Eighty-nine games into his NHL career, the No. 2 pick in the 2019 NHL Draft remains a near-total mystery. The New York Rangers can’t be at all sure yet what ...

The New York Rangers are thrilled to have won the first-overall pick in the 2020 NHL Entry Draft. Right? Well, yes. Barring unforeseen circumstances (though this year is certainly the one for those), the Rangers won’t hesitate at all to select left wing Alexis Lafreniere, the consensus best prospect in the draft whose game has […]

The New York Rangers made magic in 1993-94, carrying their long-suffering fans on a wild Stanley Cup drought-busting ride that still rates among the greatest moments in NHL history. Three seasons later, Wayne Gretzky would join Mark Messier on Broadway as the Blueshirts made an unexpected surge to the Eastern Conference Final, the final season […]

The New York Rangers have no choice but to hit the gas pedal now, right? Monday’s stunning news that the Rangers had converted their uncommon 12.5% chance of earning the top pick in the NHL Entry Draft, quite a bit more than just a consolation prize for the club’s sweep at the hands of the […]

For established world-class athletes, joining a team in New York City from elsewhere always has been, and always will be, a different animal. A select group of imported players thrives under the white-hot spotlight, while many more wilt under the pressure of rabid fanbases and the unrelenting coverage of the Big Apple’s media horde, an […]

The exciting future or the illustrious past that still has a foot in the present? The biggest question facing coach New York Rangers coach David Quinn as the unprecedented 24-team NHL playoff tournament approaches is a choice between those two factors: does he go with impressive rookie Igor Shesterkin in goal, or does he turn […]

Though the NHL is on the verge of returning, there’s little doubt that the league – just like the rest of the world – won’t look normal for perhaps quite a while. So there still remains plenty of room for fans to dream, as many have during this unprecedented pause in play, of full arenas […]

The NHL’s impending return will be welcomed by hockey fans everywhere, as strange as it will be to watch players on the ice in July and August. Still, the real games of this unprecedented playoff tournament remain some time away, so here’s a little historical trivia to help bridge the gap from now until then. […]

Before the 2013-14 New York Rangers made their stunning run to the Stanley Cup Final, only to fall short, there was the 1978-79 team. That Blueshirts squad authored an even bigger Cinderella story than their counterparts of 25 years later, emerging from third place in the four-team Patrick Division – with 91 points, they finished […]

The New York Rangers have high hopes and big plans for Kaapo Kakko, the Finnish forward who they were more than happy to take with the No. 2 overall pick in the 2019 NHL Draft. There’s a long way to go for the 19-year-old after an up-and-down rookie season, but the Rangers are confident Kakko […]

Before there was the spring of 1994, there was 1991-92. The New York Rangers’ rise to Stanley Cup-drought busters didn’t happen overnight. For hopeful fans at the outset of the 1990s, however, it might have seemed that way for one season. That wasn’t the long-awaited 1993-94 championship campaign; instead, it was that ’91-’92 Blueshirts squad […]

It’s a safe bet that not a single member of the New York Rangers wanted to see the 2019-20 season paused due to the coronavirus pandemic. A young team on an apparent rise was squarely in the mix for a playoff spot, a largely unexpected turn of events just two years into the organization’s wholesale […]

“I didn’t want to see another son hurt.” With those words, actor Eric Nesterenko drives home the central theme of the often-overlooked hockey film Youngblood, released in 1986 and co-produced, co-written and directed by Peter Markle. Though hardly destined to be remembered among the greatest sports movies, the often-dark narrative has allowed it to accomplish […]

New York Rangers general manager Jeff Gorton has accomplished a very rare feat – getting the fanbase of a New York City professional team to buy into a full-scale rebuild, patience and all. Of course, it hasn’t hurt one bit that the GM has been largely successful in his moves – both in the acquisition […]

Alexei Kovalev’s place in New York Rangers history is secure. The Russian forward with the infectious, boyish smile and the prodigious talent will never be forgotten by a fanbase who watched the then 21-year-old help power the Blueshirts to the Stanley Cup in 1994 with a clutch performance in those amazing NHL playoffs. Those indelible […]

The 2022 NHL Expansion Draft, set to take place next June as the league populates the roster of the Seattle franchise that will bring it to 32 teams, probably was only on the periphery of fans’ minds even before the COVID-19 pandemic forced a shutdown in play – perhaps for the rest of the 2019-20 […]

The New York Rangers’ mega-trade with the Tampa Bay Lightning on Feb. 26, 2018, wasn’t the first big move of their rebuilding project, which had been formally undertaken with a letter to fans from team management early that month. No, their first big deal had occurred the day before, when the Rangers sent forward Rick […]

The Franchise Four. The Mount Rushmore. Four players who tell the story of an organization. In this series I’ll be taking a look at the history of all 30 NHL squads. For criteria, I’m choosing one forward, defenceman, goaltender and a wild card from any position. An “Original Six” squad, there’s no shortage of sensational […]

Second-guessing is always easy – especially when it comes to amateur drafts in professional sports. How could my team take this player over that one that year? Wasn’t it as obvious at the time, when they were fresh-faced teenagers, as it is now, years later? The answer, of course, is generally no – even when […]

Mika Zibanejad’s five-goal masterpiece last week represented the high point of the New York Rangers’ season, a breathtaking performance by one of the Blueshirts’ stars which delivered a key victory in an unexpected 2019-20 playoff push. While Zibanejad’s effort highlighted all that’s right with the Rangers going forward, it also perfectly epitomized the club’s 2019-20 […]