Drury Silences the Critics, for Now

Let's face it: the last twelve months have not been particularly good for New York Rangers fans. Barclay Goodrow waived, the infamous memo, Jacob Trouba traded, the team imploding, Kaapo Kakko, Filip Chytil and Ryan Lindgren sent packing, Peter Laviolette fired, Mike Sullivan hired, Chris Kreider shipped out. Jesus, a circus has less excitement. One could certainly be forgiven for being jaded about this team's prospects going into free agency. To tell you the truth, my expectations were pretty low.

But you know the old saying, when life hands you lemons, you make lemonade out of them. Well, Chris Drury did better than that; he took those lemons and he made a lemon soufflé out of them.

At 12:49, the first domino fell. Vladislav Gavrikov: $7 million x 7. Those of us who were following the news on Twitter thought it was a misprint. No way Drury signed the number one UFA defenseman on the open market for that much. Only the previous day, the Columbus Blue Jackets re-signed Ivan Provorov to a 7 year, $8.5m AAV extension. Based on that, you had to figure Gavrikov would come in at $9m easy. But, sure enough, it wasn't a misprint. Drury got his man for below market value. So far, so good.

Over the next several hours, the majority of us kept refreshing our time lines, widely speculating on what Drury's next move would be. Re-sign Will Cuylle, dump K'Andre Miller, add a scorer.  At 5:24, Larry Brooks broke the news. Cuylle was re-signed to a two year bridge deal with a $3.9m AAV. A sigh of relief went up in Rangersland. With Matthew Knies getting $7.75m x 6 from the Toronto Maple Leafs, the prevailing sentiment was that Cuylle would certainly get an offer sheet somewhere around $5m. But as the hours wore on, it was looking more and more like the Rangers were going to dodge a bullet.

The next domino fell right before 6:00. Miller to Carolina in a sign and trade for a conditional first round pick, a second round pick and defenseman Scott Morrow. Murrow was considered the top prospect in the Hurricanes organization. Eric Tulsky actually agreed to an 8 year, $7.5m AAV contract for a player with more turnovers than a bakery on Christmas morning. Maybe Rod Brind'Amour can turn him around, but, frankly, I have my doubts. Good luck, Canniacs, you're gonna need it.

Wow! What can I say? In less than six hours, Drury signed his number one free agent target for less than what most thought he would have to pay, re-signed one of his best two-way forwards to a very team-friendly deal, and rid himself of a defenseman responsible for more gray hairs than Methuselah. 

But Drury wasn't done. Later that evening he signed forward Taylor Raddysh to a two year, $1.5m AAV contract. Raddysh had 7 goals and 27 points for the Washington Capitals last season, and in 2022-23, registered a career-high 20 goals for the Chicago Blackhawks. At 6-3, 198 lbs, he should make an ideal bottom six forward. Even the Drury haters were forced to admit he was on a roll.

Now by no means is this team a Cup contender. They still have Carson Soucy on their roster, and if you thought Miller was bad, Soucy makes him look like a cross between Scott Stevens and Brian Leetch. And Mika Zibanejad, who had his worst season since 2017-18, is still a huge question mark going into this season. Pending any additional moves, the Rangers are a Wild Card, borderline third-place team at best. Sullivan may wish he'd stayed in Pittsburgh.

However, that shouldn't detract from what Drury has done here. Think about it: in just over a year, he has turned over more than a third of the roster and made this team younger and tougher. Gavrokov is the best left-handed defenseman the organization has had since Ryan McDonagh; Will Cuylle has a chance to become one of the best two-way forwards in the NHL; and in just the last three months, the Rangers went from having practically no draft capital to having two first rounders in 2026, one in '27 and one in '28. They also have second round picks in '26 and '28, as well as a third, fifth and sixth-round pick in all three years. In other words, they're loaded.

Sam Pollock he ain't, but he sure as shit ain't Phil Esposito.

Exploring Drury's Options After Sending His 2025 Pick to Pittsburgh

Earlier today, the New York Rangers announced that they were sending their 2025 first round draft pick - 12th overall - to the Pittsburgh Penguins and retaining their 2026 first rounder. The move completes the trade in which the Rangers acquired J.T. Miller from the Vancouver Canucks back in February for a top-13 protected number one. The Rangers had until 48 hours before the Draft to decided which pick they were keeping. The reason it's going to Pittsburgh and not Vancouver is because the Canucks traded it to the Pens in the Marcus Pettersson deal.

So what does this mean?

For starters, I don't think it means that Chris Drury believes next year's pick will be higher, e.g., better. For his sake, it better not be. Indeed, the prevailing sentiment around the NHL is that this team, even with all its flaws, is much better than what it showed last season. That doesn't mean the Rangers will win the Presidents' Trophy, but it does mean they should make the playoffs. Why else would Drury hire Mike Sullivan to coach the team if he didn't feel that way?

