Five Worst Trades in Rangers History

Because the topic often comes up, I thought I'd give my two cents worth. As always, feel free to disagree with the order, or perhaps even add your own nominations.

1. Rick Middleton to the Boston Bruins for Ken Hodge: This trade has often been compared to the Mets sending Amos Otis to the Kansas City Royals for Joe Foy. But it's actually much worse. The Mets had won the World Series and had Tommie Agee in centerfield. Ed Charles had just retired and the Mets weren't sure if Wayne Garret could handle playing 3rd base full time, so you could almost forgive them for wanting to shore up what they perceived was a weakness on the infield. 

There is no such absolution for the Rangers. They were clearly in rebuild mode entering the 1976-77 season. John Ferguson was now in his second year as GM. Middleton was a young winger with enormous potential, while Hodge was a seasoned veteran whose best years were well behind him. Aside from the fact that Hodge had played with Phil Esposito during his Bruins days, there was simply no justification for making this trade. None.

2. J.T. Miller and Ryan McDonagh to the Tampa Bay Lightning for Libor Hajek, Brett Howden, Vlad Namestnikov, 2018 1st-Round Pick and 2019 2nd-Round Pick: The decision by Jeff Gorton to rebuild in the winter of 2018 was, in retrospect, the correct one. The window for this core was clearly closing, so it was time to break up the band. Where he fouled up was the return he got. Steve Yzerman clearly fleeced him on this deal. Of the three players who came over from the Lightning, only Howden - now a member of the Vegas Golden Knights - has had anything remotely resembling a successful NHL career. And the draft picks the Rangers received didn't amount to much either.

McDonagh, meanwhile, played an integral role in helping Tampa win two consecutive Stanley Cups, while Miller has become one of the NHL's premier centers, albeit playing for the Vancouver Canucks. By re-acquiring Miller last week, you could say Chris Drury has at least partially atoned for Gorton's mistake, though seven years after the fact.

3. Mike Ridley and Kelly Miller to the Washington Capitals for Bobby Carpenter: On paper, this trade made perfect sense. Phil Esposito had replaced Craig Patrick as Rangers GM and was looking to make his bones. Carpenter checked all the boxes: size, speed, you name it. It should've been a slam dunk. Except Carpenter was a flop on Broadway, registering a measly 10 points in 28 games before Espo dealt him to the LA Kings for Marcel Dionne. 

Ridley and Miller, on the other hand, would go on to have successful careers playing for the Caps, while Carpenter eventually finished his career with the New Jersey Devils, a shell of the player the Rangers thought they were getting when they traded for him. The moral of the story is quite simple: the grass isn't always greener on the other side of the street.

4. Sergei Zubov and Petr Nedved to the Pittsburgh Penguins for Ulf Samuelsson and Luc Robitaille: The post Stanley Cup years were very difficult ones for Neil Smith. At times, he didn't know which direction he wanted to take: retool or stay with the core. After the Rangers got swept by the Philadelphia Flyers in '95, he panicked and traded two of his more talented players for an admittedly physical defenseman and a veteran forward whose best years were behind him.

Zubov would go on to win another Cup with the Dallas Stars in 1999, while Nedved enjoyed his best season playing on a line with Mario Lemieux and Jaromir Jagr. Oh, and by the way, the Pens beat the Rangers 4-1 in the second round of the '96 playoffs. Sometimes the best trades are the ones you don't make.

5. Jean Ratelle and Brad Park to the Boston Bruins for Phil Esposito and Carol Vadnais: After the Islanders upset the Rangers in the 1975 preliminary round, it was clear this core was done. Emile Francis knew in his heart what he needed to do and that was rebuild. Instead, he swapped stars with the hated Bruins.

While Espo and Vadnais played an integral role in the Rangers getting to the finals in '79, there's no denying the fact that Boston got the better of this trade. Ratelle, Park and Middleton (see above) gave fans in Beantown years of excitement, while Rangers fans had to endure three seasons of misery until some of their younger players developed under a new front office regime.

Rangers Finally Call It a Night on Kakko

To fully appreciate what happened with Kaapo Kakko, we need to go all the way back to that letter then GM Jeff Gorton sent out to the fanbase on February 8, 2018, informing them that the New York Rangers were going to be sellers - not buyers - at the trade deadline. 

