Chris Drury’s decision to retire is not under the same circumstances as Markus Naslund’s decision to retire.  Comparing the two is irresponsible, wrong, careless, and to be honest, idiotic.  It actually makes me ashamed to be a Ranger fan because of all the people out there bashing Drury’s decision to retire.  It’s like Drury can’t do anything right in New York.

With Naslund, he retired of his own free will.  He did not want to play in the NHL.  He wanted to return to Sweden, to his home, to his family.  So he did.  He did what was right for him.  The Rangers had no plans on buying him out.

Drury, on the other hand, still wanted to play in the NHL.  He did not want to or plan on retiring.  He realized his time with the Rangers was up, and prepared for life post-Rangers.  At 35 years old (just turned it today), he wasn’t expecting a long term deal.  He, like pretty much every single person in the hockey world, expected to get a call from a team needing a veteran presence to guide youth.  Naturally, the Islanders and Avalanche were the rumored teams.  It turns out those rumors were false.

Now, on August 19, Drury had not received any offers, and it did not look like he was going to receive any.  It also does not appear that he was going to be given any professional tryouts.  Not receiving offers was not in Drury’s plan, and definitely wasn’t in his vision for how the offseason was going to progress.  He did not want to have the situation linger, so he retired.

Chris Drury did not screw the Rangers.  He is not greedy.  He did not purposefully force a buyout and then retire.  Any inkling that he did is just stupid.  He did not get offers, so he made the decision to retire.  It is sad that his career ended in such a manner.

Share: 

More About: