The Hockey News’ exclusive summer splash series evaluating the off-seasons of every NHL team is into the final stretch. To put these rankings together, we’ve focused the spotlight on every franchise’s off-season additions, departures, hirings and firings. And we’ve labelled each team as belonging to one of three categories – teams that have improved, teams that essentially stayed the same, and teams that have regressed.
The New York Rangers ranked as the No. 10 team in these summer splash rankings.
It was a busy offseason for the Rangers, as the team kicked things off by firing head coach Peter Laviolette and replacing him with Mike Sullivan.
Rangers president and general manager Chris Drury has already fired three head coaches since 2021. Sullivan could offer the Rangers that much-needed stability behind the bench.
Before the Stanley Cup Final even ended, the Blueshirts traded Chris Kreider to the Anaheim Ducks in exchange for forward prospect Carey Terrance and a third-round pick in the 2025 NHL Draft.
On July 1, the Rangers went out and signed arguably the top defenseman on the market, Vladislav Gavrikov, to an eight-year, $49 million contract.
After bringing Gavrikov on board, Drury decided to trade restricted free agent K’Andre Miller to the Carolina Hurricanes for a second-round pick in the 2026 NHL Draft, a conditional first-round pick in the 2026 or 2027 NHL Draft, and defenseman Scott Morrow.
The Rangers rounded out their offseason by signing forward Taylor Raddysh to a two-year, $3 million contract.
It was an eventful summer for the Rangers, and we’ll have to see if these moves help change their fortunes during the 2025-26 season.
