With the 2024-25 season opener on Wednesday night in Pittsburgh, Editor-at-Large Dave Blezow checks in on a few Rangers issues with The Post’s Rangers beat writer Mollie Walker and Hockey Hall of Fame columnist Larry Brooks.
Larry, you’ve been writing a lot this offseason about how the Rangers are largely “running it back” with the same core that has come close but ultimately failed to win the Stanley Cup. With Sam Carrick and Reilly Smith being the only players new to the organization, what has to happen over the next six months to make this group good enough to finally bring home the trophy?
Brooks: Is it too glib to suggest that the most important day of the season will be the March 7 trade deadline? Probably, but over the past three deadlines, GM Chris Drury has acquired Andrew Copp, Frank Vatrano, Tyler Motte, Tyler Motte (the Jimmy Two Times of the deadline), Justin Braun, Patrick Kane, Alex Wennberg and Jack Roslovic in exchange for a bevy of draft picks in an effort to find the missing piece(s).
But, over the 62 games leading to the deadline, Peter Laviolette must expand the roles of the club’s younger players — which the head coach vowed to do late last week — and the younger players must take another step. That, specifically, means Alexis Lafrenière, Kaapo Kakko, Will Cuylle, K’Andre Miller and Braden Schneider. Of course, Filip Chytil is in a category of his own. The Rangers also have to add a greater element of physicality to their game so it is not a foreign concept when the playoffs come around.
