Expensive Acquisitions

Despite having coached NFL jerseythe Rangers to a regular season first place finish and the Stanley Cup, head coach Mike Keenan left after a dispute with General ManagerNFL jerseys Neil Smith. During the 1994–95 lockout-shortened season, the Rangers struggled to find their form andNFL apparel lost in the second round of the playoffs. They snuck in with the eighth seed and defeated Quebec in cheap nfl jerseysthe first round, but were swept by Philadelphia in the second round. Succeeding Rangers coach Colin Campbell orchestrated a dealnfl merchandise that sent Sergei Zubov and center Petr Nedved to Pittsburgh in exchange for defenseman Ulf Samuelsson andnfl merchandise left winger Luc Robitaille in the summer of 1995.
The Rangers landed an aging Wayne Gretzkysteelers jerseys in 1996, but even with The Great One, they would fizzle out. Their 1994 stars were aging and many retired or dropped off in performance. Gretzky's greatest accomplishmentsaints jersey was leading them to the 1997 football jerseyEastern Conferencefootball jerseys finals, where they lost 4–1 tonhl jersey the Eric Lindros-led Philadelphia Flyers. Messier, a former Oiler teammate of Gretzky's, left in the summer of 1997 andnhl jerseys the team failednhl team jersey in a bid to replace him with Coloradohockey jersey Avalanche superstar Joe Sakic, the Rangers began a streak of seven seasons without making the playoffs, despite routinely having the highest payroll in the league.
In March 2000, Smithnhl hockey jersey was fired along with head coach John Muckler, and, that summer, James Dolan hired Glen Sather to replace him. By the end ofjersey devils the 2000–01 season, the Rangers had landed a lot of star power. Mark Messier had returned to New Yorkpenguins jersey, Theorenblackhawks jersey Fleury joined the Rangers after spending most of his career with the Calgary Flames, and Ericmlb jersey Lindros was traded to the Rangers from the Philadelphia Flyers. The Rangers also acquired Pavel Bure mlb jerseyslate in the 2001–02 season from the Florida baseball jerseyPanthers. It was the rookie season of goalie Dan Blackburn, who made the NHL All-Rookie Team evenbaseball jerseys as the Rangers fell back to last place in the conference. Despite these high-priced acquisitions the Rangersmlb baseball jersey still finished out of the playoffs. Later years saw other stars such as Alexei Kovalev, Jaromir Jagr, Martin Rucinskyphillies jersey and Bobby Holik added, but in 2002–03 and 2003–04, the team again missed the playoffs. Blackburn started strongly in 2002–03, but burned out after 17 games. He missed 2003–04 due tocardinals jersey mononucleosis and a damaged nerve in his left shoulder. Blackburn could not rehabilitate the damaged nerve, and was forced to retire at age 22.