Rangers have important things to build on in final stretch — yes, even outside draft dreams
NY Post
SAINT PAUL, Minn. — With the Rangers hovering over the bottom of the NHL standings, it’s easy to root for whatever outcome would most likely lead to general manager Chris Drury announcing Gavin McKenna’s name on the draft stage at KeyBank Center in Buffalo this June.
The worse the Blueshirts’ record is by the end of the season the better the organization’s draft lottery odds will be.
Certainly, a higher draft pick would be welcomed by a Rangers team that is actively looking to get younger.
Drawing the No. 1 pick for the second time in seven drafts feels like a long shot, but the Rangers learned there is no such thing in 2020, when the ping-pong ball with the organization’s crest popped out of the machine and allowed the team to take Alexis Lafrenière despite having the 14th-best odds.
PORT ST. LUCIE — The Mets’ 2025 failing (one of them anyway) might be their big strength now.
The discourse has gone on for two seasons now. But it doesn’t exactly match reality.
Where were the grownups for Team USA?
The Rangers reconvened after the Olympic stoppage wanting to find some successful combinations that had been largely absent through much of a disappointing last-place season.
SALT LAKE CITY — There was no sugarcoating an ugly first-half performance from the Knicks in the locker room, and the harsh words during the break helped spur a comeback in Wednesday’s 134-117 victory over the Jazz.
Team USA’s fate is out of its hands.
CLEARWATER, Fla. — Jasson Domínguez’s first-inning at-bat against Tanner Banks on Tuesday featured a different result and a different swing than “The Martian” had been accustomed to against lefty pitching.
Maxx Crosby isn’t looking in the rearview after a wild 24 hours.
Bam Adebayo occupies a new spot in the NBA history books.
Jets fans have been waiting for months to put the 2025 season in the past and start building a new roster.
SALT LAKE CITY — Leon Rose tried to address the bench in the summer. It didn’t work. He got a redo at the trade deadline with Jose Alvarado and Jeremy Sochan.
If Isaiah Likely was the most … er … likely former Raven to follow head coach John Harbaugh to the Giants, Patrick Ricard wasn’t far behind.
The deal that brought Aidan Thompson to the Rangers didn’t create the ripple effects that the Artemi Panarin trade did because of who departed the organization. That was only Derrick Pouliot, a 32-year-old defenseman more than two years removed from his last NHL game. It didn’t create the waves like one for, say, Vincent Trocheck, would have because of current NHL players or draft capital the Blueshirts received in return, either.