That's why this move was so vital. Holding onto next year's first round pick provides Drury with five possible options.

One: An Offer Sheet. For almost a month now the scuttlebutt around the league has had the Rangers signing J.J. Peterka of the Buffalo Sabres to an offer sheet. There was just one hitch. If they kept their '25 first rounder, the Rangers wouldn't have one to send to Buffalo in the event the Sabres couldn't match the offer. An offer sheet with an AAV of $7.02 million per would require a first and third round pick as compensation. Here's the thing, though: based on the CBA, even if Drury front loaded the offer sheet with signing bonuses in each year, the highest salary he can pay Peterka in year one is $8.775m: $8m signing bonus and $775k base. Difficult, but hardly insurmountable for Buffalo. But in the end, why would the Sabres bother matching an offer for a player who has made it clear he doesn't want to be there?

Two: Leverage. Drury doesn't actually have to sign Peterka to an offer sheet; he can just threaten to do so. Indeed, if he plays his cards right, he might be able to negotiate a deal with his counterpart Kevyn Adams in which he keeps his first rounder and gives up, say, Gabe Perrault, Brennan Othmann and a third round pick for Peterka or Alexis Lafreniere and Braden Schneider for Peterka and Bowen Byram. Drury would then have to sign both players to long-term deals.

Three: Trade deadline acquisition. If the Rangers have the kind of season Drury expects them to have, he can use that pick to land a player at the deadline that can hopefully put them over the top. And with the salary cap going up to $104 million in the 2026-27 season and $113.5 million the following season, he could acquire a player with term without worrying about going over the cap, something he couldn't do in past years.

Four: Keep it. There's no law that says you have to trade your pick. If the Rangers unexpectedly shit the bed again this coming season, that first round pick will come in handy along with all the other picks the Rangers will accumulate by being sellers at the deadline. But, I stress, this is unlikely. 

Five: Trade a player on the roster for another player or pick in this year's draft. K'Andre Miller's name has been mentioned as a possible trade chip to acquire a forward or perhaps a draft pick in the upcoming draft. As I mentioned in an earlier piece, the defenseman has regressed over the last couple of seasons and remains an enigma. Perhaps a change of scenery would be best for both parties. 

The drama continues. 

We'll know soon enough what Drury's intentions are.

Drury Continues To Clean House

In a move that was widely anticipated, the New York Rangers traded their longest-tenured forward, Chris Kreider, to the Anaheim Ducks. And just like he had done with Patrick Nemeth, Barclay Goodrow and Jacob Trouba, Chris Drury did not retain a cent of Kreider's salary. All $6.5 million came off the books. What made it even better was that Drury managed to convince him to waive his no-trade clause. Kreider will now be reunited with Ryan Strome, Frank Vatrano and Trouba.

The return, a third round draft pick and a prospect, was immaterial. This was a salary dump, pure and simple. With Kreider gone, the Rangers now have $14.9 million in available cap space going into next season. And if Drury can somehow get Mika Zibanejad, Kreider's BFF, to waive his NMC, that cap space would swell to  $23.4 million. But according to Vince Mercogliano, that isn't likely to happen.

I know there are a number of Rangers fans who are deeply saddened about Kreider's departure, with some calling for his jersey to be hung from the rafters. I wish I could share their sentiments. The facts is that for all his abilities, Kreider's forte over the last few seasons was scoring on the power play. He literally made a living in his office deflecting shots past goaltenders. In the 2021-22 season, for instance, 26 of his 52 goals were scored with the man advantage. But this season, he managed a paltry 6 out of 22 tallies on the power play.

As someone who's been a fan of this team since Richard Nixon was in the White House, I've seen my fair share of good players shown the door: Rick Middleton, Mike Ridley, Kelly Miller, Mark Messier, Brian Leetch (on his fucking birthday, no less), Ryan McDonagh, the list goes on. Forgive me if I don't shed any crocodile tears over a player who, let's face it, phoned it in for much of the season. If anything, I think I've earned the right to be a little jaded with respect to number 20.

But while getting rid of Kreider was a necessary step in this retool, there's still a lot left on Drury's plate. K'Andre Miller and Will Cuylle are pending RFAs and eligible to receive offer sheets. If Drury doesn't sign them to extensions by July 1, it's conceivable he could lose both. Cuylle, in particular, would be a devastating loss. There were times this season when he was the best player on the ice for the Blueshirts. In only his second full season on Broadway, Cuylle had 20 goals, 25 assists and 300 hits. The 6-3, 212 lb. winger plays the game the way it's opposed to be played. If every player on this team played like Cuylle did last season, the Rangers would've beaten the Florida Panthers in the Eastern Conference finals. Drury must do whatever it takes to lock him up before the end of the month.

