Drury deserves a lot of credit!

[ColonialsHockey10]

Gorton and JD were mediocre at best here, both riding entirely on reputation. Gorton because “h3 bUiLt b0sToN” and JD because of his history with the team.

Ironically, most people (until a few hours ago) hated Drury for exact same reason. Because he was garbage as a player for this team.

I despised him as a player too, but he’s done nothing but succeed since being our GM. His TDL work is a masterpiece.

 

[Peltz]

What about crediting Dolan for firing the previous regime?

Maybe - but Drury was the one who fired DQ and that, in hindsight, was a good move.

I liked DQ in theory, but Gallant has proven to push the right buttons at the right times wherever he ends up in his career.

I really hope the organization keeps him for a long tenure even if things go poorly in future seasons. He's the coach you win with.

 

[Ruggs225]

Drury’s trade deadline made up for some questionalb eearlier decisions. He didnt get enough for buch, he should have got a first. Also signing nemeth for 3 years is a tragedy.

But his TD was mastery. Nailed it.

 

[Speedtrials]

Coming up in that Colorado system, Drury definitely knows the kind of players it takes to win. Have to give him credit too for holding on to our premium assets while bringing those kinds of players in.

 

[Draft Guru]

Gorton and JD were mediocre at best here, both riding entirely on reputation. Gorton because “h3 bUiLt b0sToN” and JD because of his history with the team.

Ironically, most people (until a few hours ago) hated Drury for exact same reason. Because he was garbage as a player for this team.

I despised him as a player too, but he’s done nothing but succeed since being our GM. His TDL work is a masterpiece.

Gorton “mediocre at best”…really? Stop it.

He did a phenomenal job and would still be the GM if we had any of the other 31 owners in the league, not an entitled brat who threw a tantrum.

If the Rangers win the Cup this year that will be two teams Gorton built to win yet won’t get official credit for.

 

[NickyFotiu]

Gorton and JD were mediocre at best here, both riding entirely on reputation. Gorton because “h3 bUiLt b0sToN” and JD because of his history with the team.

Ironically, most people (until a few hours ago) hated Drury for exact same reason. Because he was garbage as a player for this team.

I despised him as a player too, but he’s done nothing but succeed since being our GM. His TDL work is a masterpiece.

Some people hated Drury as a player because of his UFA large contract and because he wasn't flashy but I wish we had Drury now. He was good on faceoffs, solid defensively and would also score 20 plus goals.

 

[SA16]

Chris Drury, his first two years as a Ranger, are exactly what everyone hopes Copp is.

 

[NickyFotiu]

Gorton “mediocre at best”…really? Stop it.

He did a phenomenal job and would still be the GM if we had any of the other 31 owners in the league, not an entitled brat who threw a tantrum.

If the Rangers win the Cup this year that will be two teams Gorton built to win yet won’t get official credit for.

Gorton did some things really well but it may have taken Drury to get over the softness hump. Everyone in the league knew we were soft. We still are a tiny bit soft but now we are way tougher than we were in the past.

 

[Lindberg Cheese]

I said when the Buch trade happened that Gorton wouldn't make a losing trade that makes your team better, and that clearly Drury would. I wasn't happy with the trade, and I know that Blais has been hurt, but clearly Drury's attitude towards team building has something to it.

Unironically one of the best owners in hockey.

Gram for gram, yes

Dolan just had a hissy fit that happened to work out.

This team could lose to the lightning and Dolan could decide he wants a team full of eskimos and fire Drury and hire all of Alaska

Wasn’t there a movie with that plot?

 

[bbny]

I'm gonna diminish Gorton. I loved him at the time, but looking back...what did he really do? The Zibanejad trade is probably the best thing he did. The next best thing he did was have the guts to tear it all down, but that's the easy part. I like drafting Igor, Fil, and while I f***ing hate Strome that trade was robbery.

Kakko, Laf, Fox for a couple 2nds, Trouba for Pionk, signing Panarin were all easy moves.

Signing a college coach? wtf was that shit?

Idk I just dont feel like we have a ton to show for his time here, he laid some of the groundwork sure but Drury's deadline was master class and is paying dividends currently.

