New York Rangers general manager Chris Drury is polarizing.
That’s not the least bit unique to him; pretty much every Blueshirts GM has held that distinction at some point, given the team’s emotional, demanding and rabid fanbase. No personnel head for the Original Six club has ever just been “fine,” and Drury, having grown up in nearby Trumbull, Conn. as a Rangers fan, might understand that better than any of his predecessors.
One fact about Drury’s tenure that can’t be disputed, however, is this: On the eve of his fourth NHL Draft in charge, it’s simply too early to judge the first three.
Drury has generally received positive reviews from talent evaluators for his front office’s selections, though again, it’s not possible to accurately assess any of those: Only one players from those drafts, 2021 first-round forward Brennan Othmann, has played in the NHL, and that was a three-game cameo this season.
While it’s hardly surprising that the Blueshirts have yet to reap any benefits from their draft picks over the past three years, the team’s final draft under the former regime of Jeff Gorton bore fruit in a big way in 2023-24 – the kind of effort that many GMs can only hope for on a regular basis.
Gorton’s work in the draft from 2017-19, when the Rangers were in the process of entering a rebuild, was mixed at best, and his results on a top-10 pick in each of those years has left a lot to be desired. Yet the 2020 draft, conducted remotely with the world still deep in the COVID-19 pandemic, was a study in deft maneuvering and execution of a philosophy in which the club appeared to make a pivot toward drafting a certain type of player. Those nine selections have shown signs of accomplishing exactly what Gorton was looking to do, though he wasn’t around to benefit from the type of fruitful draft that rebuilding teams crave.
Ironically, Gorton, whose focus in 2020 landed on adding tougher, edgier players to the organization, was fired in May 2021 in part because he failed to bring those kinds of players to the NHL club – leading to the Tom Wilson Incident, the most memorable event in a season in which the Rangers had, like in so many other seasons, been pushed around and beaten up by opponents.
The 2020 draft class seemed like a clear attempt to address precisely what would happen nearly a year later; the former GM got to it too late to save his job. Nevertheless, Gorton added a group of players that has indeed helped to at least begin the process of transforming the Rangers into a brawnier, more playoff-ready outfit – a process that still has a long way to go after this season’s Eastern Conference Final loss to the Florida Panthers.
The 2023-24 season represented a coming-out party for several players from Gorton’s final kick at the draft can, and it looks like there’s quite a bit more to come from that group. So here’s a glance at the highlights of what the previous management team bequeathed the current one – and what Drury can aspire to in future years.
Alexis Lafreniere, RW, 1st Round, 1st Pick
Missing on the first overall selection tends to render almost any team’s draft a failure, and there was plenty of concern that Alexis Lafreniere, the consensus top prospect four years ago, was on his way to wearing the bust label over three so-so seasons. The 22-year-old appeared to finally find his footing in his fourth season, however, blossoming with a 28-goal, 29-assist effort and following it up with eight goals and six assists in 16 playoff games, looking every bit the part of a rising franchise forward.
His confidence having risen with a new coach in Peter Laviolette and new linemates in Artemi Panarin and Vincent Trocheck, Lafreniere’s elite puck skills, much-improved skating and jagged on-ice persona emerged in 2023-24 as the organization breathed a collective sigh of relief.
Lafreniere’s stats were all the most impressive considering that he gets little power-play time, with 25 of his regular-season goals coming at even strength. The Blueshirts have every reason to believe Lafreniere will continue on an upward trend next season – just in time for his bridge contract to expire next summer, when he’ll likely have to be paid like the team cornerstone he’s becoming.
Braden Schneider, D, 1st Round, 19th Pick
Gorton also held the 22nd overall pick, the bounty from his trade of defenseman Brady Skjei to the Carolina Hurricanes in February 2020, but a combination of interest and fear made it a priority for him to move up three spots to select the rugged Braden Schneider, a commodity as a physical, right-shot defender. Certain that the Metropolitan Division rival New Jersey Devils would grab the Saskatchewan native with the 20th pick, the GM had no interest in watching the Rangers get banged around by Schneider four times every season.
Gorton sent a third-rounder, 72nd overall, to swap first-round spots with the Calgary Flames and leapfrog the Devils. That decision has been rewarded so far as Schneider, who made his Rangers debut in January 2022 and never returned to the minors, looks to be on the verge of developing into a top-four defenseman. Schneider plays a simple and sound game that includes the physical bent and better-than-expected skating and puck skills Gorton saw in 2020. Though the analytics don’t love him, the 22-year-old moved past captain Jacob Trouba for the second-pair right-side assignment late in the season and into the playoffs, teaming with K’Andre Miller in a potential long-term partnership.
Related: Rangers’ Top-10 Draft Misses of 2017-19 Starting to Hurt
A restricted free agent this summer, the Rangers will likely look to sign the throwback defender to a bridge deal with an eye on a long stay with the organization.
Will Cuylle, LW, 2nd Round, 60th Overall Pick
As with Schneider, the selection of Will Cuylle was a matter of Gorton getting the Rangers into position to draft a player he wanted. The Rangers had dealt away their own second-round pick along with a third to acquire the rights to defenseman Adam Fox (that trade also seems to be trending well), but Gorton was able to move back into the second round – and minimize the damage from one of his worst draft decisions – by sending 2017 seventh overall pick Lias Andersson to the Los Angeles Kings for the 60th selection.
