Elliotte Friedman commented today on the Sunday column from Larry Brooks of the New York Post. In the column, Brooks writes that the Rangers players have quit on just about everyone, including their head coach Peter Laviolette. As Friedman points out, the Rangers collapse has been historic after the team won the President’s Trophy and went to the Eastern Conference Finals just last season. In his column, Brooks writes that the Rangers collapse will eventually result in Laviolette losing his job, and another loss tonight to Florida certainly won’t help things.
Friedman comments that Brooks is incredibly plugged into the Rangers organization and feels that this column carries a ton of weight. He adds that Laviolette knows that hockey is results-driven, and with the Rangers losing 15 of their last 19 games, the results have been very poor.
The Rangers haven’t been shy about making hard choices in recent years, leveraging waivers as a means of sidestepping no-trade clauses, and moving on from long-time veterans. The Rangers just underwent a dramatic rebuild prior to the pandemic, and now, at a time when they should be competing for the Stanley Cup, they are amid their season unravelling. It is anyone’s guess as to what the Rangers will do next and there could be many more surprises in store in New York City.
General manager Chris Drury has already traded his captain, he’s traded a recent second overall pick, he’s called around the league and let teams know that most of their roster is available (including long-time veteran Chris Kreider). He hasn’t been shy about calling players out, or doing what he thinks is best to improve the team.
Now, with the team free-falling, Drury has some hard choices to make. He is unlikely to overhaul the roster into a contender this season, and given that the Rangers just exited a rebuild, it’s unlikely that the franchise has the appetite to endure another one. But, with each passing day, some sort of action will need to occur, and it seems likely (at least according to Brooks) that it will start with Laviolette.