3 Priorities for New York Rangers GM Chris Drury to Address This Offseason – The Hockey Writers – New York Rangers

The New York Rangers made their first move of the offseason last week. No, it did not involve any players, but it did involve their general manager (GM). It was announced that Chris Drury signed a multi-year extension to remain Rangers’ GM, and it shows that the top of the organization still has faith in him to turn the team around after the disastrous season they just had. Whether fans like it or not, Drury is here for the long haul, and now, it will be up to him to figure out what needs to be done to get this team back into the playoffs.

There were so many things that went wrong this season for the Rangers. You can blame it on Drury himself, the players for not showing up, or a combination of the two, but this team definitely needs a shakeup on the ice going into next season. Drury needs to prioritize which areas need fixing the most and try to do the best he can to fix them. Here, we’ ll look at three priorities for Drury to address this offseason.

Finding a New Head Coach Again

This will now be the third coaching search Drury has had to conduct entering his sixth season as GM. It will be the fourth coach that has been with the team during his tenure. You can’t really count David Quinn as a coach as he was with the Rangers for the first few days of Drury’s tenure before being let go. His first real hire was Gerard Gallant, and while he had a great first season, leading the team to an Eastern Conference Final, he was fired after his second season after a first-round loss to the New Jersey Devils. Then, he hired Peter Laviolette, and he had an amazing first season, leading the team to the Presidents’ Trophy and another Eastern Conference Final. But, just like Gallant, he had a bad second season and was let go. There seems to be a pattern here, and the big question is, were the coaches the problem or were the players that seem to tune out the coach after the first season?

This will likely be the last head coach Drury gets to hire, and he needs to make the right choice. Well, as of this morning, one of the top options that Drury has been rumored to have major interest in, and a guy he has connections to, just became available. The Pittsburgh Penguins and Mike Sullivan have parted ways, and now, it seems like a no-brainer that he will become the next head coach for the Rangers. He and Drury went to Boston University together, and they were…