have sounded far-fetched a few months ago, especially after New York finished last in the Eastern Conference and entered a weak free-agent market with plenty of work to do. General manager Chris Drury didn’t try to solve everything through free agency. He leaned on trades, and that’s where most of the heavy lifting got done.
The biggest swing came when the Rangers landed scoring winger Pavel Dorofeyev from the Vegas Golden Knights. New York gave up the No. 26 overall pick, the No. 92 overall pick, and a conditional 2028 first-round pick to get him, then signed him to a seven-year, $77 million contract. Dorofeyev is expected to fit on the top line with Mika Zibanejad and Gabe Perreault.
Luszczyszyn pointed directly to that move when making the case for New York’s rise. “Is everyone sleeping on the Rangers’ offseason," asked Luszczyszyn.
"Losing Vincent Trocheck isn’t ideal if the goal is competing for a playoff spot, but the addition of Pavel Dorofeyev more than makes up for it. He’s an upgrade in the top six and could be a major asset to the team’s power play.
Adding Oliver Bjorkstrand should solidify the middle six, too.
"The real reason to be optimistic about the Rangers next season, though, is a revamped blue line. This is a team that desperately needed a legit second pair and they got just that with the additions of Sean Durzi and Marcus Pettersson."
That blue-line overhaul may be the clearest sign that Drury wasn’t just patching holes. Adam Fox and Vladislav Gavrikov are set as the top pair, while Durzi and Pettersson give the Rangers a second pairing that wasn’t there before. That also opens the door for Braden Schneider to settle into a third-pair role after handling a bigger workload at times last season.
There’s even a path for first-round pick Alberts Smits to push for a spot. He was viewed as the most pro-ready prospect in this draft class, and he could earn a roster spot out of training camp.
Up front, the Rangers also added Oliver Bjorkstrand as a middle-six scoring forward, a move that should help balance the lineup. Their main departure was Vincent Trocheck, who was sent to the Utah Mammoth in the deal that brought back Durzi, prospect Cole Beaudoin, and a 2027 third-round pick.
Goaltending remains anchored by Igor Shesterkin, so the Rangers don’t have to worry much there unless injury becomes a factor. They also added veteran Joonas Korpisalo, though that move may have been one of Drury’s weaker ones this summer. Dylan Garand is another name to watch after he impressed during a late-season call-up.
The Rangers still could use another forward, and the season ahead will depend in part on younger players like Perreault, Noah Laba, and Adam Sykora taking a step forward. But after an offseason built around trades and targeted upgrades, the roster looks better than the one that finished at the bottom of the East. Whether that’s enough in a conference that improved around them is the next question.
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Why Adam Fox Suddenly Feels Like The Rangers' Whole Season
The Rangers have spent the offseason trying to make the roster fit around the players who still define their ceiling, and Adam Fox sits right at the center of that plan. Even with the injuries that have interrupted his recent seasons, he remains the defenseman the team builds around, while Igor Shesterkin gives them the kind of goaltending that can cover a lot of flaws when he is healthy.
That is why the blue line got so much attention this summer, with New York adding Sean Durzi and Marcus Pettersson to give Fox more support and help stabilize the defense corps. The idea is obvious enough: if the Rangers can keep Fox on the ice and reduce the strain on him, they give themselves a much better chance to make this season look a lot less fragile than the last one did. [Read more 🡒]
Rangers Fans Should Be Worried About Where NHL Stars Are Headed
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For Rangers fans, the concern is obvious because the leagues biggest names may be reaching their next contracts before they ever hit the open market. Artemi Panarin came up as a reminder of how these situations can unfold, with the real leverage often going to the team willing to make the extension part of the deal. If that keeps becoming the norm, the familiar summer chase for elite free agents could be giving way to something much less dramatic and much harder to win. [Read more 🡒]
Rangers Offseason Optimism May Be Hiding A Bigger Problem
The Rangers have spent the summer trying to look more stable than they did a year ago, and in a lot of ways the early returns under Chris Drury point in that direction. The roster is better balanced, the sense around the group is healthier than it was during the worst stretches of the previous season, and the club has moved itself out of the chaos that once defined too many conversations about the team.
Still, the bigger question is whether this is real progress or just the calm before another impatient swing at the problem. New York remains in a retooling phase, and without a true top-end forward to tilt games, the margin for error is thin. If the leadership mix does not settle cleanly and Drury starts chasing shortcuts, the Rangers could end up undoing some of the steadiness they have built. [Read more 🡒]