3 things Knicks can learn from Rangers’ run in NHL playoffs
By Adam Kester
If it’s broke, fix it
This almost seems like a complete contradiction to the earlier lesson of playing the kids and investing in long-term success as opposed to always making changes. This is true, you want your players to be in a healthy environment and give them multiple chances to succeed. But you want to make sure that the environment stays healthy.
The Rangers have received praise from around the NHL for their impressive rebuild. Winning trades left and right, having draft lottery luck, and being able to make the organization attractive to free agents. And even with all of this success, they’ve had plenty of bumps in the road.
The Rangers didn’t have high expectations heading into the season. The playoffs alone would’ve been a success. They missed the playoffs last year, and they fired their then head coach, Dan Quinn. He certainly received backlash from Rangers fans throughout his tenure, but it wasn’t some sort of clear-cut decision.
This was, again, a young team with no high playoff hopes, so you could’ve just said that was that and given more time.
But the Rangers recognized that the coach was holding this young team back. Not only that, Gerard Gallant, who has an impressive resume, was available. They pounced. They fired Quinn and hired Gallant, and here they are in the conference finals. It wasn’t just the coach, either.
Along this journey, the Rangers have had multiple high draft picks not pan out. They traded away a very young Lias Andersson, who was disgruntled with his progress in the organization. Vitaly Kravtsov, another high draft pick, felt as though he wasn’t being rewarded enough for his pedigree either.
The Rangers made sure to cut ties with their talented, yet cancerous locker room presence, Tony DeAngelo. Essentially, the Rangers were able to accurately sniff out the things that were holding the team back.
I think we can safely say that this current Knicks roster won’t at all be the same roster in two years. The team has plenty of personnel decisions to make — from potential trades to looming extensions. They have to figure out who is part of the winning equation and who is not.
There could be some exciting young players who simply do not fit the team’s long-term vision. There could be veterans who are holding other players back. There could be a head coach who isn’t the right fit going forward.
These decisions aren’t easy to make, but that’s why the front office gets paid so much money — they need to be able to get these things right. Ultimately, it’s up to the talent evaluators and the Knicks’ top decision-makers. Let’s hope they figure this thing out.
