New York Rangers: Lessons learned from the 2018-2019 season

While the 2018-2019 New York Rangers’ season was less than ideal in practice, the team achieved most of its goals for the year as a rebuilding organization.

It may be premature to say, but the New York Rangers are on the upswing. While the team still needs to make moves this summer to truly set itself up for long-term success, the pieces are beginning to fall into place. Sneaking into the second overall pick of the entry draft certainly helps the future.

But for now, it’s an appropriate time to reflect on the past season. At least from an organizational perspective, the Rangers tried to talk themselves up as a legitimate backdoor playoff team at the beginning of the year. Of course, after a nuclear hot November, the team’s major warts revealed themselves and played below 500 hockey the rest of the year.

It took time for the team to find its footing and develop an identity under first-year head coach David Quinn. Yet, after the trade deadline, when the roster was depleted and players were forced higher up the lineup, it managed to play harder with less talent.

So, here are a couple of lessons based on the past 82 games of Rangers hockey.