Creating that list doesn't come with any easy decisions for any NHL general manager.
"It's just the cost of an expansion - everyone's going to lose a player, and there were no easy decisions," Drury said. "Whether it was a player we ended up protecting or exposing, tough decisions to make. I just tried to make the best decisions I could."
Until the expansion draft, there is a moratorium on trades through Thursday at 1 PM. After that, Drury does expect trade activity to pick up a bit.
"I'm not going to speak for the other general managers, but I think you could say that things were held up a little bit just by [the expansion draft], and people trying to get their lists and dealing with that," he said. "If I had to guess, yeah, I would say things will pick up on all fronts when teams know what kinds of players they lost and how much money and what kind of role that player played on their team."
Throughout the entirety of this week-long window that includes both the expansion draft, the entry draft and the opening of free agency, Drury will be hard at work searching for ways to improve the Rangers for 2021-22 and beyond.
"We're always just trying to look for different ways to help the team be as good as we can be," Drury said, "and keep moving the ball forward to our goal of being a playoff team this year."
Filling Out the Staff
Drury said he and newly-hired Head Coach Gerard Gallant are hard at work identifying the right assistants to fill out the rest of the coaching staff, though there is nothing official to share as of now.
Drury also said there is "nothing imminent" with regards to adding an assistant general manager to his own staff.
"It's definitely a position I'm looking forward to filling, but with everything that's been going on the last month or so, I haven't haven't found the right fit yet," he said. "But we'll continue to look."
Goodrow's Impact
Just before the pre-expansion draft freeze took effect on Saturday afternoon, Drury traded a 2022 seventh-round draft pick to Tampa Bay in exchange for the exclusive negotiating rights to pending UFA and two-time Stanley Cup Champion Barclay Goodrow. On Monday, Drury told reporters he sees value in the versatility and experience Goodrow brings to the table, especially to a Rangers team that ranks as one of the league's youngest.
"We think he's got a pretty complete game, and he's going to be able to help in a lot of different areas," Drury said. "The bigger the game, the better he seems to play. He's a winner. He's going to be able to walk into our locker room and talk about what it's like to play in the playoffs and to win Cups - and that's a unique thing and a very special thing. So we're excited to be able to trade for him and we're going to work towards trying to signing him."
