The Rangers have spent the offseason reshaping the roster around their biggest names, and the whole plan comes back to one simple truth: New York needs Adam Fox on the ice, healthy, and playing at his usual level in 2026-27.
Igor Shesterkin matters just as much, of course. He’s 30 and still viewed as one of the best goaltenders in the world, and even after missing 13 games last season with a lower-body injury, there’s less worry about what he’ll bring next year.
Fox is the bigger question. He has not reached 75 games in any of the last three seasons, and last year he was limited to 55 because of two extended injury absences.
Even with the missed time, Fox still produced 53 points, including nine goals and 44 assists. But the season was also defined by the disappointment of not making the U.S.
Olympic roster, especially with Rangers general manager Chris Drury, head coach Mike Sullivan, assistant David Quinn, and teammates Vincent Trocheck and J.T. Miller winning gold with Team USA in Milan.
The criticism around Fox kept coming, too. He was labeled too slow and too small, and his play at the 4 Nations Face-Off in 2025 drew more heat. Still, the Rangers kept leaning on him, even as Fox was vague about his long-term future in New York after Drury’s retool announcement in January.
That’s because Fox remains the backbone of the blue line. He’s one of the league’s elite two-way defensemen, a player who drives offense, handles heavy minutes, and thinks the game at a level few others match.
He also runs the power play, and that unit finished fifth in the NHL at 24.7 percent. Despite missing 27 games last season, Fox tied Mika Zibanejad for the team lead with 44 assists.
The numbers without him tell the story even louder. The Rangers went 8-16-3 in the games he missed in 2025-26. Their season really unraveled in early January, when Fox suffered his second injury in the same game Shesterkin went down, triggering a 2-11-0 slide that dropped the team to the bottom of the Eastern Conference.
When Fox is in the lineup, the Rangers simply function better. Their expected goal-for rate jumps by 12.9 percent, and their high-danger scoring chances ratio at 5v5 rises by 16.2 percent. Natural Stat Trick also showed New York at minus-14 in goal differential without the 2021 Norris Trophy winner and plus-11 with him.
After the Rangers missed the Stanley Cup Playoffs for a second straight year, Sullivan pointed to the lack of play-drivers and skilled puck-movers on the back end outside of Fox. Drury responded by reworking the defense around him.
The biggest changes came on the second pair, where New York added Sean Durzi and Marcus Pettersson in separate trades. Durzi arrived in the July 1 deal with the Utah Mammoth that sent Trocheck the other way, and he immediately slots in as the No. 2 right-shot defenseman behind Fox.
He has played top-four minutes with both the Mammoth and the Los Angeles Kings, posted 41 points in 2023-24, and followed that with 27 points, including five goals and 22 assists, in 60 games last season. He should ease some of the puck-moving burden on Fox and also fits as the quarterback of the second power-play unit.
Pettersson brings a different profile. He’s a stay-at-home defender who can handle top-six matchups, help on the penalty kill, and still move the puck cleanly. He also comes with a built-in connection to Sullivan after seven seasons under him with the Pittsburgh Penguins.
That gives the Rangers a very different look on the back end: Gavrikov and Pettersson on the left, Fox and Durzi on the right. Braden Schneider, who handled penalty-killing duties but struggled when he had to step into the top pair at 5v5 after Fox got hurt, drops back to the third pair. He’ll skate with one of Alberts Smits, the No. 5 overall pick in this year’s draft, Matthew Robertson, Urho Vaakanainen, or Drew Fortescue.
Fox and Gavrikov already showed what that kind of stability can do. In just 55 games together last season, they looked like one of the league’s best top pairs.
Among pairings that logged at least 400 even-strength minutes, they ranked third with an expected goals rate of 58.49 percent and fourth with 1.72 goals allowed per 60 minutes. Fox praised the fit on breakup day.
“Defensively, he’s just steady,” Fox said. “I think that’s the biggest thing.
I play my best when I can read off someone and know where they’re going to be, and they’re predictable. I was really happy with how we played and how quickly we formed a good pair.”
That’s a pretty clear sign of where this is headed. Gavrikov is a better match than Ryan Lindgren was, and the hope in New York is that the new setup lets Fox look more like the defenseman he’s been at his best - the kind who belongs in the same conversation as Cale Makar, Quinn Hughes, and Zach Werenski.
If Fox stays healthy and the new defense corps holds up, the Rangers have a real chance to turn the page in 2026-27 and get back to the playoffs.
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