1st for Skjei - really a 1st for a cap dump they needed to make, astounding
Lindgren, Spooner, 1st for Nash
Spooner for Strome

Nah. Credit where credit is due. Even with a few things falling in his lap, he destroyed it on the trade front except for the McDonagh trade.

That said, I thought he was deserving of getting fired after that horrendous offseason after we got embarrassed by the Canes in the play-in tourney. Not only was there no attempt to adjust the roster, he made us worse and softer and it showed all season last year.

 

[Cuckoo4Kakko]

Gorton “mediocre at best”…really? Stop it.

He did a phenomenal job and would still be the GM if we had any of the other 31 owners in the league, not an entitled brat who threw a tantrum.

If the Rangers win the Cup this year that will be two teams Gorton built to win yet won’t get official credit for.

To be fair, if we win the cup it's very much thanks to the TDL. Gorton and Drury would both deserve lots of credit.

 

[NickyFotiu]

I know its impossible but I still wish we had Mats Zuccarello and JT Miller to help us vs Tampa Bay.

 

[ColonialsHockey10]

Gorton “mediocre at best”…really? Stop it.

He did a phenomenal job and would still be the GM if we had any of the other 31 owners in the league, not an entitled brat who threw a tantrum.

If the Rangers win the Cup this year that will be two teams Gorton built to win yet won’t get official credit for.

You calling Gorton phenomenal is more absurd than calling Gorton mediocre.

Phenomenal GMs don’t get fired overnight. The Rangers last season had more drama in the locker room and on the ice than some teams have in a decade. He’s partially responsible for that.

 

[NickyFotiu]

I know its impossible but I still wish we had Mats Zuccarello and JT Miller to help us vs Tampa Bay.

 

[Mac n Gs]

Chris Drury, his first two years as a Ranger, are exactly what everyone hopes Copp is.

So you're saying Andrew Copp will eventually be our GM?

 

[McRanger92]

He was never the unqualified clown he was made out to be by the Buch stans. Drury really had his finger on the pulse of what this team needed to move forward. And credit to Dolan for not waiting around and letting Gorton/JD twiddle their thumbs with Quinn as Head Coach for another year. Gallant was the perfect hire at the perfect time.

 

[Cuckoo4Kakko]

Everyone who hates Drury for trading Buch is begging for Blais to come back so we can unlock this teams true potential. We weren't paying for Buch. Being able to rent guys like Vatrano for cheap make the hit even less.

 

[McRanger92]

Gorton “mediocre at best”…really? Stop it.

He did a phenomenal job and would still be the GM if we had any of the other 31 owners in the league, not an entitled brat who threw a tantrum.

If the Rangers win the Cup this year that will be two teams Gorton built to win yet won’t get official credit for.

Gorton was excellent as a "peace time" GM. He had the same rep when he set the Bruins up for their decade of success during his first stint, and I have no doubt he will rebuild the Canadiens well. His issue was that he was too slow to realize the window was open, and it cost him his job.

 

[romba]

Sure, Gorton did some good things, but Wilson, Dolan and Drury deserve the lion's share of credit for really making some changes to toughen up our overall mentality. Having Strome and Buch get retribution was lame af

 

[GoAwayPanarin]

Gorton's record here was more positive than negative.

The Mika trade and the return he got for Nash are huge reasons why we are where we are right now. Those things happened under his watch.

The McDonagh+Miller trade was bad as it looks like they won't get a single worthwhile NHL asset out of that deal (pending what ever they get in return for Nils.) The Quinn hire, while refreshing for its outside of the box nature, was a disaster - and the fact that we would have likely started THIS season with him had JG stayed is frightening. He took too long to move Zuccarello and he overplayed his hand heavily with Georgiev. We would have gotten a 1st plus had we moved Zucc in 2018 and we're going to end up getting nothing for Geo because well, he turned into a pumpkin after that year.

Also LOL at Zuccarello helping anyone in the playoffs.

 

[Peltz]

Coming up in that Colorado system, Drury definitely knows the kind of players it takes to win. Have to give him credit too for holding on to our premium assets while bringing those kinds of players in.

