Remember when the New York Rangers showed serious improvement after the Olympic break? And when they had a four-game winning streak. Fun times. Now, the Rangers have fallen back down to Earth, and looked very much like that the team that firmly entrenched themselves in last place in the Eastern Conference.
On Thursday night, the Rangers lost 6-3 to the Columbus Blue Jackets, helping them catapult into third place in the Metropolitan Division. This comes one night after the Rangers lost at home to the New Jersey Devils 6-3. Two nights before that, they lost 4-1 to the Los Angeles Kings and the returning Artemi Panarin. A winning streak officially fell off a clip and into a losing skid.
While the season is lost, a section of the fanbase has embraced the tank. As in, openly root for losses so the Rangers get a better draft pick, preferably the No. 1 pick through the lottery. Well on Thursday, they got some additional help from the Chicago Blackhawks.
After the Blackhawk's 2-1 win over the Minnesota Wild on Thursday, the Rangers now have the third best odds of winning the NHL Draft Lottery for the No. 1 pick.
Chicago's win moves the #NYR up in the NHL Draft pecking order. Rangers now have the third-best odds (11.6%) for the No. 1 overall pick. https://t.co/4F1YYMibA4
— Vince Z. Mercogliano (@vzmercogliano) March 20, 2026
Rangers get assist from Blackhawks to have third-best odds to win NHL Draft Lottery
Entering the night, the Blackhawks had the third-best odds, with the Rangers sitting in fourth. But with the Blackhawks winning, thanks to goals from Connor Bedard and Ilya Mikheyev, the Rangers now have 11.6 percent odds of winning the lottery and the No. 1 pick.
For the Rangers, they were obviously banking on signing one of the stars set to hit free agency this upcoming summer. Well, that plan turned to ash before the season even started. Connor McDavid, Kirill Kaprizov, and Jack Eichel, but they re-signed on contract extensions with the Edmonton Oilers, Minnesota Wild, and Vegas Golden Knights, respectively. That's not counting Kyle Connor, Martin Necas, and Adrian Kempe, who all re-signed with their clubs, too. So, there is no outside superstar coming to save the Rangers.
Their best bet to accelerate their retool is to land one of the top two spots in the NHL Draft. There are two sure-fire, pro-ready prospects in Penn State's Gavin McKenna and Sweden's Ivar Stenberg. McKenna has been viewed as the next big star to enter the NHL, while Stenberg is doing things in Sweden that hasn't been done since the Sedin Twins did so. Both have the best odds to give the Rangers' youth movement a much-needed boost.
The Rangers still have 13 games to play, but it's unlikely they'd reach the Vancouver Canucks (50 points in 68 games) for the best odds overall. But there's a chance they could get into second if the Calgary Flames (61 points in 68 games) play spoiler and win some contests.
This losing streak is brutal, but for fans hoping it increases their odds of winning the Draft Lottery, it's working.