It was an extraordinary acknowledgment, one seldom seen in professional sports. Typically franchises don't go public with their plans regarding rebuilding; they just go ahead with it. But this was different. The Rangers, after going to the finals in 2014 and winning the Presidents' Trophy the following season, were clearly on a downward trajectory. To continue investing in this core would've been fruitless. Credit Gorton for being able to read the tealeaves.

There was just one tiny problem. The Rangers didn't actually do a formal rebuild in the traditional sense of the word; that is they didn't tear it down to the studs. Ryan McDonagh, J.T. Miller, Rick Nash, Michael Grabner and (later) Mats Zuccarello and Kevin Hayes were all sent packing. But Gorton elected to keep Mika Zibanejad, Chris Kreider, Pavel Buchnevich, Marc Steal and Henrik Lundqvist. In other words, what the Rangers did was more a retool than a rebuild. 

Lady luck then shined on the franchise. The Rangers wound up with the second overall pick in the 2019 NHL Draft, which they used to select Kakko, a player generally viewed by many scouts as a future star in the league. Fans already had him pegged as the next Jaromir Jagr. 

Of course on any other rebuilding team, Kakko would've gotten a top six forward spot, including time on the power play. Unfortunately for him, Gorton had other plans. Over the summer, he signed Artemi Panarin and traded for Jacob Trouba. He also acquired a little known defenseman from Jericho, New York by the name of Adam Fox. The formal announcement in May of that year that the Rangers had hired John Davidson to be their President ostensibly meant that the rebuild was, if not officially over, at least unofficially put on hold. Two seasons in the tank was enough for owner James Dolan. It was time to start winning again. 

For most of the 2019-20 season, the Blueshirts were fun to watch. Panarin led the team in overall scoring while Zibanejad led them in goals. They flirted with the playoffs. Then Covid-19 hit and the NHL, like everything else, shut down. When play resumed over the summer, the Rangers somehow managed to qualify for the play-in round, where they were swept by the Carolina Hurricanes. Their reward for failing to advance to the playoffs was to wind up with the number one overall pick in the 2020 draft, which they used to select Alexis Lafreniere. 

Lafreniere, like Kakko before him, should've gotten a top six forward spot. Instead, he was buried, for the most part, in the bottom six. And he rarely, if ever, got time on the power play. Think about it: the Rangers, in consecutive years, landed two elite prospects in the draft only to treat them as if they were checking forwards. 

And it wasn't just Kakko and Lafreniere who were consigned to the back of the bus. 2017 first-round pick Filip Chytil was also having a hard time getting ice time. This reluctance by the organization to give their young players the attention they badly needed meant that their growth was stunted from the beginning. Between the three, though, Kakko was the one most snake bitten. The closest he came to realizing his potential was in 2022-23. He scored 18 goals and added 22 assists that season. 

But before you get the impression that this was all the fault of the Rangers, it should be noted that both Chytil and Lafreniere eventually had breakout years: the former scoring 22 goals as the third-line canter in 2022-23; the latter 28 goals last season playing on the second line with Panarin and Vincent Trocheck.

The bottom line was that even with Peter Laviolette as his coach, Kakko was never able to come into his own. It was not for lack of effort; God knows the kid tried. He was one of the hardest working forwards on the team. He just couldn't finish around the net. And when you're the second overall pick in the draft you're expected to produce.

So yesterday, Chris Drury finally pulled the plug and traded him to the Seattle Kraken for defenseman Will Borgen and two middle-round draft picks in 2025. To say it was a disappointing return would be an understatement. Borgen will likely replace Victor Mancini - who was sent down to Hartford - on the third pairing with Zac Jones.

Already the Monday-morning quarterbacks are at it. The prevailing sentiment is that Drury could've had Jake Guentzel last season in return for Kakko, a first rounder and a couple of prospects. First off, we don't know if that was true; second, even if that was true, it's likely those prospects would've consisted of Will Cuylle and Gabe Perrault. The former has been arguably the team's second best forward this season; the latter is one of the most talented players in college hockey today. Drury would've been a fool to give up that much for what amounted to a rental. Besides, what did Guentzel do for the Hurricanes last season? Oh yeah, they lost to the Rangers in the second round, and Guentzel is now a member of the Tampa Bay Lightning.