Agreed, with the cap space we had at the TDL, it was the moves he didn't make that spoke as many volumes as the moves he did.

It was responsible and patient asset management, but the moves made were still enough to add depth and not screw over players like Zib, Kreider, shesterkin, and Panarin in their prime.

I love the restraint and the focus on highly respected role players rather than marquee names.

 

[JimmyG89]

Jeff Gorton did help set all this up, but let's not be mistaken that Chris Drury was also at his side helping make these decisions.

This is with messing up a #7 overall pick, a #9 overall pick acting like a petulant child, missing on the biggest trade this team has made in the last decade (McDonagh/Miller), and botching the end of a legend's career because Georgiev was okay at the time. The Hank/Georgiev situation might have been the biggest thing. Lafreniere and Kakko were strokes of luck, nobody gets credit for those picks. Consensus #1 and #2 players. You do get credit for a Schneider and a Miller in the mid/late 1st round. Same for Chytil.

In reality, the issues likely were in that locker room. The fact that DeAngelo was able to cause the issues that he did at the beginning of a season meant that nobody had control. Gorton had to go down there and remove a player that was just paid a good amount of money and put him on waivers. Then the on-ice incident with Wilson was the last straw. Gorton hitched his wagon to Quinn and that was his fatal mistake.

Drury went old-school with the coach, seems to be a trend that good teams in NY are doing. They know how to handle a room. Gallant doesn't let DeAngelo get away with the BS he pulled. Hell, he wasn't letting him get away with BS this series and he was on the other team.

 

[Peltz]

1st for Skjei - really a 1st for a cap dump they needed to make, astounding
Lindgren, Spooner, 1st for Nash
Spooner for Strome

Nah. Credit where credit is due. Even with a few things falling in his lap, he destroyed it on the trade front except for the McDonagh trade.

That said, I thought he was deserving of getting fired after that horrendous offseason after we got embarrassed by the Canes in the play-in tourney. Not only was there no attempt to adjust the roster, he made us worse and softer and it showed all season last year.

This is a very fair assessment. The McDonagh trade was bad, most of the other moves were good even when people hated them (I've needed to defend Trouba's contract in this board for a few seasons now and it's ridiculous that people think it was a bad signing).

Even the Kreider extension is now showing to be kind of a steal considering the performance he's delivering.

None of these moves are "no brainers" as much as people would like to discredit Gorton. But I agree, the lack of adjustments after the bubble play-in was grounds for firing. And Drury made the right moves since then other than the Nemeth signing (but even that was understandable).

 

[RangerBoy]

Drury used the Buchnevich cap space for the Rangers trade deadline moves. The cap space accrued during the season and the Rangers had flexibility to add numerous players at the deadline. If the Rangers had signed Buchnevich to one year contract as a self-rental, they would not have had the room to add other players.

 

[nyr2k2]

Gorton was a mixed bag, largely positive. He could have been even more of a net positive had he NOT encountered the lottery "luck" that he did.

Anyway, with Drury, I liked a lot of the hockey ops moves he made, and while I hated the return on the Buchnevich deal, I understood premium value probably wasn't there. I liked how he didn't then spend right up to the cap and banked space for when we needed it. I like the coach hire. The TDL was generally brilliant. Even things like bringing in Reavo and extending him, I know some people hate that, but I absolutely maintain that was a great move for the team overall even if he's a marginal at best player on the ice. I like the contracts he did, other than Nemeth of course, though every GM (Gorton included) has handed out stupid deals.

I really like what he's done with the team and am eager to see how he handles things moving forward. People that were calling him a clown, the worst GM ever, pining for the days of Gorton, etc. That was some clown shit. You can't evaluate a GM on his first off-season and nothing else. Also, people let their dislike of him as a player bleed into their opinion of him as a GM.

I also remember saying at the time, when everyone was freaking out that Dolan was reasserting control, that no--he's probably not. He's probably upset with an overrated JD and a mixed bag Gorton for not supporting the "f*** the DPS" message which I thought was great, and that he'd go back to his usual role as soon as things settled down.

I'm not always right but I nailed this start to finish and will take credit for it.