As far as Miller is concerned, he remains an enigma. There are nights when he looks like a Norris trophy candidate; then there are nights when he looks like he could be the seventh defenseman at Hartford. He has the size and skillset to be an elite defenseman in the NHL, yet for some inexplicable reason, he coughs up the puck at the most inopportune time of the game, which leads to high-danger scoring chances that have a nasty habit of winding up in the back of his goalie's net. Since his arrival in New York in 2020, he's played for David Quinn, Gerard Gallant and Peter Laviolette, and he's managed to get worse with each passing season.

I suppose Mike Sullivan could turn him around, but if I had to guess, I'd say he winds up being dealt as part of a package to land a top six forward or a top four defenseman. Jason Robertson of the Dallas Stars and Vladislav Gavrikov of the LA Kings are two names that have been mentioned as possible targets for the Rangers. Robertson is entering the final year of a contract that pays him $7.75 million per. Gavrikov made $5.875 million this season and will become a UFA on July 1. Both will command hefty raises in their next deal. Drury will have to be very creative if he wants both players.

All in all, it was a good day for the Rangers President and General Manger. He got rid of a bad contract and put himself in position to land a good one. In other words, he did his job. 

Drury Has His Coach. Now Comes the Hard Part

Five weeks after he fired Gerard Gallant, Chris Drury finally hired his replacement. Let's be clear: Peter Laviolette is no Scotty Bowman; nor is he Al Arbour, or, for that matter, Toe fucking Blake. But based on his resume alone, he was the best option available.

Key word "available." Because if we assume Mike Sullivan wasn't going anywhere - and based on the information coming out of Pittsburgh, ownership didn't think the problem with the Penguins was behind the bench but rather in the front office - and Rod Brind'Amour and Jon Cooper are secure in Carolina and Tampa respectively, the list of candidates from which to choose was considerably small.

There was no way that Drury was going to hire someone with no head coaching experience, so that eliminated Chris Knoblauch and Seattle assistant Jay Leach. And the Patrick Roy rumors were just that: rumors. Drury never even bothered to interview him. As for John Hynes, friendship is a beautiful thing, but it doesn't overcome an otherwise less than stellar coaching career. And even if Joel Quenneville got reinstated by Gary Bettman tomorrow, the baggage he'd bring with him to the Garden would probably be too much, even for James Dolan. Mark Messier? If Glen Sather didn't hire him ten years ago, what makes anyone think Drury was going to do it now? Face it: he'll always be a legend. But not every legend gets to drive the car.

In the end, Drury went with Laviolette because he was the most qualified. Period. Among active head coaches, only Lindy Ruff (834) and Paul Maurice (817) have more wins than Laviolette's 752. He's only the second coach in NHL history to pilot three different teams to the Stanley Cup finals; the other was Bowman. Anyone who has a problem with this hire doesn't know jack shit about hockey.

Yes, he's a retread who's been fired multiple times. Know who else is a retread who's been fired multiple times? Bruce Cassidy (twice) and the aforementioned Maurice (four times). All both men did was guide their respective teams to the Stanley Cup finals this year. Cassidy's former employer - the Boston Bruins - were eliminated in the first round by Maurice's Florida Panthers; while Maurice's former employer - the Winnipeg Jets - lost in the first round to Cassidy's Vegas Golden Knights. How's that for Karma?

For me, the only pertinent question is whether Laviolette can turn this talented group of players into a team capable of competing for the Cup. From what we can gleam from his past, there are two things that distinguish him from Gallant.

One, while technically a players' coach, Laviolette's leash is considerably shorter than Gallant's. If the Rangers struggle out of the gate like they did this season, he isn't likely to be as patient. It's worth noting that even before Jacob Trouba's helmet-throwing incident against the Blackhawks, Drury was starting to have doubts about the nonchalant way that Gallant was handling the team's inconsistencies. Those inconsistencies plagued the Rangers all season long, and things came to a head between both men after the game-four loss in the Devils series.

Two, Laviolette is quite adept at making both in-game and in-series adjustments and is an advocate of matching lines, something Gallant was either too stubborn to do or incapable of doing. Against the Devils this year and the Lightning last year, Gallant was badly out-coached by Ruff and Cooper, both of whom made adjustments that allowed their respective teams to overcome 0-2 deficits and eventually win the series. The Devils series was particularly frustrating because the Rangers, after going 4-10 on the power play in the first two games, went 0-5 in game three. Had they converted on just one of their man-power advantages, they would've gone up 3-0 in the series and likely advanced to the second round.

But short leashes and adjustments notwithstanding, can Laviolette get Artemi Panarin to stop making those risky cross-ice passes in the offensive zone that lead to odd-man rushes the other way? Can he convince Chris Kreider to park his 230 pound carcass in front of the net? Can he persuade Adam Fox to shoot more from the point instead of deferring to others? Can he transform a predictable, if lethal, power play into one that has multiple looks and can survive any adjustment an opposing coach might make? Because if the answer to those questions is no, then we're right back where we started.

