5 questions facing the Rangers in the offseason

This season began with high hopes for the Rangers. Coming off a disastrous 2024-25 season in which everything that possibly could have gone wrong did, their hope was that the pendulum would swing back in their favor in 2025-26.

General manager Chris Drury got a contract extension at the start of the offseason, and after firing three coaches in four years, he finally got the man he had wanted all along in two-time Stanley Cup winner Mike Sullivan. They seemed set to bounce back.

But a weird inability to win — or even score — at home doomed them, as did injuries to new captain J.T. Miller, Vincent Trocheck, Adam Fox and Igor Shesterkin. Drury threw in the towel on the season and announced the team would retool in his Jan. 16 letter to the fans, and a few weeks later, he traded Artemi Panarin to the Los Angeles Kings. The Rangers played out the string for the last three months.

On Friday, they’ll clean out their lockers after a second straight non-playoff season. They have a ton of questions to answer as they enter the offseason, beginning with these:

1. Is this really a retool or is it more of a full-blown rebuild?

A retool would imply a quick little refresh and a short timeline to get the team back to contending for a Stanley Cup. But it will be a huge challenge to get back into the playoffs next season in the tough Eastern Conference. Buffalo ended an NHL-record 14-season playoff drought and won the Atlantic Division this season. Carolina is as tough as ever and Florida certainly will be back after injuries kept the Panthers out of the playoffs this season.

With few needle-moving players available in free agency this summer, how will Drury improve the Rangers’ roster to compete next season? Rookie Gabe Perreault showed great promise and some of the young call-ups looked good at the end of this season. But their timeline might not be right now. It could take a couple years, which doesn’t sound like a retool.

2. Will Trocheck be back?

He didn’t get moved at the trade deadline, but that doesn’t necessarily mean he won’t get traded over the summer. He still has only limited trade protection and would be a desirable commodity among contending teams as an Olympic gold medal-winning, veteran middle-six center who wins faceoffs, kills penalties and plays a gritty two-way game.

With Mika Zibanejad, Miller and Trocheck all playing center down the stretch, Noah Laba finished the season on the fourth line. If Drury could move Trocheck and bring back a nice return (a young NHL-caliber player and perhaps a draft pick or two), he’d also be clearing a spot for Laba to move back up to the third line.

3. Is this Dylan Garand’s time, finally, to be a full-time NHLer?

It sure looks like it. Jonathan Quick is retiring, so the Rangers need a backup goalie behind Shesterkin. After spending four years in Hartford, Garand, who’ll be 24 in June, seems like the logical choice to step up into that role. He certainly looked good in his end-of-season audition (2-0-1, 1.62 goals-against average, .948 save percentage).

He’s a restricted free agent with arbitration rights, so the Rangers will need to sign him. They should do this quickly.

4. Are Jaroslav Chmelar and Adam Sykora locks to make the team next season?

The two pals certainly have looked good and brought tons of energy to the group in their extended look at the end of the season, but no, they’re hardly locks.

Remember Brett Berard, who looked so good in 35 games in 2024-25? He didn’t make the team out of camp this season, had some injury issues in Hartford and managed zero points in 13 games with the Rangers in a couple of separate recalls during the season.

The competition for roster spots this fall will be fierce.

Tye Kartye, a waiver pickup from Seattle, had two goals in Wednesday’s season finale and finished with five goals and 14 points in 24 games. He had only eight points in 40 games with the Kraken this season. He seems a lock to play on the third line next season.

Matt Rempe and Adam Edstrom, both of whom struggled with injuries, will be looking to reestablish themselves as regulars. Taylor Raddysh will be back. There might not be room for both Chmelar and Sykora — or either of them.

5. Does Drury have some kind of lucky charm ready for the draft lottery?

The Rangers moved up in the lottery in back-to-back years, jumping to No. 2 overall in 2019 (to take Kaapo Kakko) and getting the No. 1 pick in 2020 (Alexis Lafreniere).

The Rangers have a top-four pick this year in a draft in which most prognosticators think there’s a significant drop-off after the top three players. The Islanders won the first pick last year with a 3.5% chance, and Matthew Schaefer turned out to be franchise-changing for them.

If the Rangers get the same chance this year, that could speed everything up. Entering Thursday, they had a 9.5% chance of landing the No. 1 pick, according to Tankathon.

By Colin Stephenson

colin.stephenson@newsday.comColinSNewsday

Colin Stephenson covers the Rangers for Newsday. He has spent more than two decades covering the NHL and just about every sports team in the New York metropolitan area.