Second in a three-part series.

It wasn’t a traditional rebuild, not in the least when the foundation was largely constructed on Artemi Panarin’s free agent signing, the trade acquisition of Jacob Trouba and the gift horse landing in their lap called Adam Fox.

But the Rangers’ unique approach to their reset presaged by The Letter of February 2018 was kind of succeeding, and certainly when compared to traditional tear-it-down rebuilds that have been undertaken in Buffalo, Detroit, Chicago, San Jose and Philadelphia the past decade.

Just two seasons later, the Blueshirts made it into the expanded 24-team COVID tournament, two seasons after that they were in the conference finals and two years after that they returned to the NHL’s final four.