The New York Rangers have extended general manager Jeff Gorton and assistant general manager Chris Drury. News of the extension was first broken by Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman during Saturday night’s Hockey Night in Canada’s Headlines segment.
https://twitter.com/FriedgeHNIC/status/1236491853161271296
Jeff Gorton Extended by Rangers
Gorton has been the team’s general manager after taking over for Glenn Sather in 2015. The Rangers have made a lot of changes in his tenure after sending a letter to their fanbase stating that they needed to rebuild.
Fan favourites like Ryan Callahan, Mats Zuccarello, J.T. Miller and others were traded away to make way for new talent. Gorton has brought in Artemi Panarin, Jacob Trouba, Ryan Strome and Adam Fox among others.
He’s also added players like Filip Chytil and Igor Shesterkin to help replenish the team’s prospect pool into one of the best in the league. Gorton has also managed re-sign talented winger Chris Kreider to an extension.
Gorton also served as interim general manager of the Boston Bruins during 2006 and helped run the Bruins famous draft. He landed Tuukka Rask via trade with the Toronto Maple Leafs and got Zdeno Chara and Marc Savard in free agency.
What It Means for the Future
The Rangers are three points out of a playoff spot as of the the start of Sunday’s games. New York has rebuilt quickly and there’s genuine excitement for the future of this team.
Friedman stated that Gorton could be in line for some general manager of the year hardware if the Rangers do make the Stanley Cup playoffs.
However, things aren’t going to be this off-season for Gorton and Drury. They have some tough decisions like trying to re-sign Anthony DeAngelo and Strome. The Rangers have been usually against the salary cap, but seem to be not as tight as they were under Sather.
