The Rangers announced Friday that former player Chris Drury was promoted to assistant general manager.
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Drury, 40, is now one of only nine active assistant or assistant general managers in the National Hockey League who are 40 years old or younger. The 40-year-old rejoined the Rangers as director of player development a year ago. Drury will continue to serve as a liaison between the hockey operations department and the team’s prospects. He was a member of the Avalanche’s Stanley Cup championship team in 2000-01.
As director of player personnel with the Rangers this summer, Drury played an important role in the Rangers landing Jimmy Vesey-the highly sought-after free-agent forward who also won the Hobey Baker Award while at Harvard University.
In 1998-99, Drury received the Calder Trophy as the NHL’s rookie of the year with Colorado. During his lengthy playing career, Drury scored 225 goals and ended up with 615 points to his name.
In 264 regular-season games with New York, Drury had 62 goals and 89 assists, helping it make the playoffs three times. In addition, Drury served as the Rangers captain for three seasons (2008-11) after being named the second American-born captain in franchise history. Over his first three seasons with the Rangers, Drury led the team in goals (61) and points (146), ranked second in assists (85), and tied for second in game-winning goals (10).
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The decision to and agreement by Drury to accept his buyout, enables the Rangers to save $3.333 million this year – costing the team $3.717 million in dead cap space in 2011-12 and $1.667 million next year.
