New York Rangers is an ice hockey team based in New York City. It was founded in 1926 and New York Rangers is one of the Original Six teams, along with Boston Bruins, Chicago Blackhawks, Toronto Maple Leafs, Montreal Canadiens and Detroit Red Wings. Original Six term means that those six teams competed NHL before its 1967 expansion.

Team History

New York Rangers has early success at NHL and they won Stanley Cup 1928. They took two additional Stanley Cups at 1933 and 1940. After that New York Rangers struggled between 1940s and 1960s. They made small comeback in the 1970s and went to the Stanley Cup Finals twice. Unfortunately, they lose both finals – 1972 against Boston Bruins and 1979 against Montreal Canadiens. After rebuilding period they finally got fourth Stanley Cup 1994. Mark Messier was Rangers leading player and captain and het got big support for players like: Brian Leetch, Esa Tikkanen, Adam Graves and Mike Richter. After that New York Rangers have been solid playoff team, but reached only once to the Finals – 2014 they reached Stanley Cup Finals, but Los Angeles Kings was better.

New York Rangers’ Owners and Staff

Currently, the General Manager of New York Rangers is Jeff Gorton. The current head coach David Quinn was appointed to his position in 2018. The team is owned by company called The Madison Square Garden Company. New York Rangers has two minor league affiliates, those being Hartford Wolf Pack in AHL league and Maine Mariners in ECHL league.

Overpaid and overaged players

New York Rangers has a long time reputation to got expensive acquisitions. Names like: Wayne Gretzky, Jaromir Jagr, Luc Robitaille, Theoren Fleury, Mark Messier, Pavel Bure and Eric Lindros have been played at Rangers. At the same time, must be said that those big names have often been disappointments and even big moneys won’t bring success to the team.

Messier and Leetch keys to success

So when we start to introduce some key players at modern era New York Rangers, we will start with loyal defenceman. Brian Leetch is generally considered one of the top defencemen in NHL history. Leetch played 16 seasons in the team, played 1129 games, won one Stanley Cup with Rangers and his number 2 is one of the Rangers retired numbers.

Another icon of New York Rangers is Mark Messier. Even Messier played most of his career with the Edmonton Oilers and won five Stanley Cups there, he often got shadowed by big #99 Wayne Gretzky there. Although last Stanley Cup 1990 that came 2 years after Gretzky’s trade, Messier was a captain of the team. When Messier came 1991 to the New York Rangers he was already 30 years old, but at least this time age was only number. Messier played 10 season and 698 game with New Rangers (1991-97 & 2000-04) and retired at age 43. He holds record for most regular season and playoff season games played (1992) and he played respectful 25 NHL seasons. He won one Stanley Cup with Rangers (1994) and his number 11 is one of the Rangers retired numbers.

Best of the rest

The list of Rangers legends is long, but in short presentation we pick up few names. Rod Gilbert played respectful 18 seasons at Rangers (1960-1978) and was the first player in New York Rangers history to have his number retired. Legendary goalkeeper Mike Richter was one of the key players when Rangers won Stanley Cup 1994. He played his entire career (1988-2003) with New York Rangers. Adam Graves played 10 seasons with Rangers (1991-2001) and was also big contributor for Stanley Cup 1994. Last we must mention Swedish goaltender Henrik Lundqvist. King Henrik has been played with Rangers since 2005 and his career still continues. Lundqvist holds record for most wins by a European-born goaltender in the NHL and he has been huge piece of Rangers last 15 seasons.