The New York Rangers were very busy this summer, and with training camp officially open, we will soon see the impact of Chris Drury's makeover. The makeover started post Letter 2.0 with trading Artemi Panarin among others, and during the offseason Pavel Dorofeyev, Marcus Pettersson, and Sean Durzi were acquired, Alberts Smits was drafted, and most recently Eeli Tolvanen was signed joining former teammate Oliver Bjorktstrand who was another July 1 signing. There were other moves, but these are the big ones to keep in mind.
Camp will come and go quickly, as the preseason gets underway next week, and the regular season for the Rangers opens on September 29th. It's a weird time for Rangers fans, because while on paper the roster is much better than last year, there's also a lot of question marks about the pipeline and the overall direction of the organization.
On Wednesday, The Athletic released another interesting concept blending the results of their player and prospect rankings, and each team was assigned on a quadrant map looking at the NHL's current contention cycle. The Rangers' landing spot isn't a surprise, and it deserves a deeper look.
Rangers unsurprisingly ended up in no man's land
🆕 at @TheAthletic: The Contention Cycle.
— Scott Wheeler (@scottcwheeler) September 16, 2026
Combining Player Tiers and Prospect Tiers to model where teams are and where they’re going.
With @domluszczyszyn (unlocked): https://t.co/tLg1Jjg4mL pic.twitter.com/XAAlyx7L0q
New York can be found in the center of this chart on the edge of the box labeled "no man's land" and that speaks a mixed bag in both their present and future potential. As currently constructed, the Rangers have Adam Fox and Igor Shesterkin as top players at their respective position, and the rest of the roster ranges in ability, but it is clear that there are no other clear cut stars.
As The Athletic put it: "Four Tier 5 forwards creating the core around two players as strong as Igor Shesterkin and Adam Fox feels very unserious. The Rangers made some strong moves this summer in service of being a win-now team and the presence of Shesterkin and Fox as franchise-worthy guys points to why they mortgaged the future to do so. But the ceiling is still low because the immediate help isn’t quite up to par."
For all we know the season will start and the Rangers will reap some results from their additions, and also enjoy a bounce back from J.T. Miller. There's a chance Zibanejad will play as well again as he did to end the season, and youngsters like Gabe Perreault and Alexis Lafrenière meet the moment.
But as we've talked about before, hope can't be a strategy, and if the current roster isn't good enough there needs to be a plan to turn it over in due time. The Rangers' ceiling is somewhat limited because outside of Alberts Smits, they don't have any top tier prospects that can be looked at as major difference makers.
Liam Greentree was acquired in the Artemi Panarin trade, and there's no telling how good he can be. Nathan Aspinall had an exciting final season in the CHL, but the AHL will be a new test for him, Beyond that, there's no telling how much longer Shesterkin will be as good as he is, and there's always the chance Fox decides he doesn't want to be a Ranger anymore.
2026-27 is unofficially a pivot point for the Rangers
The Rangers haven't come out and said it, nor would I expect them to do so... but they built a roster with the ultimate goal of having flexibility should a true star/difference maker becomes available. When taking into consideration everyone on the roster or in the system, the Rangers only have 10 of 23 spots on their 2027-28 roster occupied, and will have $35.9 million in cap space per Puck Pedia. The year after that, they have 8 of 23 spots occupied and $54.4 million in projected cap space. After this season they will need to make decisions on RFAs like Perreault, Noah Laba, Will Cuylle, Tye Kartye, and Braden Schneider among others, and will also need to replace/retain UFAs like Oliver Bjorkstrand and Eeli Tolvanen.
Panarin was signed by the Rangers in 2019, and he's the last true star that was added by the organization. Yes, the Rangers traded for Miller and Pavel Dorofeyev, but they aren't in the same class as Panarin. It is painfully obvious that the team is hoping someone like Connor McDavid or Auston Matthews ends up in New York, as they need center depth in the worst way. Zibanejad and Miller occupying spots in the top six isn't tenable for much longer, and the odds of someone like Laba or Cole Beaudoin being able to step up and overtake them is pretty slim.
Perreault has limited experience, but his track record suggests he has true potential as a top-six winger. Greentree is less of a sure thing, but his background is encouraging. There are other names who might work out, but center remains the biggest area of need.
For these reasons, among others that we will get into as the season goes on, 2026-27 is a big proof of concept year. The Rangers have missed the playoffs two years in a row, and missing for a third year would be a disaster. If New York can show that the last two years were a blip mostly fueled by injuries and bad luck, they stand a chance of proving to the market that they are a team worth playing for. If they were then able to land a star, their current situation of having players in roles outside their capabilities would turn into pretty decent lower leverage depth.
It is going to take a few months before we get a good read on the team, and despite the Rangers landing where they did for the most recent ranking, I think fans should be optimistic about their potential for this season. Don't underestimate how big a deal having a healthy Fox and Igor is, or having a Perreault, Lafrenière, and Dorofeyev all in the top six to start the season. When you also factor in that the defense added competent pros like Marcus Pettersson and Sean Durzi to join Fox and Vladislav Gavrikov, a path to the playoffs emerges at a time in which the Metropolitan Division beyond the Carolina Hurricanes feels wide open.
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