Andersson was a bust in New York and hasn’t been able to establish himself as an NHLer anywhere else. As bad as picking him was, the selection of Cuylle, a power forward who like Schneider plays a throwback game, looks like a win. Cuylle made the team out of training camp in 2023-24 and established himself as a rising bottom sixer with a multitude of hard-nosed skills that the Blueshirts crave. Cuylle scored 13 goals to go with eight assists, hits everything that moves (249 on the season) and plays with speed and a straight-line edge. Also responsible defensively, there’s reason to believe the 22-year-old’s role will continue to grow in the coming years.
Dylan Garand, G, 4th Round, 103rd Overall Pick
An organization known for its prowess in developing goaltenders grabbed another one in the fourth round, with Dylan Garand having put up big numbers in juniors to catch the Rangers’ attention. The 22-year-old has yet to translate that dominance to the American Hockey League level in 73 regular-season games, but there are promising signs: Garand posted a .922 save percentage in nine games for the Hartford Wolf Pack in the 2024 AHL playoffs, and backstopped Canada to the gold medal in the 2022 world junior championships.
With star netminder Igor Shesterkin – also a former fourth-round choice of the Rangers – entrenched at the NHL level, Garand’s development is seen as a long game for the organization. A future as Shesterkin’s backup, or perhaps as a valuable trade chip with a chance to establish himself elsewhere, might be in the cards if Garand can get on an upward path.
Brett Berard, F, 5th Round, 134th Overall Pick
The second of the club’s two fifth-rounders that year, the Rangers are hoping they found a hidden gem in U.S. National Team Development Program product Brett Berard. The left wing busted out with Hartford in 2023-24, recording 25 goals and 23 assists to place third on the Wolf Pack in points, one behind Othmann.
The issue with the Providence College alum is his size – at 5-foot-9 and 163 pounds, his frame was always going to raise red flags among talent evaluators, and his availability late in the draft reflected that. Berard, though, plays with fire and edge and might be able to overcome the doubters with his north-south, puck-hunting game. The 21-year-old had 62 penalty minutes in 71 games last season and somehow managed to pile up 29 in five games of the 2022 world junior championships.
Berard’s style of play reinforces the theme that Gorton was going for – physicality and jam. The Rhode Island native should get a chance to make the Rangers as a bottom-six energy player over the next couple of seasons if he continues to produce in the AHL.
Matt Rempe, F, 6th Round, 165th Overall Pick
You might have heard Rempe’s name thrown about a few times if you followed the Rangers’ season. Yes, the “Rempemania” that at times seemed to consume all the attention around the Blueshirts last season started here, when Gorton took a flier on a 6-7, 241-pound forward with a strong work ethic and high energy level, rewarding the Rangers with a player who might turn out to be an actual prospect.
Rempe’s run of fights with fellow heavyweights that marked his first 10 games, beginning with his NHL debut in the Rangers’ Stadium Series win over the New York Islanders (in which he became the first player to debut in an outdoor game) were the talk of the league for a while. Through all the hype and eyeballs Rempe naturally drew, however, coach Peter Laviolette and the organization saw a huge player that could skate uncommonly well for a man his size, throw crushing checks and even score a little with better-than-expected puck skills. Rempe played in 11 playoff games in 2024 and scored the Blueshirts’ first goal of the postseason.
The big guy remains very raw and has a long way to go in adapting his physical presence to the NHL. Rempe proved to be a lightning rod for referees, given the force with which he hits and his inability to keep his elbows low on checks because of his height. He was also guilty of several much-deserved bad penalties, which he’ll have to clean up.
Rempe, though, helped change the attitude of the team into one of a more fearless, physical outfit, and Laviolette is sure to keep working with a player who at times wreaked havoc on the forecheck, was all but immovable from the front of the opposing net and brought a jolt to the Rangers whenever he took the ice. The Blueshirts recognize that they have a rare asset on their hands, one that could be molded into a consistent difference-maker over time.
Gorton’s 2020 Draft Won’t Be Easily Duplicated by Drury
Drury probably won’t be able to look back at the 2024 draft, which begins June 28, as anywhere comparable to the 2020 one. The Rangers have only four selections, and none in the second or third rounds. Their first-rounder will be 30th overall, so the GM would really have to hit a home run with that pick to make this draft anywhere near as impactful as 2020. Gorton had nine picks to work with that year, with at least one in each round and of course the first overall.
Still, Gorton deserves credit for seemingly delivering (again, to this point) on most of that draft capital. Other than left wing Oliver Tarnstrom (third round, No. 92), who’s still playing in Sweden, center Evan Vierling (fifth round, No. 127), who never signed with the Rangers and is now in the Pittsburgh Penguins organization, and goaltender Hugo Ollas (seventh round, No. 197), who is still largely an unknown at this point, the other six selections have made the last of the former GM’s five draft classes far and away his best, delivering concrete results with the potential for much more.
Gorton’s successor has been the beneficiary. If the class of 2020 continues to establish itself as a key part of the organization in the coming years, Drury might end up having to pool all of his selections just to match up with this effort of four years ago – one of several triumphs Gorton delivered while in charge.
