Rangers Turn Attention to Next Chapter

In a year full of the unexpected, the Rangers' season came to an end on Tuesday with one more unforeseen turn.

New York fell 4-1 to Carolina in Game 3 of their Stanley Cup Qualifier series in Toronto, marking the conclusion of their 2019-20 campaign.

"We just weren't able to get it done," said Head Coach David Quinn on Tuesday night. "When the dust settles and the emotions subside and you look back at this season and over the last 2-3 weeks that we've been together, we'll continue to move forward as an organization. But that's certainly not how I feel today.

"The disappointing part is we lost, and our season's over. It was a great group to coach. It's been a unique and odd 4 1/2 months since we stopped playing on March 11th, and obviously we're living in the moment now and this hurts."

While it's human nature for the disappointment to linger, the truth remains that for the Rangers, the 2019-2020 season was one of growth.

The first act began back on April 9, 2019, when the Rangers' retooling effort took a significant leap forward as GM Jeff Gorton drew the second overall pick at the Draft Lottery. That led to the selection of rookie Kaapo Kakko, who would play in 66 games for New York in the pandemic-shortened regular season and would prove to be one of the Rangers' brightest spots in the postseason, where his growth from September to present was particularly noticeable.

"He continues to look good," Quinn said during the Rangers' pre-qualifier training camp. "He continues to play with a pace and he continues to play with a little bit more swagger and certainty to what he's doing."

Kakko's face wasn't the only new one on the Rangers roster this season. He was one of two rookies to make his NHL debut at Madison Square Garden on Opening Night 2019, joining Adam Fox, acquired from Carolina in early May and signed to an entry-level contract shortly thereafter. It didn't take long for Fox to impress both locally and on the national stage: Despite being left off the final Calder Trophy ballot, he would finish his rookie season with 42 points in 70 games and a plus-22 rating, becoming the first Rangers rookie defenseman to to record a 40-plus point season since Brian Leetch did so in 1988-89.

"Obviously, he's done an awful lot for us considering, from an offensive perspective, he's one of the leading-scoring rookie players in the league, not just defensemen," Quinn said. "The thing that really is surprising - surprising is probably the wrong word, but how quickly he adapted from the defending standpoint to this level certainly has made his transition a lot easier. Everybody knew what his offensive ability was going to be, but when you have a guy of that caliber who can do the things he can do offensively, and also be a good defender, it makes him a pretty impactful player in his first year."

The 2019 offseason was a busy one for Gorton & Co. Not only did they welcome John Davidson into the fold, naming him President of the Rangers on May 17, 2019, but they signed long-awaited Russian prospects Vitali Kravtsov and Igor Shesterkin to entry-level contracts. In July, they traded for defenseman Jacob Trouba and locked him up with a seven-year contract extension, and they earned the biggest prize on the 2019 free agent market when they signed Artemi Panarin to a seven-year deal.

It didn't take either Trouba or Panarin much time at all to acclimate to the bright lights and the big stage of New York City: Both notched their first career goals as Blueshirts on Opening Night, and Panarin would go on to finish the regular season with career highs in goals (32), assists (63) and points (95) in just 69 games, and he led the NHL in 5-on-5 points and assists.

Last month, Panarin earned himself a nod as a Hart Trophy finalist, becoming the first Ranger to do so since Henrik Lundqvist in 2011-12.

The complexion of the Rangers looks quite a bit different now than it did at the conclusion of the 2018-19 campaign, and with significant changes came significant reward: Although the 2020 postseason ended sooner than anyone would have liked, it marked New York's first ticket to the postseason since announcing plans to retool the roster just before the 2018 trade deadline.

The work isn't complete. It's getting there, as evidenced by abundant steps forward in 2019-20, but it isn't complete. The next step toward the future comes on Monday, when the Rangers will be one of eight teams in the running to win the first overall selection in the 2020 NHL Draft.

The 2020 Draft Lottery will be broadcast live on NBCSN at 6 PM ET. The Rangers, along with seven other teams that participated in the Stanley Cup Qualifiers but did not advance, will have a 12.5 percent chance of winning the lottery.

The Rangers will select twice in the first round of the 2020 draft, currently slated for Oct. 6 but dependent on the conclusion of the Stanley Cup Playoffs. They will select with their own natural pick and the lower of Carolina's two first-round picks.

While there are abundant questions surrounding the start of the 2020-21 season, there are also abundant positives. The Rangers will enter next season with several young players who now have a year of NHL experience to their names, as well as 11 players who made their postseason debuts and now have some idea of what it takes to compete on that stage.

They will also enter next season with the likes of K'Andre Miller, Morgan Barron and Tyler Wall under contract and plenty of others - Nils Lundkvist, Karl Henriksson, Matthew Robertson and Zac Jones, to name a few - continuing to develop into impact players in Europe, Canada and the NCAA.

2019-20 didn't end the way anyone wanted to. But that doesn't change the fact that the future remains bright.

And the next chapter in that future comes on Monday. Stay tuned.