And that's where Drury comes in. Now that the coach is in place, the GM has to give him the horses he needs to succeed. That won't be easy. The Rangers have just over $11.7 million in available cap space going into next season with only 14 players under contract. Assuming Drury elects to go with a roster of 22, that comes out to an average of $1.5 million per player. With both Alexis Lafreniere and K'Andre Miller RFAs, Drury will have to decide whether to bridge both or sign one to a long-term deal and bridge the other.

If he chooses to go the latter route, the most likely player to lock up would be Miller. While the third-year defenseman took a step backwards this season, he still has the potential to be a star in this league. A similar deal to what Filip Chytil got ($4.4m x 4) sounds reasonable. Lafreniere would then get the same bridge deal Kaapo Kakko got last year ($2.1m x 2). That leaves $5.2 million to sign a backup goalie, another defenseman and four more forwards. Clearly, Drury will have to shed some salary in order to fill out the roster.

The most likely sacrificial lamb is Barclay Goodrow. The Swiss-army knife, as Gallant once referred to him, is making $3.64 million per season. Given his skill set, that isn't too outlandish, especially when you consider the Calgary Flames are paying Blake Coleman - Goodrow's linemate from his days with the Lightning - $4.9 million per season. But in the flat-cap era, his contract is an albatross around the neck of the organization. With that money Drury could sign someone like Nick Bjugstad for about $1 million. Then he could call up his counterpart in Carolina and inquire about the availability of his nephew Jack. With a cap hit of only $925k, the 23 year old winger would be the ideal fourth liner. That would leave Drury with $1.7 million to add to the $5.2 million in the kitty.

The problem is that Goodrow has a no-trade clause which includes 15 teams, meaning Drury will have a hard time finding a suitable trade partner. If there are no takers, he could always buy him out. The way Goodrow's contract is written, the Rangers would net $200k and $100k in cap space the first two years respectively. But then after that, the cap hit goes up as follows: $1.15m in year three; $3.65m in year four, followed by $1.258m for the next four years. That's a ton of cabbage to doll out for a player that no longer plays for you. With this upcoming season being the first in the last four that the Rangers won't be carrying any dead-cap space, I doubt Drury wants to repeat the mistakes of his predecessor, Jeff Gorton. Then again, with the cap expected to go up considerably over the next few seasons, maybe Drury takes the upfront savings and kicks the can down the road.

So let's say Drury buys out Goodrow. With $7.1 million in available cap space, he can re-sign Tyler Motte and Jaroslav Halak for $1m each; re-sign Niko Mikkola for $1.3m; and give Will Cuylle and Brennan Othmann - $828k and $863k respectively - a shot at making the team. That leaves $2.1 million in reserve for Drury to sign a certain someone who might not be available to play until, say, late winter or early spring, assuming he'd be willing to play for that amount. Drury could place him on LTIR and activate him later.

That would give the Ranges the following roster:

Forwards to start the season:

Kreider, Zibaejad, Lafreniere

Panarin, Trocheck, Vesey

Othmann, Chytil, Kakko

Motte, Bjugstad, Drury

Cuylle 

Forwards going into the postseason:

Kreider, Zibaejad, Mystery player

Panarin, Trocheck, Vesey

Lafreniere, Chytil, Kakko

Motte, Bjugstad, Drury

Othmann, Cuylle

Defensemen:

Lindgren, Fox

Miller, Trouba

Mikkola, Schneider

Harper

Goalies:

Shesterkin, Halak

It's not a bad roster, assuming Laviolette can get it to play up to its potential.

Rangers Have Their Fil

You wanna know how serious Chris Drury is about building a core that will endure? Since he became President and GM of the Rangers in the summer of 2021, he's managed to lock up his top three centers without paying a single one more than $8.5 million AAV. 

Read it and weep. Mika Zibanaejad: $8.5m x 8; Vincent Trocheck: $5.625m x 7; and now Filip Chytil: $4.4375m x 4. All three key contributors on a team that is considered by many to be the deepest in the NHL heading into the playoffs. In a league where top heavy contracts are the rule, the Rangers have only one player - Artemi Panarin - who's making more than $10 million per season. And that is a tribute to Drury who has managed to navigate the treacherous waters of the flat cap era without being devoured.

It's no secret the Rangers were facing a daunting task trying to retain all three of their RFAs this summer. Last July, yours truly wrote that they needed to "lock up Alexis Lafreniere ASAP." The concern was that once he hit the free agent market, a rival GM - Jeff Gorton, for instance - would sign him to an offer sheet that Drury couldn't match. Goodbye number one draft pick, hello humiliation.

