Rangers GM Chris Drury posts a letter to fans telling them trades are coming

In February 2018, the Rangers famously sent “The Letter,” a message to their fans announcing that after a number of years as a Stanley Cup contender, they would be starting a rebuild, one that would entail trading away some popular players and might take a few years.

On Friday, the team sent out a sequel, a message from president and general manager Chris Drury delivered on X telling fans that because of injuries, as well as the team’s last-place position in the Eastern Conference, it’s time for the team to again take a step back to best position itself to move forward.

“With our position in the standings and injuries to key players this season, we must be honest and realistic about our situation,’’ Drury wrote. “We are not going to stand pat — a shift will give us the ability to be smart and opportunistic as we retool the team. This will not be a rebuild. This will be a retool built around our core players and prospects.

“That may mean saying goodbye to players that have brought us and our fans great moments over the years. These players represented the Rangers with pride and class and will always be part of our family.”

On top of that list is Artemi Panarin, the team’s leading scorer every season since he arrived as a free agent in the summer of 2019.

According to a report by NHL Insider Elliotte Friedman, Drury met with Panarin, who is 34 and in the final season of a seven-year, $81.5 million contract, and told him that he does not intend to re-sign him. Friedman said Drury promised to work with Panarin and his agent, Paul Theofanous, to trade him wherever he wishes to go.

Panarin has 16 goals and 35 assists in 47 games this season. In 799 career games, he has 318 goals and 603 assists.

A Message from Chris Drury to Our Fans pic.twitter.com/JVimBJ59B7

— New York Rangers (@NYRangers) January 16, 2026

Other players in the final year of their contract include defenseman Carson Soucy and forwards Jonny Brodzinski, Brennan Othmann and Conor Sheary, who is on long-term injured reserve with a lower-body injury.

The announcement came after the Rangers’ practice at their Westchester County facility. A source said Drury met individually with members of the team’s leadership group and then met with the team as a whole before sending out the message.

The Rangers have lost five games in a row and are 20-22-6, 10 points behind Boston, which currently holds the second wild-card playoff position in the Eastern Conference.

“We’ve lost our swagger a little bit,” coach Mike Sullivan said after practice. “When it’s a struggle, confidence gets rattled and the game doesn’t become as instinctive. So everyone seems to be in a reactive mindset as opposed to a proactive mindset.”

The team’s two most indispensable players, goaltender Igor Shesterkin and defenseman Adam Fox, suffered lower-body injuries in a Jan. 5 overtime loss to Utah at Madison Square Garden (where the Rangers are 5-13-4 this season) and were placed on injured reserve and long-term injured reserve, respectively. Both skated on their own before practice Friday, their first time on the ice since getting injured.

Other players also have missed significant time with injuries. Center Vincent Trocheck missed 14 games early in the season with an upper-body injury and Fox missed 14 games in December with an upper-body injury. J.T. Miller has played hurt all season long, bothered first by a lower-body injury suffered in training camp that slowed him at the start of the season and then separate shoulder injuries that caused him to miss two games in November and seven in late December and early January.

Since Shesterkin and Fox went down, the Rangers have lost four straight and given up 27 goals in those games. Backup goaltender Jonathan Quick, who has started all four games, allowed 19 goals and has been pulled in two of the last three games. He has lost 11 straight decisions and has seen his goals-against average balloon to 3.13 and save percentage shrink to .887.

The Rangers have nine games left before the NHL breaks on Feb. 6 for the Winter Olympics and 13 left before the March 6 trade deadline. They have 34 games left in the season.

A source said the Rangers plan to be very active in the free-agent market.

Denis Gorman contributed to this story.