NY Rangers, Who Haven’t Won a Stanley Cup Since 1994, Celebrate Their Centennial Year

A Madison Square Garden fixture since 1968, the Rangers are to the NHL what the Green Bay Packers are to the NFL.

Juuso Parssinen (No. 71) of the Rangers reacts after a goal by Taylor Raddysh (not pictured) against the San Jose Sharks at Madison Square Garden in New York on Oct. 23, 2025. Sarah Stier/Getty Images

It’s important to remember the contributions made to the National Hockey League by the New York Rangers.

Although the current NHL season is the 99th that a Rangers’ team has taken to the ice (the 2004–2005 NHL season was canceled due to a lockout), their success in New York City remains crucial to the overall popularity of the NHL. With Madison Square Garden in Manhattan as their home since 1968, the Rangers are as much a regional staple as baseball’s Yankees and basketball’s Knicks. Drawing nearly 18,000 fans a game at the Garden last season, the Rangers showed that NHL hockey remains healthy in the largest media market in North America.

As the Rangers, along with the Detroit Red Wings and Chicago Blackhawks, celebrate their centennial seasons in 2025–2026, two franchise memories jump out ahead of all others.

First, winning the Stanley Cup in seven games in June 1994 remains vivid.

After a wait of 54 years, led by their captain Mark Messier, the Rangers captured the Cup on home ice with a Game 7 3–2 victory. Given that it’s been more than three decades since New York has reigned as the NHL’s top team, their fan base remains as loyal as those of any team that has collected multiple Stanley Cups. The Rangers are to the NHL what the Green Bay Packers are to the NFL, the Chicago Cubs to MLB, and the Boston Celtics to the NBA. Rangers’ hockey represents how an organization keeps up with changes, and perhaps most important, remains relevant with its fan base. Although Messier skated for six Stanley Cup winners, he is most remembered for leading the Rangers to the organization’s fourth Stanley Cup championship.

Arguably the second most remembered event in Rangers’ history wasn’t a goal scored or postseason win. A blockbuster 1975 trade pulled off by then general manager and coach Emile Francis remains a Rangers’ topic of choice for veteran fans. At the time, when the Rangers sent three players—Jean Ratelle, Brad Park, and Joe Zanussi to their Adams Division rival Boston Bruins for Phil Esposito and Carol Vadnais, this story controlled the back pages of the New York daily newspapers for an extended period. The Rangers were off to an awful start to their 1975–1976 season. By unloading a couple of high-priced veterans in Park and Ratelle, plus a minor leaguer, and by receiving a perennial goal score in Esposito, they hoped to get back on the winning track. They didn’t. New York finished in last place at 29–42–9 in the Patrick Division.

Mark Messier (L) and Brian Leetch of the New York Rangers' Stanley Cup winning team of 1994 attend a ceremony before a game against the Carolina Hurricanes at Madison Square Garden on Feb. 8, 2019. Bruce Bennett/Getty Images

Park, who spent his first eight seasons with the Rangers and his next eight in Boston, was surprised by the trade but has nothing but positive thoughts on his time calling 4 Pennsylvania Plaza his hockey address.

“My happiest time with the Rangers, if I have to nail one memory down, was when we beat the Bruins the year after they won the Cup,” Park told The Epoch Times on Thursday while speaking from his home in Massachusetts’ North Shore district. “Taking out the Bruins in 1973 in the quarter-finals is a thrill I haven’t forgotten.”

For Park, it’s the team camaraderie that still brings fond memories. When speaking of pride skating in New York, Park doesn’t steer the conversation to individual accolades such as all-star appearances, at one point being one of the league’s highest paid players thanks to the bidding war initiated by the fledgling World Hockey Association, or being named in 2017 as one of the NHL’s 100 greatest players of all-time. He doesn’t broach the honor of being elected to the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1988, his first year of eligibility. It’s his Rangers’ teammates that keep the conversation moving.

“I had teammates that would go to bat for me on the ice no matter what. We were close inside the dressing room and outside. Rod Gilbert and Walter Tkaczuk showed me around New York when I arrived, and we roomed together. I missed them and the rest of my teammates when I was traded. I was 26, in my prime when the trade happened. When I heard I was going to Boston, I cried,” he said.

Along with Park, the 1970s Rangers paraded such stars as Vic Hadfield, Eddie Giacomin, and Steve Vickers. In the 1980s Barry Beck and Ron Greschner grabbed headlines at Madison Square Garden. The 1990s and early 2000s saw Brian Leech, Jaromir Jagar, Chris Drury, and Mike Richter dominate Rangers’ news. Now, it’s J. T.Miller, Mika Zibanejad, and Adam Fox who lead the team.

Park’s loyalty to the team that selected him in the first round of the 1966 Amateur Draft goes deep—he tells of having the Rangers’ crest tattooed on his chest.

One hundred years of operation demonstrates the team’s profound, uninterrupted connection with their audience, something all NHL fans can appreciate.