Well, scratch one RFA from the list. With Chytil having a breakout season, the question wasn't whether Drury would re-sign him - it was obvious he couldn't afford to let him walk - but whether he could get him to accept a team-friendly deal that would afford him the opportunity of also keeping both Lafreniere and K'Andre Miller. Mission accomplished. $4.4375m is approximately a million under market value for a player with Chytil's stats and ceiling. Making the deal even sweeter for the Rangers, Drury was able to buy out two years of arbitration rights on Chytil, as well as two years of free agency.

Contrary to popular belief, centers who can score 20 or more goals do not grow on trees. With Zibanejad, Trocheck and Chytil, the Rangers have three of them. Wanna know how rare that is? The Rangers are the only team in the NHL that can say that. I'd say that's pretty rare, wouldn't you? 

Last summer, there were those who thought that when Ryan Strome bolted for the Anaheim Ducks, the Rangers should've just given the 2C job to Chytil and used the cap savings to lock up all three RFAs to long-term deals, like the Tampa Bay Lightning did with Anthony Cirelli and Mikhail Sergachev. Drury wasn't comfortable giving Chytil that much responsibility so he signed Trocheck to fill Strome's spot.

As it turns out, Drury made the right call. After a slow start, Trocheck has become a solid 2C, and Chytil, centering the "kid" line, has come into his own. As a result, the Rangers are now set down the middle for the foreseeable future. If he can bridge Lafreniere and Miller, the Rangers, regardless of what happens in the postseason, should be in good shape cap wise going into next season.

Gary Bettman's Potential Early Christmas Present

NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman's announcement, following a board of governors meeting in New York, that the salary cap might go up to $86.5 million instead of the expected $83.5 million came as welcomed news to every general manager and player agent in the sport.

"We believe that there is a good probability that the escrow will be paid off this season. It may not be, but it’s going to be close we think, which means the flat cap will be replaced by a bigger increase. Revenue is pretty vibrant. We probably did $5.4 billion in [hockey-related revenues] this past season, which is actually about a half a billion more than we projected a year ago when we were starting things up. Things are good."

For those who haven't been paying attention - and from what I've seen on Twitter, that appears to be a rather large contingent of fans - the league has been operating under a flat cap since the 2019-20 season was paused due to the Covid-19 pandemic. At the time, the salary cap was $81.5 million, and to make sure the cap wasn't reduced, the NHLPA agreed to have part of their players salaries placed into an escrow account. The understanding being that once that balance was paid off, the cap would resume its pre-pandemic trajectory. Initially, that was supposed to be at the conclusion of the 2023-24 season. That timeline has now been accelerated by one season.

It cannot be overstated just how significant this development is. Notwithstanding the financial losses the league suffered, many teams are literally staring at cap hell, both this season and next. A look at some of the moves GMs were forced to make over the past two summers underscores just how difficult it's been to build and retain a core of players. Many teams were unable to field a full roster of 23 players this season because they simply don't have the cap space. The Stanley Cup champion Colorado Avalanche couldn't re-sign their number two center Nazem Kadri over the summer because they would've been over the cap. He subsequently signed with the Calgary Flames. Imagine if the Avs had an extra $3 million in the kitty.

Closer to home, Chris Drury is facing something of a quandary himself. At the conclusion of this season, Alexis Lafreniere, K'Andre Miller and Filip Chytil are all RFAs. At present, the Rangers, after waiving Dryden Hunt - or as Ranger Twitter has referred to him, the second coming of Rick Middleton - have just over $900k in cap space. That translates to about $4 million in deadline cap space for Drury to shop around for reinforcements at the trade deadline.

Assuming there are no additional buyouts this offseason, the Rangers will get $3.4 million in dead cap space off the books. Every cent of that money, and then some, will go to re-signing either Lafreniere or Miller, leaving Drury with some tough choices about which players to trade or let go. Even with the expected additional $1 million in salary cap and the expiration of Ryan Reaves' $1.75 million contract, there just isn't enough room at the inn to keep the band together. Imagine going through the pains of a rebuild and not being able to see it all the way through.

Now if all goes according to plan, Drury might be able to have his cake and eat it too. With a salary cap at $86.5 million, the Rangers would be able to keep Lafreniere, Miller and Chytil, provided they can get at least one of them - preferably Chytil - into a bridge deal. Below is what a potential 2023-24 roster could look like:

2023-24 Salary Cap

$86,500,000.00

Forwards
Panarin	$11,642,857.00
Zibanejad	$8,500,000.00
Kreider	$6,500,000.00
Trocheck	$5,625,000.00
Lafreniere	$5,000,000.00
Chytil	$3,750,000.00
Goodrow	$3,641,667.00
Kakko	$2,100,000.00
Blais	$1,525,000.00
Othmann	$894,167.00
Korczak	$859,167.00
Cuylle	$828,333.00
Rydahl	$800,000.00

