This brutal season is almost over. It’s bittersweet as most of us can’t wait for this team to be dismantled at the core, but we also have just one game of Sam Rosen left. With the offseason almost upon us, and a much longer offseason than many hoped for, heads are likely to roll. Peter Laviolette is likely gone, but should Chris Drury be fired as well? At some point, the only consistent presence in this locker room train wreck needs to be addressed.
The case for firing Drury
While not all of the locker room issues are on Drury, it’s abundantly clear that Drury has a people management problem and needs a buffer between him and the locker room. Neither Jeff Gorton nor Glen Sather were so hands on in the locker room, so Drury’s approach screams micromanagement and insecurity, at least when it comes to people. These aren’t reasons why he should be let go, but his weakness in this area certainly needs to be addressed.
Drury’s biggest failure in his tenure is his first offseason, where he made the critical mistake of trading Pavel Buchnevich only to spend the next four years trying to find a replacement. We might not even be having these Chris Kreider and Mika Zibanejad conversations either. That trade and the subsequent moves to acquire Barclay Goodrow and Ryan Reaves, only to have both divorces turn ugly, certainly play a role in some of the locker room issues.
So should Chris Drury be fired for these moves? In a vacuum, probably not. But all of this piles up, and at some point you have to look at yourself in the mirror. Drury has been at the helm since the Tom Wilson incident and this is now firmly his team. All locker room and personnel issues can be traced back to him. This includes getting rid of the entire PR department, scouting department, and Jim Ramsay. In doing so, he ensured everything runs through him.
We have also seen this in his coaching hires. He and Gerard Gallant appeared to never be on the same page. While Laviolette’s two years were better, there’s a clear disconnect now. How much Drury’s handling of Jacob Trouba, Chris Kreider, and Kaapo Kakko played into this is up in the air, but he was certainly involved.
If he is this big of a control freak, as potentially evidenced by all these moves, then he needs to own his mistakes. Should Chris Drury be fired for all this? There’s certainly a strong case for it. This doesn’t even address the rumblings about his (lack of) popularity in the organization and around the league.
There are two ways to address this issue. The first is to “promote” himself to President of Hockey Operations, while ceding GM duties to someone else who isn’t Ryan Martin. Drury is already President though, so this wouldn’t be a promotion so much as a shift in responsibilities. This would require finding another GM, which isn’t an easy task.
The other method is to fire Drury outright, but I can’t see James Dolan doing that.
The case against
“Should Chris Drury be fired?” is a tough question to answer because the answer is not so black and white. There’s a big grey area, especially when we start to factor in the players and their reaction to this season. For starters, that first offseason has mostly been undone, save for that 1RW situation. It wasn’t pretty, but Drury was rather ruthless in getting things done. He fails fast, which is a good thing.
For those in the corporate world, failing fast is something you’ve probably come across. For those who are not, it’s essentially another way of avoiding the sunk cost fallacy. Don’t continue to invest in doomed approaches. Cut bait quickly and find another option. Drury has certainly done that, and it is nice to see the Rangers no longer tying themselves to players like Ryan Lindgren, whose play fell off a cliff.
It’s also worth noting that while no GM is perfect, most Drury’s trades and signings have been pretty solid. Obviously the Buchnevich trade was historically bad, but that was it for the objectively horrible moves at the time they were made. The Patrik Nemeth contract was bad in hindsight, the Patrick Kane trade wasn’t needed and potentially fueled by Dolan, and perhaps Alex Wennberg cost more than he should have, but that’s borderline nitpicking. In the grand scheme of things, his roster moves have been fine.
Before this season, the calls to fire Drury weren’t too loud. It’s how he’s managed leaders in the room like Goodrow, Trouba, and Kreider that led to the players quitting. But to be fair, this is part of the game. Drury’s approach was horrid, but the players get paid millions of dollars to deal with it. They quit on themselves this year. Is it Drury’s fault the players quit? In the end, they are all adults, and the decision to quit is on the players, not Drury, no matter how he treated prior leaders.
As an aside, we also have no idea how much meddling Dolan has done over the last few seasons. Looking at the micro, Kane is all but confirmed to be a Dolan wish at this point. In the macro, there appears to be very little planning, and more throwing things at a wall and seeing what sticks. That’s the Dolan M.O. All speculation, of course.
So, should Chris Drury be fired?
“Should Chris Drury be fired?” is an incredibly nuanced discussion, and trying to nail it down to a one word answer is tricky. Drury’s moves as a GM are mostly fine, but there does not appear to be a full plan in motion. Jeff Gorton was not perfect, but you could at least see the vision before he was unceremoniously let go. If there’s no vision, then how can the Rangers truly build a winner?
If you’re asking me should Chris Drury be fired this offseason, then I would say no with a but.
That but: Drury needs a buffer between him and James Dolan, someone that knows how to manage egos and keep them at bay. More importantly, Drury also needs a buffer between him and the players so he can focus solely on roster moves and working with his coaching staff to build the proper team. That secondary buffer cannot be Ryan Martin, who has essentially become a yes man for Drury. Martin’s prior cap management with Detroit is also a concern.
The stink in this organization starts at the top, and eventually the Rangers and Chris Drury will part ways. I don’t think this offseason is the right move. But I can see Dolan getting impatient next season. If the Rangers come out slow next season too, then we might see a GM change.
