We are officially waiting for the playoffs to end before the real offseason begins. It’s almost impossible to predict what the Rangers will do, though I will provide my offseason plan in tomorrow’s Patreon post, so instead of more speculation, perhaps it’s time to start reviewing this past season and, in particular review what doomed the 2024-2025 Rangers. There wasn’t one specific issue, but a multitude of offseason, preseason, and regular season bungles that compounded on one another, leading to whatever we can call last season.
This will be (mostly) in chronological order, not order of impact/importance.
What doomed the 2024-2025 Rangers began in the offseason
Before we can even get into the play on the ice, we should look at the offseason, as the seeds planted as early as June doomed the 2024-2025 Rangers. Of course this is referring to the Jacob Trouba drama to start the offseason. The Rangers were looking to move Trouba before the 2024 draft, going as far as asking him for his 15-team no-trade list before his no-move clause turned to a no-trade clause. This turned out to be the first domino that doomed the 2024-2025 Rangers.
Trouba, who was well within his right to exercise the clauses in his contract, is rumored to have used that extra week of notice before July 1 to make changes to his list that all but ensured he wouldn’t be traded. Again well within his right to do so, especially since he was doing this for family reasons. Drury overplayed his hand and was in turn unable to move Trouba. But the damage was done. The relationship was ruined, which will come into play later.
Without Trouba’s $8 million off the books, Drury was limited in his offseason moves. Minor moves were made, with Reilly Smith as the “big add” with the Rangers essentially running it back last season. On paper, running it back isn’t what doomed the 2024-2025 Rangers, but the lack of a bigger move to address their weaknesses played a role.
Rushing back Ryan Lindgren
The season started without much fanfare, though Ryan Lindgren started the season on IR with a broken jaw. He returned on October 22, missing just five games in which the Rangers went 4-0-1, outscoring opponents 24-10 along the way. Lindgren returned, though still unable to chew food and with a full face shield, and resumed his spot alongside Adam Fox.
Lindgren returning isn’t what doomed the 2024-2025 Rangers, but it was certainly a contributing factor. Lindgren was not a 1LD the prior season, and was certainly not one when he returned, let alone at less than 100%. Prior to Lindgren returning, K’Andre Miller and Adam Fox formed one of the top defense pairs in the league. The Braden Schneider-Jacob Trouba pairing was surprisingly solid and well above a 50% shot share. Zac Jones and Victor Mancini were still learning on the third pair, but weren’t a major detriment on the ice.
Instead, Peter Laviolette went back to “ole reliable” which wasn’t reliable at all. Lindgren played too much, Miller-Trouba went back to what we expected them to be, and for some reason Zac Jones never played again, despite being arguably the third best defensemen on the team at this point. This is chalked up to poor roster management and played a major role in what doomed the 2024-2025 Rangers.
The trade memo
As soon as Lindgren returned and the defense turned into a pumpkin, the foundational cracks held together by Elmer’s glue started coming apart. The Rangers were treading water, but it was clear the first five games were a blip, not the reality with a “full lineup.” The Rangers may have gone 8-4-0 when Lindgren returned, but they were not dominating games the way they did when they started 4-0-1. Instead of looking where the turn happened, Chris Drury sent the now infamous memo in November. This memo was leaked, and we all know what happened after.
We knew the Trouba drama from the offseason would eventually rear its ugly head, and the memo is where things really unraveled. The Blueshirts, losers of two in a row when the memo was sent, lost their next 3 and went 4-13 from that memo to the end of the 2024 calendar year. Whatever positive vibes were in the locker room were decimated by the memo. Add that to losing and playing overall poorly, and you have a perfect storm that doomed the 2024-2025 Rangers.
Accountability didn’t exist
On the heels of the trade memo, Peter Laviolette dug in deeper and stuck with “his guys.” This, for some reason, led to Kaapo Kakko being scratched as the scapegoat, instead of scratching the guys who were actually playing poorly. Kakko voiced his displeasure, as he should have. But it didn’t end with Kakko. Accountability was another factor that doomed the 2024-2025 Rangers.
Kakko, Filip Chytil, and Will Cuylle formed a third line that was dominating opponents. While the Kreider-Zibanejad duo was struggling, this trio made up for it, and then some. That line was broken up after 11 games in an attempt to get Kreider-Zibanejad going. Of course, we all know how that went.
Hindsight is 20/20, but even at the time we all groaned when the lines and pairs were changed up. The Rangers fixed something that wasn’t broken. In doing so, they broke up a line that, alongside the Panarin-Trocheck-Lafreniere line, was carrying the Rangers offense. That’s how teams win. When one line is in a slump, the others pick up the slack. By breaking them up, there was no one to pick up the slack.
This is where accountability doomed the 2024-2025 Rangers. Naturally, getting Kreider and Zibanejad going was critical, but instead of rewarding the third line with more ice time and perhaps shifting roles, lines were broken up and Kakko was inexplicably scratched.
Kakko and Zac Jones were the poster boys for misplaced accountability, seeing their ice time severely limited as other inferior players got the lion’s share of ice time. To a lesser extent, this happened with Jimmy Vesey and Calvin de Haan as well, but they were essentially PTO players. Both Kakko and Jones were–hopefully–going to be a part of the next core, or at least have an audition for it. Instead, no accountability led to both requesting trades.
There was no stopping the bleeding
Everything that doomed the 2024-2025 Rangers compounded upon itself, leading to that miserable December run. By that point, the damage was done and there was no stopping the bleeding. The Jacob Trouba trade was forced through, ending a relationship that should have ended six months prior. Drury then traded Kakko for pennies on the dollar. Both moves were an attempt to get a more mobile blue line–despite Jones sitting in the press box–and neither moved the needle enough to matter.
The JT Miller trade was another attempt to stop the bleeding, and for a time it worked. It cost the Rangers another third of their most dominant forward line, leaving just Will Cuylle, but in the end it was worth it for Miller. But he wasn’t enough to stop the bleeding, and neither was getting rid of Trouba. The mindset had been cemented in the locker room, and it doomed the 2024-2025 Rangers.
This is where we would usually see the locker room leadership group start to take charge. But with Trouba and Barclay Goodrow gone, Chris Kreider fighting injuries and subject to the memo, Mika Zibanejad struggling, and with sexual assault allegations clouding Artemi Panarin’s impact, only Adam Fox remained as a voice from the leadership group.
Offseason drama, poor roster management, a terribly timed trade memo, no accountability, and absent leadership all doomed the 2024-2025 Rangers. Everything happened all at once, and there was no recovery.
