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NEW YORK — Chris Kreider used to take playing in the Stanley Cup Playoffs with the New York Rangers for granted.
“I stepped into a team that was one of the best teams in the League,” the 30-year-old forward said. “They’d won the division when I first joined them [in 2012]. A couple years later the Presidents’ Trophy, conference final, Stanley Cup Final. As a young guy just trying to make it into that lineup, I probably did take it for granted. It’s a very hard League to win in.”
The Rangers are back in the playoffs this season, tied for first place in the Metropolitan Division with the Carolina Hurricanes, each with 108 points and four games remaining.
It’s been more than four years since the Rangers organization announced plans to move on from the era of success Kreider lived through as a young player, to a rebuilding project that they figured would take at least this long.
The Rangers were part of the postseason in 2020 as one of 12 teams that returned to play in the Eastern Conference after the season was paused because of the coronavirus. They were swept by the Hurricanes in the best-of-5 Stanley Cup Qualifiers.
They have not played in a best-of-7 series since losing in six games to the Ottawa Senators in the Eastern Conference Second Round in 2017. Kreider and center Mika Zibanejad are the only two players remaining.
“Culture, everything throughout the room, throughout the organization, has been on the up,” defenseman Jacob Trouba said. “I think we’re ready for this. As a team, as a group, the whole organization, this is where we wanted to get back to.”
The Rangers made the playoffs every season from 2011 to 2017.
They reached the Stanley Cup Final in 2014. Their runs ended in the Eastern Conference Final in 2012 and 2015, two seasons where they finished first in their division. In 2014-15 New York won the Presidents’ Trophy with a Rangers-record 113 points.
“It’s been very difficult sitting there and watching other teams play playoff hockey,” Kreider said of the past few seasons. “You want to make the playoffs and you want to accomplish that goal of winning the Stanley Cup. I think it made this group incredibly hungry and incredibly focused. It’s just the first step.”
There were incremental steps along the way that got the Rangers to this point.
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The build started with the letter Rangers management sent to the fans Feb. 8, 2018, that said they were going into a rebuild and to expect some tough seasons ahead. The decision to be honest with their plans bought the Rangers some goodwill, Kreider said.
“I guess you could say there was complete buy-in from the fanbase too,” Kreider said.
From the time the letter was sent through to the 2020 NHL Trade Deadline, the Rangers traded defensemen Ryan McDonagh and Brady Skjei, and forwards J.T. Miller, Rick Nash, Kevin Hayes and Mats Zuccarello for draft picks and prospects.
Defenseman Marc Staal was traded to the Detroit Red Wings on Sept. 26, 2020, and four days later the Rangers bought out the last season of goalie Henrik Lundqvist’s contract, a decision that ended the greatest era of goaltending in New York history — but ushered in a new one.
Igor Shesterkin is a favorite to win the Vezina Trophy this season as the top goaltender in the NHL. He is 36-11-4 with a 2.01 goals-against average, .936 save percentage and six shutouts.
“Every good team has a great goalie and we definitely have one of those,” Trouba said.
The Rangers had one before Shesterkin, but not even Lundqvist, a likely future Hall of Famer, could stop the bleeding as the rebuild carried on the past few seasons.
They missed the playoffs by 20 points in 2018-19 and were seventh in the Metropolitan Division in 2019-20 when the season paused March 12. They came back as the 11th of 12 seeds in the Eastern Conference.
Last season they missed the playoffs by 11 points in the MassMutual East Division.
General manager Jeff Gorton and president John Davidson were fired May 5, 2021, with three games left. Chris Drury was promoted as the new president and GM; had had been the associate general manager.
The Rangers fired coach David Quinn a week later, ending his three-season run behind the bench (96-87-25). Gerard Gallant was hired as Quinn’s replacement June 16.
“It feels like yesterday that I got here but it was four years ago, times were tough, and the last few years haven’t always been the most fun,” forward Ryan Strome said.
But along the way, the Rangers kept adding pieces that led to where they are now.
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Artemi Panarin signed a seven-year, $81.5 million contract ($11.6 million average annual value) on July 1, 2019. The forward has scored 249 points (71 goals, 178 assists) in 184 games with the Rangers.
The Rangers got defenseman Adam Fox in a trade with the Hurricanes on April 30, 2019, giving up a second-round pick in the 2019 NHL Draft and a conditional pick in the 2020 NHL Draft for the defenseman coming out of Harvard University.
Fox won the Norris Trophy voted as the top defenseman in the NHL last season and has scored 72 points (11 goals, 61 assists) in 75 games this season. He has scored 161 points (24 goals, 137 assists) in 200 games in his three seasons with the Rangers.
Strome came to the Rangers in a trade from the Edmonton Oilers on Nov. 16, 2018. He’s had the best four seasons of his career, scoring 193 points (70 goals, 123 assists) in 259 games, including 52 points (20 goals, 32 assists) in 70 games this season.
Trouba was acquired in a trade with the Winnipeg Jets on June 17, 2019, and signed a seven-year, $56 million contract ($8 million AAV) a month later. His defense partner, K’Andre Miller, was selected with the No. 22 pick in the 2018 NHL Draft.
The Rangers got the No. 2 pick in the 2019 NHL Draft and selected forward Kaapo Kakko. They won the 2020 NHL Draft Lottery and chose forward Alexis Lafreniere with the No. 1 pick. Defenseman Braden Schneider was the No. 19 pick in the 2020 draft.
Zibanejad started to take his game to another level. He has scored 278 points (123 goals, 155 assists) in 273 games since 2018-19, including an NHL career-high 79 points (28 goals, 51 assists) in 78 games this season.
Kreider is making his 10th NHL season his best with 51 goals and 74 points.
Some of the players added prior to the 2022 NHL Trade Deadline have paid dividends, none bigger than forward Andrew Copp, who in 15 games has scored 18 points (eight goals, 10 assists), including a natural hat trick in the first period of a 6-3 win against the New York Islanders on Thursday.
Copp, acquired in a trade with the Jets on March 21, has been a regular on a line with Panarin and Strome. Frank Vatrano, acquired in a trade with the Florida Panthers on March 16, has scored 11 points (seven goals, four assists) in 18 games with New York and has been playing with Zibanejad and Kreider.
The Rangers have a team record 26 comeback wins. They haven’t lost more than two games in a row since they lost three straight from Nov. 2-6.
“Everyone knew it was time to take a step and we did that,” Strome said.
The next step awaits them. The next goal has been set.
“We’re here,” Trouba said. “Now it’s time for the players to step up and make some noise.”
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