The scope of Wednesday night’s New York Rangers-Washington Capitals game at Madison Square Garden was expected to be centered on a potential retaliation against Tom Wilson, but the stretch run will now include questions about the broader future of the franchise.
With just three games left in the season, the Rangers have let go of team president John Davidson and general manager Jeff Gorton in a stunning move, even after New York was eliminated from playoff contention on Monday.
in their place, the Rangers have announced that assistant general manager, and former Rangers captain Chris Drury will take over as both general manager and team president of the franchise.
While the Rangers missed out on the postseason, the move comes as a surprise after the franchise has made big steps back toward relevancy in recent years. Gorton was a driving force behind the team’s rebuild initiative that began back in 2018, and put the team on the cusp of a playoff berth in each of the last two seasons, while also bringing in a star in Artemi Panarin.
In a New York Post report from Larry Brooks, Dolan was growing impatient with the rebuild, leading to Gorton and Davidson to be let go, with Davidson having been in his role for just two years.
The timing of the firings brought into question the relation to the team’s statement released on Tuesday regarding Wilson, who the statement said should be suspended indefinitely while calling out the NHL’s Department of Player Safety. However, TSN hockey insider Darren Dreger reports that the firings were unrelated to the statement, and the decision was due to underperformance.
New York is 26-21-6 on the season, its second straight winning season since Davidson began his tenure as team president.
Meanwhile, Drury takes over with the Rangers after being in the front office of the organization for the past six seasons. He started during the 2015-16 season as the team's Director of Player Development, and then eventually worked his way up to being named associate general manager this season. The 44-year-old was also tasked with being the general manager of the Rangers' American Hockey League affiliate Hartford Wolf Pack.
Drury has also been tasked in the past few years of putting together Team USA for the IIHF World Championship as the program's general manager. He was originally named USA Hockey's general manager for the tournament in 2019, and then again this year after the 2020 tournament was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Drury also spent a number of years with the Rangers as a player, appearing in 264 games over the span of four seasons. The final three seasons of his time in New York he served as captain of the team after signing as a free agent in the summer of 2007 from the Buffalo Sabres.
While with the Sabres, Drury split time with Daniel Briere as team captain, where he scored 85 goals and amassed 104 assists for 185 points in 234 games. He was acquired by Buffalo before the 2003-04 season in a trade with the Calgary Flames.
Drury will, perhaps, be best remembered for his playoff heroics with the Sabres both during the 2006 and 2007 runs. In 34 playoff games with the Sabres, Drury scored 17 goals and added 14 assists for 31 points.
In 2006, Drury scored the overtime winner in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Semifinal Round against the Ottawa Senators in, arguably, the most memorable game in franchise history.
During the 2007 run for the Sabres, Drury will forever be immortalized for his game-tying goal with 7.7 seconds remaining in regulation against the Rangers in Game 5 of the Eastern Conference Semifinal Round in Buffalo. That helped the Sabres to a 2-1 overtime win en route to a second-straight appearance in the Eastern Conference Final.
In Drury's 12-year career in the NHL with the Rangers, Sabres, Flames and Colorado Avalanche, he scored 255 goals and registered 360 assists for 615 points in 892 games. He won the Calder Trophy as the NHL's Rookie of the Year in the 1998-99 season with the Avalanche, and helped Colorado to a Stanley Cup win in 2001.
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