Total  $51,666,191.00

Defensemen
Fox	$9,500,000.00
Trouba	$8,000,000.00
Miller	$4,000,000.00
Lindgren	$3,000,000.00
Jones	$1,200,000.00
Schneider	$925,000.00

Total

$26,625,000.00

Goalies
Gerand	$828,333.00
Shesterkin	$5,666,667.00

Total

$6,495,000.00

Total Cap Hit	$84,786,191.00
CAP SPACE	$1,713,809.00

As you'll note, I have Blais returning next year for the same salary he's making now and both Othmann and Cuylle making the team. Also, I have Gerand as the backup to Igor. I assume Drury will include Vitali Kravtsov in a deadline deal for either Patrick Kane or someone with a similar skill set. The bottom line is that under the higher cap, the Rangers would be able to retain not only their core but their young studs as well for the foreseeable future.

Of course, none of this is etched in stone. Knowing the NHL's penchant for disappointing their fans, it's entirely possible that the escrow might not be fully paid off by the end of the season. In that event, Bettman has made it clear that the cap will only go up $1 million to $83.5. And if that's the case, GM's like Drury will have to, once more, make lemonade out of lemons.

Did the Rangers Wait Too Long to Re-Sign Adam Fox?

By now you've heard that the Boston Bruins have re-signed their all-star defenseman Charlie McAvoy to an eight-year, $76 million dollar contract extension beginning in 2022-23. For those who didn't bring their calculators with them, that's $9.5 million per year. Or, as we say in New York, "a fuckin' lotta dough."

Just where the Bruins, who are $1.2 million under the cap this season, intend to get that "dough" remains a mystery, especially since Patrice Bergeron, their all-star center, is currently making $6.875 and will be a UFA next summer. But that's their problem.

They say timing is everything. Lost in all the hoopla of the Rangers signing Mika Zibanejad to an eight year, $8.5 million AAV contract is the fact that they have a plethora of pending contracts that will have to be either re-upped or moved over the next couple of seasons. And the biggest of those is Adam Fox, who is in the last year of an entry level contract worth $925,000 per.

With Cale Makar re-signing in Colorado for $9 million per over the summer, the market for defensemen who can score is pretty much set. By waiting as long as they did, the Rangers may have boxed themselves into a corner with their Norris-trophy winner. After the Zibanejad signing, there was some optimism that Chris Drury might be able to persuade Fox to agree to a similar, team-friendly contract. The McAvoy signing pretty much tosses that scenario out the window. At this point, Drury will be lucky if he can get Fox to accept $9 million per. Shit, if Seth Jones is worth $9.5 million, how much is Fox worth?

Welcome to life in the flat salary cap era, or as it's better known in the NHL, the Hunger Games. The Rangers, who for the last three seasons have "enjoyed" the benefits of being among the youngest teams in the league, are about to find out what happens when that youth grows up. In addition to Fox, Kaapo Kakko, Alexis Lafreniere and K'Andre Miller will all see their ELCs expire over the next two years, and barring something unforeseen, all will be due substantial pay raises. Maybe Vitali Kravtsov did them a solid by going AWOL after all. If they can move him for a 2nd rounder or a serviceable forward with a reasonable cap hit, that'll be one less headache for Drury to deal with next summer.

But getting back to Fox, did you see the way he played Thursday night? It was as if the puck was glued to his stick. If Wayne Gretzky had been a defenseman instead of a center, he would've looked just like Fox. Drury is going to have to bite the bullet here. There are some contracts you don't fuck around with. If he's this good at 23, imagine what he's going to look like two or three years from now. 

Get him signed. Get him signed now! If it takes $9.5 mill per to get it done, then that's what it takes. Fuck it, if it takes $10 mill, do it. In five years, it'll be a bargain. Think about it: right now, Artemi Panarin is the best player on this team. Who knows, in a couple of seasons, Fox might supplant him. He's that good.

I know there are risks involved in assembling a top heavy roster. Just ask the Toronto Maple Leafs and the Edmonton Oilers. Both teams have a substantial portion of their salary cap tied up in just a few players. And as a result, both have had a hard time acquiring the depth needed to make a serious run at the Cup. I won't lie to you, that fate could await the Rangers.

But the greater risk, in my opinion, would be letting a generational player like Fox walk because you want the "freedom" to pursue lesser players that, and let's be honest, can be had in any given off season. Yes, the Tampa Bay Lightning would not have won either of their two Stanley Cups if they didn't have foot soldiers like Barclay Goodrow and Blake Coleman in the trenches; but they would never have gotten close if they didn't have world-class talent like Nikita Kucherov and Brayden Point. You need both types of players to win a championship these days.

Adam Fox is the best defenseman the Rangers have had since the days of Brian Leetch. Hell, he might even be better. Chris Drury must make every effort to ensure he never plays for another organization.

