History of the New York Rangers

At the time, there was no expansion draft in the NHL to help new teams ice competitive rosters, which in any other year would have made assembling a playoff contender extremely difficult.

Smythe had a falling-out with Rickard's hockey man, Col. John S. Hammond, and was fired as manager-head coach on the eve of the first season; he was paid a then-hefty $10,000 to leave.

An angry Patrick lined up between the pipes for two periods in game two of the Stanley Cup Finals, allowing one goal to Maroons center Nels Stewart.

After a loss to the Boston Bruins in the 1929 Stanley Cup Finals and a few mediocre seasons in the early 1930s, the Rangers, led by the brothers Bill and Bun Cook on the right and left wings, respectively, and Frank Boucher at center, would defeat the Toronto Maple Leafs in the 1932–33 best-of-five finals, three games to one, to win their second Stanley Cup, exacting revenge against the Leafs' "Kid line" of Busher Jackson, Joe Primeau and Charlie Conacher.

They would end up losing to the Detroit Red Wings in overtime in the seventh game of the finals, despite a stellar first-round performance as underdogs to the Montreal Canadiens.

The Rangers made the finals twice in the 1970s, but lost both times to two 1970s powerhouses; in six games to the Boston Bruins in 1972, who were led by such stars as Bobby Orr, Phil Esposito, Ken Hodge, Johnny Bucyk and Wayne Cashman; and in five games to the Canadiens in 1979, who had Bob Gainey, Guy Lafleur, Larry Robinson, Ken Dryden, Guy Lapointe and Serge Savard.

The strength of players like Brad Park, Ratelle, Vic Hadfield and Rod Gilbert (the last three constructing the famed "GAG line", meaning "goal-a-game") would still carry them through the playoffs.

Other ex-Oilers on the Rangers included Esa Tikkanen and trade deadline acquisitions Oilers captain Craig MacTavish and Glenn Anderson from the Toronto Maple Leafs.

[8][9] Mike Babcock would join him in this feat in 2009 while with the Detroit Red Wings, having been with the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim when they lost to the Devils in 2003 (the home team won all seven games of the series).

Succeeding Rangers head coach Colin Campbell orchestrated a deal that sent Sergei Zubov and center Petr Nedved to Pittsburgh in exchange for defenceman Ulf Samuelsson and left winger Luc Robitaille in the summer of 1995.

After GM Neil Smith ran Messier, a former Oiler teammate of Gretzky's, out of town in the summer of 1997 and failed in a bid to replace him with Colorado Avalanche superstar Joe Sakic,[15] the Rangers began a streak of seven seasons without making the playoffs, despite routinely having the highest payroll in the NHL.

[21] Towards the end of the 2003–04 season, GM Glen Sather finally gave in to a rebuilding process by trading away Brian Leetch, Alexei Kovalev and eight others for numerous prospects and draft picks.

With the retirements of Pavel Bure and Mark Messier, as well as Eric Lindros signing with the Toronto Maple Leafs, the post-lockout Rangers, under new head coach Tom Renney, moved away from high-priced veterans towards a group of talented young players, such as Petr Prucha, Dominic Moore and Blair Betts.

[24] Less than two weeks later, on April 8, Jagr scored his 53rd goal of the season against the Boston Bruins, breaking the club record previously held by Adam Graves.

[28] Realizing the team had trouble scoring goals in the 2005–06 campaign, the Rangers went out and signed Triple Gold Club winner, 12-time 30-goal scorer and long-time Detroit Red Wing Brendan Shanahan to a one-year contract.

However, a successful start to the season was tempered with by the news of the sudden death of 2007 first-round pick Alexei Cherepanov, which occurred during a KHL game in Russia on October 13, 2008.

After the Rangers went 2-7-3 in their previous 12 games, on February 23, 2009 coach Tom Renney was fired, with 2004 Stanley Cup and Jack Adams Award winner John Tortorella named as his replacement.

On June 30, 2009, the Rangers traded Scott Gomez, Tom Pyatt and Michael Busto to the Montreal Canadiens in exchange for Chris Higgins, Ryan McDonagh, Pavel Valentenko and Doug Janik.

[43] On June 20, 2014, a week after their season ended, the Rangers bought-out the remaining six years of Brad Richards' contract in order to free up salary cap space.

On October 6, 2014, defenseman Ryan McDonagh was named the Rangers' 27th captain in team history, with Derek Stepan, Dan Girardi, Marc Staal and Martin St. Louis serving as alternates.

On January 8, 2016, the Rangers traded Emerson Etem to the Vancouver Canucks in exchange for Nicklas Jensen and a sixth-round pick in the 2017 NHL Entry Draft.

Following the narrow playoff defeat, the Rangers traded Stepan and Raanta to the Arizona Coyotes in exchange for Tony DeAngelo and the seventh overall pick in the 2017 draft, which became Lias Andersson.

New York's 2017–18 season started slowly with losses in seven of their first eight games (1–5–2), but the team entered the new calendar year with a 20–13–5 mark that reinserted them back into the postseason picture.

Additionally, the Rangers made a major splash in free agency by signing former Columbus Blue Jacket Artemi Panarin to a seven-year deal.

The Rangers were seeded 11th but failed to earn a single win in the Toronto bubble, as they were promptly swept by the sixth-seeded Carolina Hurricanes in the Eastern Conference's qualifying round.

During the off-season, the Rangers traded Marc Staal to the Detroit Red Wings and bought out the final year of Henrik Lundqvist's contract, leaving Kreider as the lone leftover from their 2014 Eastern Conference-winning squad.

Panarin took a leave of absence in February to deal with a personal matter in his native Russia, while Quinn and his staff were briefly sidelined due to COVID-19 issues, forcing AHL Hartford head coach Kris Knoblauch to temporarily take over.

Over the offseason, the Rangers added several players known for their physicality, including Barclay Goodrow, Ryan Reaves, and Sammy Blais (who was obtained in a trade with the St. Louis Blues in exchange for Buchnevich).

Anchored by the play of new franchise goaltender Igor Shesterkin and a breakthrough season from Kreider, the Rangers finished second in the Metropolitan Division with a 52-24-6 record.

[64] However, they lost to their river rivals, the New Jersey Devils in seven games despite having a 2–0 series lead, and as a result Gallant was fired as head coach and replaced with Peter Laviolette following the season.