New York Rangers: Chris Drury a Panthers GM candidate?

New York Rangers Assistant General Manager Chris Drury interviewing for the Panthers GM job

The Florida Panthers are in the hunt for a new general manager after axing Dale Tallon who had run the team for the last decade. They are casting a wide net and that includes current New York Rangers Assistant GM Chris Drury.

Drury has been with the Rangers front office since September 2015 when he was named Director of Player Development. He became Assistant GM a year later and he added he role of GM of the Hartford Wolf Pack in 2017.

Drury’s primary task has been to rebuild the Wolf Pack into a farm team that mirrors their NHL parent organization so that moving players between the teams will be seamless.  In his time running Hartford he has replaced the entire coaching staff and turned over the team personnel.  That resulted in the most successful season for Hartford in years.

While serving in these roles with the Rangers, Drury also spent the last two years as the general manager of the U.S. Men’s National Team.

With Jeff Gorton not going anywhere in his role as Rangers’ general manager, if Drury has ambitions to be in charge of an NHL team, the Florida job would be tempting.

The candidates

Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman has been on top of the Panthers’ hunt for a GM and compiled a list of the candidates with Drury making the final cut.

None of the candidates on the list have experience as NHL general managers with most serving as assistants or AHL general managers, like Drury.  The only name on the list without any hockey management experience is former Rangers netminder Kevin Weekes who has been a broadcaster since retiring.

If he leaves?

How much of a blow would it be to the organization if Chris Drury gets the Florida job?  While the impact on the Rangers wouldn’t be huge, it would hurt the team’s efforts to improve the Wolf Pack.   Hartford has some organizational needs that Drury would be focusing on.  While the team is set at coach with Kris Knoblauch, assistant coach Gord Murphy is a candidate to replace Lindy Ruff and they have had no other bench assistants since they lost David Cunniff mid-season when he took a head coaching job in the ECHL.

The traditional career path for hockey executives is a transition from a player development role into an assistant general manager position.  Jed Ortmeyer has been the Rangers’ Director of Player Development since June 2017 and could be a candidate.  It would also be an opportunity for John Davidson to bring over some management talent from his former team, the Columbus Blue Jackets.

It would also be possible for some former Rangers like Adam Graves, Brian Leetch or Brad Richards to move up in managements.  All three serve in advisory roles for the team.

It’s a situation worth monitoring.  The Rangers have been the model of stability, even with the addition of John Davidson as Team President, and a Drury departure would be the first in a few years. There’s a lot of work to be done this off-season and Jeff Gorton has a very full plate with the NHL Entry Draft, potential trades and salary cap management at the top of his to do list.