Bi-Polar Rangers Aren't All That Hard To Figure Out

We've seen this movie all too often throughout the season. It's a familiar pattern. The Rangers go on a hot streak and torch a few, shall we say, lower echelon teams, which gives fans hope that this rebuild, which started three years ago, is now on the verge of producing tangible fruit. Then they get shut down by a top-caliber playoff team and just like that, the air is let out of the balloon. As Robin Williams used to say, "Reality, what a concept."

After Sunday's drubbing of the Buffalo Sabres, the Blueshirts have the sixth best goals for and against differential in the NHL at plus 33. Their 164 goals are third best in the league; only the Capitals and Penguins have scored more. They are also the only team to have five players with 40 points or more. Their penalty killing is sixth best and they lead the league in short-handed goals. All very impressive stats.

And yet even with all that, this team is still four points behind the Boston Bruins for the last playoff spot in the East Division, with the Bruins having two games at hand. And their 56 points ranks as only 14th best out of 31 teams in the league. That is most certainly NOT very impressive.

So what can we surmise from these two sets of conflicting data? Simply put, the Rangers are two very different teams depending on the opposition. Against opponents that don't cover their own zone very well or prefer to play a wide open brand of hockey, the Rangers do extremely well. Their east/west style of play, so reminiscent of those free-wheeling '80s teams, allows them to generate scoring opportunities that lesser-skilled teams simply cannot compete with. Witness what they did to the Philadelphia Flyers and New Jersey Devils, two teams that are to defense what Napoleon was to height. Twice, the Rangers routed the Flyers (9-0 and 8-3), and against the Devils, they swept a recent four-game series in which they did not trail for a single second.

But against the Islanders, Capitals, Bruins and Penguins, teams that are considerably more disciplined in their own end and tend to employ a north/south brand of hockey, the Rangers have had a tough time generating offense. Stars like Mika Zibanejad and Artemi Panarin, deprived of their ability to create off the rush, are reduced to virtual non-factors. For example, so far this season, Zibanejad has scored three hat tricks. The first two came against the Flyers in the above-mentioned routs; the third came against the Sabres this past Sunday. Take away those 9 goals and Zibanejad has a grand total of just 10 goals in 46 games. That comes out to about 18 goals over the course of a full season. And keep in mind, eight of those 46 games were against the Devils, a team they've beaten six times.

Conclusion? This is very talented team with serious flaws that must be addressed in the offseason if it is ever going to become a playoff team, much less a contender. Yes, there are a lot of rookie and second-year players on the roster, but that shouldn't be an excuse. Adam Fox and K'Andre Miller are not the problem here. Nor is Kaapo Kakko and Alexis Lafreniere. Fox is having a Norris-trophy type season, Miller is fast becoming a dependable defenseman, and Kakko and Lafreniere are improving with each game.

No, it is the core of this team that is the main problem. In short, the stars just aren't pulling their weight. In addition to the issues Zibanejad and Panarin have against tight-checking teams, Chris Kreider is a 210 pound player who plays more like a 170 pounder, which has rightfully earned him a demotion to the third line. Filip Chytil, now in his third season, has yet to blossom into the top-six forward the Rangers were hoping he'd be. And while Ryan Strome has done a good job centering Panarin, he too has a habit of disappearing in big games. Plus next season is his walk year.

With so many red flags, you'd think Jeff Gorton and John Davidson would've gotten the memo by now. Yet every indication is that they don't think there's anything all that wrong, at least not with the forwards anyway. The defense, well that's another matter. 

Larry Brooks of The New York Post is reporting that during the offseason the Rangers made an offer to 43 year-old Zdeno Chara. According to Brooks, it was serious enough that they were "in the hunt until the last minute" before Chara finally decided to sign with the Capitals. Granted, Gorton had no way of knowing that Miller would develop so quickly, but the move reveals both his and the organization's thinking. And that thinking is deeply concerning.

Because this team, even with all its flaws, is still mathematically alive for a playoff spot, and the fear is that coach David Quinn will keep playing the same horses that have consistently come up short in the crunch. Meanwhile, Morgan Barron, a center who had a good year in Hartford and is 220 pounds, still hasn't been called up. Julien Gauthier, a 230 pound winger, hasn't played in weeks because for some strange reason Quinn is still in love with Brett Howden, despite the fact that Howden has a whopping one goal and six assists this season.

There's no other way to put this. Quinn is making a tactical error that may help him in the short run but will come back to bite him in the long run. What he and Gorton should be doing with the remaining games this season is to find out what they have in the cupboard. Barron and Gauthier should be in the lineup and given significant ice time. Vitali Kravtsov should be paired alongside Panarin to see whether he is the real deal. And it is time to find out if Kakko was worth the second overall pick two years ago.

