Rangers Confident They’ll Make The Playoffs..see more
The New York Rangers were a massive disappointment last season.
Two years ago, the Rangers won the President’s Trophy, which is awarded to the NHL team with the best regular-season record. Yet, this past season – with a very similar roster – everything fell apart as the Rangers failed to make the playoffs.
In the offseason, New York didn’t do much. Their big move was signing shutdown defenseman Vladislav Gavrikov and trading away K’Andre Miller. Although the move makes them a better defensive team, one NHL executive spoke to The Athletic and doesn’t think the Rangers are a playoff team.
“I don’t know how just the one signing (in Gavrikov) is going to make them back to contending for the division,” the executive said. “That’s their challenge.”
The Rangers finished last season with a record of 39-36-7 and were in 11th place in the East and 6 points out of a playoff spot.
Although New York did hire Mike Sullivan to be their coach, the NHL executive doesn’t like the Rangers’ chances to make the playoffs this season.
The Rangers have odds of -200 to make the playoffs, which implies a 66.7% chance.
New York was a massive disappointment last season, but the Rangers are confident they will make the playoffs next year.
Despite missing the playoffs last season, the Rangers gave general manager Chris Drury a multi-year contract extension. CEO James Dolan said that he had confidence the Rangers would be back in the postseason next year. He also liked what Drury was building.
