New York Rangers

The New York Rangers are an NHL franchise in the Atlantic Division of the Eastern Conference.

The Rangers were founded in 1925, when the New York Americans joined the NHL as one of the original six NHL teams. In New York’s second season of existence as the Rangers, they won the Stanley Cup in 1928. The Rangers remained solid through the ‘30s, winning two more Cups in 1933 and 1940. After the last Cup win, New York struggled to remain competitive, but in the 1970s, led by Brad Park, Vic Hadfield and Jean Ratelle, they made the playoffs on a number of occasions, failing to win the Cup in the Finals on a number of occasions.

In the late ‘70s and early ‘80s, the Rangers suffered at the hands of the New York Islanders, who would win four straight Stanley Cups in their dominance of the decade. The Blueshirts developed into one of the premier teams in the league during the early ‘90s, but continued meet with failure in the playoffs. In 1993-94, the Rangers followed the goaltending of Mike Richter and the play of superstars like Adam Graves, Brian Leetch and Mark Messier to their first Stanley Cup in 54 years, beating the Vancouver Canucks in the Cup finals.in a thrilling seven game series.

For the rest of the ’90s, the Rangers made a number of poor personnel moves, buying older players who had been superstars in their primes, such as Eric Lindros, Theo Fleury, Pavel Bure, Bobby Holik, Wayne Gretzky and Jaromir Jagr. Up until the lockout in 2004, New York struggled to make it further than the first or second round of the playoffs, despite having the highest payroll in the league for a number of seasons.

In 2005, after the lockout, the stellar play of goalie Henrik Lundqvist and the emergence of players like Petr Prucha and Martin Straka, the Rangers put up solid numbers in the next couple of seasons. Led by Jaromir Jagr, the Rangers made the playoffs every year after the lockout. New York still failed to make it deep into the postseason, losing out to New Jersey, Buffalo and Pittsburgh in three separate years. In 2008, the Rangers opened their season in Europe against Tampa Bay, after a preseason Victoria Cup victory in Bern, Switzerland.

Stanley Cups won: 1927-28, 1932-33, 1939-40, 1993-94

Notable Players: Glenn Anderson, Frank Boucher, Pavel Bure, Marcel Dionne, Chris Drury, Phil Esposito, Bill Gadsby, Mike Gartner, Eddie Giacomin, Rod Gilbert, Scott Gomez, Adam Graves, Ron Greschner, Wayne Gretzky, Vic Hadfield, Anders Hedberg, Tim Horton, Jaromir Jagr, Alexei Kovalev, Pat La Fontaine, Brian Leetch, Eric Lindros, Henrik Lundqvist, Stephane Matteau, Mark Messier, Petr Nedved, Brad Park, Lester Patrick, Petr Prucha, Jean Ratelle, Mike Richter, Martin Straka, Walt Tkaczuk, John Vanbiesbrouck, Gump Worsley, Sergei Zubov

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