If I were in charge I'd set my lines up this way: 

Forward Line One: Lafreniere, Zibanejad, Kakko

Forward Line Two: Panarin, Chytil, Kravtsov

Forward Line Three: Kreider, Strome, Buchnevich

Forward Line Four: Rooney, Barron, Gauthier

Defense Pairing One: Miller, Trouba

Defense Pairing Two: Jones, Fox

Defense Pairing Three: Lindgren, Smith

By moving Lafreniere, Kakko, Chytil and Kravtsov up to the top six, the Rangers will be able to evaluate who will be the odd-man out during the offseason. And make no mistake about it: not all of these forwards are going to be here next season. One or more may be dangled in a trade to get the help this team needs. It is essential that Gorton and Davidson make an "informed" decision before pulling the trigger. What the organization can't afford to do after going through this rebuild process is to have the player or players they give up come back and haunt them for the next decade. It's been 45 years since Rick Middleton was given away for Ken Hodge and 34 years since Mike Ridley and Kelly Miller were sent packing for Bobby Carpenter. Rangers' fans still haven't forgiven the team for those colossal blunders. Some wounds never heal. The goal should be no more blunders.

On defense, Zac Jones has looked real good so far and has even gotten some time on the second power-play unit. He picked up his first assist against the Sabres, Sunday. Pairing him with Fox makes sense. The more ice time this kid gets the better he'll become. And let's not forget that Braden Schneider - all 200 pounds of him - is waiting in the wings. Imagine a one-two punch of Trouba on one defense pairing and Schneider on the next. Not bad. Trust me, defense is the last thing management should be concerned about. They're loaded.

The bottom line is this: The Rangers are not a playoff team. Despite some flashes of brilliance, the sauce isn't quite cooked enough. What management should be doing is getting all their cards lined up so they know whether they have a full house or a pair of duces.

Rangers Are To Blame for DeAngelo Nightmare

Let's be clear, here. The Tony DeAngelo nightmare did not start after Saturday's overtime loss to the Pittsburgh Penguins in which the troubled defenseman took a swing at goaltender Alexandar Georgiev over the latter's admittedly costly mistake. Nor did it start with his tweets, which were problematic to say the least.

Indeed, if we're going to be thorough, you could say it began years ago. He was suspended twice in the OHL for slurs and abuse of officials and once in the NHL for actually going after an official. Head coach David Quinn benched him two games for getting hit with a misconduct in the third period of the opening game of the season. Clearly, he was a loose canon just ready to go off.

To be frank, it wasn't just his support for Trump that was a red flag; it was his propensity for trafficking in racist tropes and picking fights with fans on Twitter that should've sounded alarm bells in the bowels of the Ranger organization. It is inconceivable that team president John Davidson and G.M. Jeff Gorton didn't know what was going on, and both must now bear the brunt of the blame for the disaster that the franchise must now deal with.

The decision to sign DeAngelo to a two-year $9.6 million deal is indefensible. Period. Yes, he was a restricted free agent, meaning had the Rangers not made him an offer he probably would've been awarded a one-year arbitration deal. But the Rangers could have walked away from that deal, making him an unrestricted free agent. Had they done that, it is highly unlikely another team would've signed him given that the Rangers were unable to move him during the offseason.

So now Gorton has the unenviable task of trying to get a team - any team - to take the problem child off his hands. Good luck with that. Even a team with the cap space needed to take on DeAngelo's contract will want nothing to do with a player with that much baggage. That means that this team, which is currently playing musical chairs with players on its own taxi squad just to stay in compliance with the league salary cap, will have to buy out yet another contract after this season is over. Oh goodie.

Fortunately for them, because DeAngelo is under the age of 26, they will only have to eat one third of the remaining $5.3 million he's owed on the backloaded contract, which comes out to $883k annually for two years. But the point is they didn't have to go through this. They have two young, promising defensemen in their system - Nils Lundkvist and K'Andre Miller - who are a year away from making the team. They could've moved Brendan Smith over to the right side until Lundkvist is ready to take the reigns. And they would've saved themselves almost $10 million worth of cap space in the process. Cap space they would now give their eye teeth to have.

I have been patient with Davidson and Gorton, primarily because the core they are assembling has the potential to one day be a Stanley Cup contender. But there have been hiccups along the way. The buyout situation is growing alarming. Including Henrik Lundqvist, who was bought out during the off season, the Rangers currently are carrying almost $13 million in dead cap space. And while that number will go down by about $8 million next season, the DeAngelo buyout, if it happens, will bring it back up.

But here's the greater issue. That Davidson and Gorton looked the other way with someone like DeAngelo sends the wrong message, especially to a player like Miller, who is the first African American to wear a Rangers uniform. And Davidson's explanation in his press conference that this was about "freedom of speech" is absurd on its face, something that in his days as a TV analyst he would've decried.

The New York Rangers may not be the most successful hockey organization in the NHL, but even in the days of Sonny Werblin, it would never have allowed something like this to fester within its ranks. Hopefully, the braintrust has learned its lesson and won't repeat this colossal mistake.