{"id":492454,"date":"2026-06-26T07:45:07","date_gmt":"2026-06-26T11:45:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/?p=492454"},"modified":"2026-06-25T19:48:38","modified_gmt":"2026-06-25T23:48:38","slug":"new-york-rangers-chemistry","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/2026\/06\/26\/new-york-rangers-chemistry\/","title":{"rendered":"New York Rangers Chemistry and Whether James Dolan Can Replicate Knicks Blueprint"},"content":{"rendered":"

The New York Knicks just secured the first championship that Madison Square Garden and New York have seen since the 1994 New York Rangers Stanley Cup victory. After many years of struggle, the Knicks decided not to try to reinvent the wheel, but rather take what has proven to work and bring the pieces together. MSG owner James Dolan and Knicks team president Leon Rose went out of their way to reassemble a trio that had won two NCAA titles together at Villanova. That trio of players being Jalen Brunson, Mikal Bridges, and Josh Hart. Over the course of three years, the team slowly acquired each of the pieces. The price was steep, but the payoff was a championship. Could the Rangers, starting with Gabe Perreault, try something similar?<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/smartframe-embed><\/p>\n

Jason Biggs, Michael Gandolfini and Chase Sui Wonders attend the Toronto Maple Leafs vs New York Rangers game.<\/span><\/p>\n

Knicks Proved That Chemistry Wins Championships<\/h3>\n

James Dolan owns both the Knicks and the Rangers. It was clear that Dolan and the Knicks staff had a clear vision of the structure of their roster and took great risks to pull it off. After proving this blueprint, is it necessary that the Rangers take this same game plan when assembling their retool?<\/span><\/p>\n

Could Dolan’s Formula Translate to the Rangers?<\/h3>\n

The answer is yes. But Drury must be sure the New York Rangers chemistry is proven before applying this blueprint.<\/span><\/p>\n

A Trio Built for a Championship<\/h3>\n

The most proven trio is most definitely Gabe Perreault<\/a>, Will Smith, and Ryan Leonard.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

This trio played together long before their college days at Boston College. They first saw success together as 17-year-olds playing at the U17 USA Hockey National Team Development Program. It wasn’t long before their success began to attract public attention. In their following season together on the U18 team, the trio broke scoring records and dominated the league. Perreault set the all-time NTDP points record with 132, with Will Smith close behind him at 127. Before these two, the previous record was only 117, set by Auston Matthews.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

But the domination did not stop there. At the 2023 Under-18 World Championship, the line dominated the tournament. Smith finished with 20 points, Perreault with 18, and Leonard with 17, putting them as the top-three scorers in the entire tournament. They later went on to prove they can survive under meaningful games as Team USA won gold, as Leonard scored in overtime to seal a 3-2 victory.<\/span><\/p>\n

They then carried their chemistry to their freshman season at Boston College, where they turned the Eagles program around. After a 14-16-6 year, the Eagles were now the No. 1-ranked team in the NCAA. That same year, they went on to win gold at the World Juniors, where the trio was credited with 2 goals in the gold medal game. Leonard described their journey together as “kind of like a movie about how we’ve gone from every level together.” Perreault explained the chemistry simply<\/a>: “We are all kind of similar in knowing where each other is going to be. Those two years at the NTDP just helped us grow that chemistry.”<\/span><\/p>\n

The trio is now split up at the NHL level. Smith with San Jose and Leonard with Washington. Both are rebuilding teams, making the pursuit of reconnecting the trio right now very difficult. However, Drury does not need to make a move today. With Perreault already in the system, keeping Smith and Leonard in mind as long-term trade or free agent targets could be a plan the team should wait to execute.<\/span><\/p>\n

Spitfires’ Greentree and Belchetz<\/h3>\n

The Rangers do not have to wait years to apply this blueprint. They have an opportunity to do it on June 26th and 27th at the 2026 NHL Entry Draft<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

Liam Greentree arrived in New York<\/a> as the centrepiece of the deal with the Los Angeles Kings for Artemi Panarin. Greentree is the captain of the Windsor Spitfires in the OHL. The Spitfires saw a lot of playoff success this season, making it to the Western Conference finals, and only fell to the OHL champion Kitchener Rangers. Fellow Spitfire and top-rated player on this year’s 2026 draft board, Ethan Belchetz, could be a name to look at for the Rangers’ fifth-overall pick<\/a>.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

If the Rangers are left with picks that are of similar talent in the eyes of Chris Drury, then there should be no question that the Rangers should go after Belchetz on draft night. The two Windsor Spitfires teammates already trust each other, know each other’s games, and have built a bond through a full OHL season together. From the jump of their Rangers careers, Greentree and Belchetz would not need time to adjust to each other. With the cost of acquisition for this to happen being zero, the Rangers should definitely take a close look at Belchetz and his game.<\/span><\/p>\n

How Chris Drury Can Make the Blueprint Real<\/h3>\n

The Knicks’ success did not happen by accident. Leon Rose and the Knicks front office made deliberate decisions over multiple years to reassemble a group they believed in. Drury has the opportunity to do the same thing with the Rangers.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

While this may take a similar timeline as it took the Knicks, it is definitely something Drury and the Rangers should have in the front of their minds today.<\/span><\/p>\n

Main Photo Credit: Christopher Hanewinckel-USA TODAY Sports<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The New York Knicks just secured the first championship that Madison Square Garden and New York have seen since the 1994 New York Rangers Stanley Cup victory. After many years of struggle, the Knicks decided not to try to reinvent the wheel, but rather take what has proven to work and bring the pieces together. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5871,"featured_media":432220,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[14,4547,4548],"tags":[7721,7870],"class_list":["post-492454","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-rangers","category-hockey","category-nhl","tag-gabe-perreault","tag-liam-greentree"],"modified_by":"Levi Pike, Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/492454","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5871"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=492454"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/492454\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":492633,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/492454\/revisions\/492633"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/432220"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=492454"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=492454"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=492454"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}