After the July 1st free agency frenzy, Chris Drury’s plan started to become clear. At a high level, he wanted a culture shift in the locker room, which meant moving on from the previous leadership group. The Rangers needed to be tougher to play against, which led to bringing in Mike Sullivan to implement an actual system and then signing the best defenseman on the market in Vlad Gavrikov. But there’s more to it, and we simply haven’t seen the next steps in Drury’s plan come to fruition yet.

Being tough to play against is more than just a coach, a system, and some players. It’s a mindset and it’s a team mentality. It certainly doesn’t mean leave your position to hit someone. It doesn’t mean fight everyone. It doesn’t mean throw an elbow.

When a coach says they want their team to be tough to play against, they mean buying into a system that frustrates the opposition, limiting their speed and offensive chances. When that happens, skilled teams are able to capitalize on turnovers and their own chances, making the opposition even more frustrated and demoralized.

To get to that point, teams need to learn the system and have it become habit, an automatic reaction to puck location, game situation, and player reads on the ice. The Rangers aren’t there yet, it’s only been 11 games. It seems everyone is on the same page with that piece of the puzzle. But the larger question is about personnel, as roster holes are emerging and Chris Drury’s plan to address them hasn’t been made clear yet.

The next steps in Chris Drury’s plan require time to unfold

Rushing the next steps in Chris Drury’s plan, assuming there is one, won’t help anyone. That includes rushing trades, rushing prospects, or rushing to fire someone into the sun. Very rarely does an attempt to accelerate a plan ever work, as we saw with this recent attempt at a rebuild.

There appears to be three key factors in Drury’s plan that we are waiting on:

  1. The Artemi Panarin situation
  2. How the prospects develop in Hartford
  3. How other teams do and how the trade market unfolds

With all the calls to fire everyone into the sun and start from scratch, remember that it takes two to tango. There aren’t many GMs in the NHL that are willing to make major changes, or even minor ones, this early in the season. Even the Jacob Trouba and Kaapo Kakko trades didn’t happen until December last season. The only moves the roster moves the Rangers made in October and November were various AHL call ups due to injury.

It’s going to take time, even for a more permanent AHL call up. These kids need games under their belts in the AHL. The Rangers need more games to see what they have in some of the current crop of wingers. They also need to get Vincent Trocheck back and dress a full lineup.

So what *could* Chris Drury do?

Come December, which is when I think the Rangers will start to make some more permanent roster moves, we will probably see some hints at the next phase of Chris Drury’s plan. And again, we are assuming there is one. I said at the start of the season that all three of Conor Sheary, Juuso Parssinen, and Taylor Raddysh are stopgap players. There is no reason to believe otherwise right now.

I expect Gabe Perreault to be recalled by December the latest, and inserted almost immediately into one of two roles: 1LW next to JT Miller and Mika Zibanejad, or 3LW next to Noah Laba and whomever the 3RW du jour is. It’s safe to assume Parssinen is the first of the stopgap forwards to be either waived or traded.

There’s a strong chance Brett Berard is also called up before 2025 ends, though he will need to right the ship on his own game in Hartford first. Berard would most likely slide into the 3RW spot alongside Laba and either Perreault or Will Cuylle, depending on Perreault’s role.

Panarin’s future clouds all

Artemi Panarin’s name is going to be in trade rumors until he’s either re-signed or traded. His slow start to the season isn’t helping things, and we may not even be having some of these complaints about the roster if he weren’t in a shooting slump. But his name is out there, and with no indication from either side regarding an extension in New York, it makes you wonder if/when Drury pulls the trigger on a trade.

But again, this kind of a trade likely won’t happen until at least December, probably closer to the Olympic roster freeze. The Mikko Rantanen trade is likely the one that’s fresh on Drury’s mind, as it was a star-for-star trade (Rantanen and Taylor Hall for Jack Drury, Martin Necas, and a 2nd round pick) between two Cup contenders.

The Rangers aren’t Cup contenders this season (yet), but there are a couple teams in similar contract situations with some otherwise great players. Dallas and Jason Robertson, Ottawa and Drake Batherson, Colorado and Necas are the first three that come to mind. (Hah, Necas and Colorado just agreed to terms). Add in that the Rangers have Braden Schneider as a very enticing secondary piece–have you seen Dallas’ RD depth?–and you have the makings of an absolute blockbuster.

But as we’ve seen, players are more likely to re-sign with their current clubs, so it wouldn’t surprise me to see both Robertson and Necas Robertson off the board come the Olympic freeze. I think these NHL GMs read my post drafts…

There’s a long road ahead for us Rangers fans, and it’s going to be a bumpy ride. Remember in the movie Cars when Lightning McQueen makes his first pass at repaving the road and it’s all bumpy and no one liked it? Yea, that.

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