

RALEIGH, N.C. — The New York Rangers are the only team in the NHL without a multi-goal comeback this season, so when Seth Jarvis scored late in the first period to give Carolina a two-goal lead, the game might as well have been over. That meant this up-and-down, at times straight-up dreadful season will soon be, too.
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The Rangers lost 7-3 to Carolina on Saturday, eliminating them from playoff contention less than a year after winning the 2023-24 Presidents’ Trophy. Last season, the roles were reversed. New York ended the Hurricanes’ season with a Game 6 victory in the second round. Chris Kreider led the way with a natural hat trick in one of his greatest moments as a Ranger.
Times are different now.
The Rangers have two games left: Monday in Florida and Thursday at home against Tampa Bay. Then comes an offseason sure to bring plenty of change.
Coming off a run to the 2024 Eastern Conference final, New York started the season 12-4-1, then lost 14 of its next 19 games in regulation. Early in that stretch, general manager Chris Drury sent out a memo to the league’s other general managers saying he was open to trading roster players and mentioning Kreider, the team’s longest-tenured player, and then-captain Jacob Trouba by name. That led to early-season tensions that faded as time went on but never fully disappeared.
The team played better when the calendar flipped to 2025, but could never find consistency. It has not won three consecutive games since November. Teams such as the Montreal Canadiens and Columbus Blue Jackets, with less-proven talent, have vaulted ahead of them.
Drury began reshaping the roster during the season. He traded away longtime Rangers in Trouba, Kaapo Kakko, Filip Chytil, Ryan Lindgren and Jimmy Vesey, as well as Reilly Smith, who was acquired over the summer. He acquired defensemen Urho Vaakanainen (in the Trouba trade), Will Borgen (in the Kakko trade) and Carson Soucy (for a third-round pick acquired in the Smith trade) over the course of the season, and extended both Borgen and Vaakanainen. Soucy is already under contract for another year.
The biggest move Drury made, though, was acquiring J.T. Miller from Vancouver, sending away Chytil, Victor Mancini and a conditional first-round pick. Miller has been a point-per-game player since coming to the Rangers, but has not produced at the same level as in 2023-24. That’s not uncommon among the New York players: Artemi Panarin, Mika Zibanejad, Chris Kreider, Vincent Trocheck, Alexis Lafrenière and Adam Fox are all on pace to finish well under their point totals from last season.
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The dip in team-wide performance means Drury’s roster reconstruction is likely just beginning. Plenty of questions remain within the forward group, primarily around Kreider’s future. K’Andre Miller and Will Cuylle are also due new contracts as restricted free agents, and that will eat into the team’s cap space.
Fittingly, Cuylle was a bright spot in the Rangers’ loss Saturday to Carolina. The 23-year-old reached the 20-goal mark for the first time in his career, adding to a strong sophomore season. He already set the Rangers’ single-season hits record since the league started tracking the stat in 2007-08.
Cools finds the back of the net. pic.twitter.com/NN68FkjnpQ
— New York Rangers (@NYRangers) April 12, 2025
New York’s special teams were elite in 2023-24, but the power play plummeted this season. The team’s defensive structure also faltered under coach Peter Laviolette, whose job feels less than secure entering the summer.
The Rangers currently have a record of 37-36-7. That’s a .506 point percentage, which would be the team’s lowest since 2018-19 (.476).
This story will be updated.
(Photo: Jaylynn Nash / Getty Images)
This news was originally published on this post .
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