True story — I was on my way to my office to do an NYR podcast last night (for venting purposes) and like an idiot I drive off with my keys and wallet on the roof. Safe to say the last 24 hours have suuuuuucked, but I still need to get some stuff off my chest.
TLDR: I think Drury’s inexperience is showing and he’s scared to screw up royally now that he’s at a major fork in the road.
Ok, so here’s my theory with Drury, it’s mostly about his inexperience showing. While I do think he’s cocky, stubborn, and sure of himself after being called a “winner” on a national scale since he was in junior high, I also think he privately regrets a lot and is scared to make the wrong moves. Not talking to the public is very Satherian, but it also makes Drury look weak, especially in this town with insanely smart sports fans tracking his every move. But after all, Sather previously built a dynasty and had enough street cred to get a pass from the media. But Drury has yet to build anything on his own and as a novice GM really owes it to the fans who pay his salary to be more accountable and transparent. This is especially because we all know (Drury included) that deep down, this is really Gorton’s team and there isn’t a single contributor outside of Trocheck who Drury can claim responsibility for.
Now, I get he was in Player Dev. and an AGM and had a hand in some of the brighter spots developing as planned, and in some cases Drury helped influence the drafting of current roster types. But again, the Rangers are unquestionably what they are since 2021-22 because of Gorton’s big decisions. Yet this is where it gets kind of dicey, because both Drury and Gorton were part of Team Miscalculation that saw MZA, McDonagh, J.T. Miller, Hagelin, Skjei, and Duclair play their best hockey after being traded, and Drury made it worse with the horrendous Buchnevich deal, and now even losing Howden looks shortsighted. You can make an argument that staying the course with that group while executing the anticipated Hank-Igor transition would have yielded similar or possibly better results, and without Drury in a GM role.
Nonetheless, these are the top reasons why I think he is willing to run it back with guys who have clearly regressed while wearing the sweater, and that trading them really should be a last resort (to him). I think he knows players like Fox, Miller, and Lindgren are all in their prime, and he inked Zibanejad and gave the captaincy to Trouba convinced (more or less) that both would still hold value into their 30s.
But now you have this weird tactic of sending out a trade memo, less than five months after already screwing the pooch with Trouba in the offseason. Again, the blemishes on Drury’s resume are mounting, and it’s because of this that I think Igor is about to get his massive extension. It’s a no-brainer and a smart political move because it will buy him time, and if they fail in the playoffs, he can always say extending Igor limited his options to improve (which Dubas did in Toronto before gutting his draft capital as well as losing key pieces to FA).
Drury is in a bad spot and I’m not convinced he’s the right man to fight his way out of it. His tenure from a sheer transactional perspective is below-average at best, and I think most, if not all GMs around the league know they can dictate the terms.
Playing the kids is nice and a lot of us should feel validated that we pushed for it for years. But now he’s got a crippling contract that was his own doing (Zibanejad), and it will take a miracle for it to turn out in Drury’s favor.
I said it during the 2022 ECF — The Ranger defense was exposed but deserved a mulligan for being on the younger side. Three seasons later, and it clearly remains a major, major issue. I don’t think Drury is qualified to fix it without starting another rebuild/retool, but we’ll see.
