There are a handful of New York Rangers who could change teams in the days leading up to Friday’s 3 p.m. trade deadline, but Adam Fox is not among them.
The team’s best defenseman — and undisputed best all-around skater now that Artemi Panarin is in Los Angeles — isn’t going anywhere this week, but his future beyond that is suddenly murkier than anyone could have imagined a short time ago. The 28-year-old left that door open following Thursday’s 3-2 overtime loss to the Philadelphia Flyers, when he responded to a question about his commitment to the Rangers by saying, “That’s a conversation when we’re done playing.”
Whether that was a strategic comment to apply public pressure on management or simply an honest answer, it fueled speculation about where things stand between Fox and the franchise he grew up rooting for.
Here’s what I’ve been able to gather on that front:
There have been some obvious sources of frustration for Fox’s camp, most notably his omission from the U.S. Olympic roster. The Rangers have maintained that their representatives involved in that decision — team president Chris Drury and coach Mike Sullivan — advocated for Fox and were overruled by Team USA GM Bill Guerin, but I’m not sure how much that dulled the disappointment. The 2021 Norris Trophy winner trained hard over the summer and was having a standout season before multiple injury disruptions, leading him to tell reporters, “I thought my play this year was worthy of it and my track record, as well.”
The trade of Artemi Panarin, left, to Los Angeles stripped the Rangers’ lineup of the skill needed to maximize Adam Fox’s unique playmaking ability. (Danny Wild / Imagn Images)
It’s become a delicate topic, but that sensitivity went out the window in a celebratory moment after the Americans captured gold, when Sullivan remarked, “There are whisky drinkers and milk drinkers, and we have a lot of whisky drinkers on this team.” It surely wasn’t intended as a dig at Fox, but it couldn’t have made him feel great, either.
The mounting losses and drawn-out dismantling of the roster have added to the tension. I’m not sure if New York’s pursuit of star defenseman Quinn Hughes, which The Athletic previously reported, was bothersome — my understanding is that it wasn’t intended to push Fox out or diminish his role, but rather create a super D corps — but a series of trades that ousted core teammates without bringing back much in return have understandably shaken his confidence in the team’s direction.
The most stinging examples involved longtime partner and close personal friend Ryan Lindgren, and more recently, Panarin. The latter stripped the lineup of the skill needed to maximize Fox’s unique playmaking ability, leaving him with an undue scoring burden and little help on the way.
“You lose a guy like (Panarin), and you don’t know what else could happen,” Fox said.
All of those factors have led them to this precarious crossroads. As Fox insinuated with Thursday’s comments, hard conversations are coming.
There have already been multiple meetings between Fox and Drury in recent weeks, according to a league source, but Fox wants to see how Drury handles the coming months and assess the state of the roster this summer before making a full-throated commitment to stick it out, according to a different league source. That’s not to say he’s unwilling to endure a transition period, but he’s looking for evidence that the Rangers have a way out of this self-inflicted mess.
It’s hard to see New York turning things around quickly, but even more difficult if its only remaining play-driver isn’t on board. Consider that the team has outscored opponents 27-17 while posting a 61.2 percent expected goals-for rate with Fox on the ice at five-on-five this season, while being outscored 97-71 and dropping all the way to a 46.2 percent xGF without him, according to Natural Stat Trick. There’s a similar drop-off on the power play, with the Rangers averaging 10.24 goals per 60 minutes with Fox and only 6.36 without him.
For anyone who thinks Drury could use Fox as a trade chip to accelerate the retool, I’d point to the Panarin trade as a cautionary tale. Fox also holds a full no-movement clause through next season, at which point it will shift to a 16-team no-trade list for the final two years of a contract that pays him $9.5 million annually and expires at the end of the 2028-29 season. We just saw how a player can wield that power to handpick their destination and drastically reduce any trade return.
There’s a fairly good chance it never gets to that point. Once the Rangers get through this week’s deadline, they can shift their attention to convincing Fox they have a clear plan in place. There should be ample time to smooth things over if they’re proactive and communicative in their approach. That hasn’t always been the case with this organization, but there’s an ongoing effort to repair that reputation.
No one should underestimate how much it means to the Jericho, N.Y., native to call Madison Square Garden his home and play in front of so many family members and friends, either. Now he’s started a family of his own, adding incentive to make it work in the city to which he steered his way via trade back in 2019. But at a stage of his career when he should be feeling settled and content, a sliver of doubt has crept in. And for a team that’s loaded with other problems to solve, what should be their surest thing appears slightly less certain.