Hindsight is always 20 / 20, especially in sports. The Twitterverse is replete with shoulda, coulda, woulda trades that always seem to work out for the prognosticators. In the end, though, I can't blame Drury for wanting to hold onto Kakko as long as possible. It's obvious the skill is still there. Hopefully he will develop into the player everyone thought he'd be when he was drafted five years ago.

As for Drury, he met with the players this afternoon in Dallas to clear the air over the way the Goodrow and Trouba moves were handled. It couldn't have come at a better time, because according to Vince Mercogliano, the core is not exactly thrilled with their GM. But here's the thing: the longer this team continues its slide - 11 losses in the last 14 games - the more likely it is that the trades will continue. It's a vicious cycle that only they can stop. As long as Drury has the backing of Dolan, he isn't going anywhere. And there doesn't appear to be any appetite within the organization to make a change behind the bench. 

So for the time being, both the players and management are stuck with one another. And as is usual with situations like this, the onus is on the former to change the narrative.

Kravtsov Debacle Is a Self Inflected Wound for Rangers

Of all the human vices out there, pride and stubbornness might be the most costly. Both basically prevent people from admitting mistakes, some of which are beauts.

In the Spring of 2018, the New York Rangers traded Ryan McDonagh and J.T. Miller to the Tampa Bay Lightning for defenseman Libor Hajek, center Brett Howden, a first-round pick in 2018, a conditional second-round pick in 2019 and forward Vladislav Namestnikov. It was the start of the team's rebuild under then GM Jeff Gorton, and this trade was suppose to be the centerpiece of it. 

Three years later, it's obvious that the trade was a bust. Yes, the Rangers used the first round pick they got to select Nils Lundkvist, the talented Swedish defenseman who has a chance to become an elite player in the NHL. But the jury is still out on second rounder Karl Henricksson, who was just sent down to Hartford in September. Hajek is the last of the three players still with the team, the other two having been dealt.

For the better part of the last two years, Hajek has struggled to crack the Rangers lineup. At times he has looked good, at others he has not. As of now, he isn't even in the top ten in the organizational depth chart. Chris Drury would like to send him down to Hartford, but to do that he would have to clear waivers first, which means the Rangers would likely lose him for nothing.

So rather than bite the bullet and close the book on the McDonagh / Miller trade, Drury decided to send down 2018 first-round pick Vitali Kravtsov instead while he attempts to convince a GM dumb enough to take his call to give him a mid to late-round pick in return for Hajek.

Understandably, Kravtsov didn't take the news of his demotion very well, so he opted not to report to Hartford. And now the organization that was too stubborn to admit it got fleeced by the Lightning, has a disgruntled first round pick on their hands. Their solution to suspend the winger and give his agent permission to contact other teams to seek out a trade not only makes no sense, as Vince Mercogliano pointed out, issuing a public statement like that actually "diminishes his trade value."

The Rangers have had their fair share of self-inflicted wounds over the decades. But this one takes the cake. On the cusp of a season opener that was to begin a new chapter in the franchise's storied existence, for something like this to happen is unforgivable. It's bad enough they opted to pass on Oliver Wahlstrom, the burley, 200 pound winger taken by the Islanders two picks later, but now they've alienated the player they did choose - a player, mind you that has a promising future - in order to protect their interests in a player they have no use for. If your head is spinning, you're not alone.

This didn't have to happen. Drury should've swallowed his pride and cut his losses on Hajek in order to keep Kravtsov in New York. Even if, as Gallant has said, Julien Gauthier and Dryden Hunt had more impressive camps and would most likely have gotten more ice time, just being on the team would've helped his development. There is nothing more Kravtsov can learn by playing with the Wolf Pack. He's not Morgan Barron. Some additional seasoning isn't going to improve his game.

Hopefully this gets resolved before things go too far. Maybe someone can step in, calm down the young player and remind him of the bigger picture here. Perhaps fellow countryman Artemi Panarin can have a heart to heart with him. If that doesn't work, Drury should call up John Davidson in Columbus and, as Rick Carpiniello mused on Twitter, see if there's any interest.

Bottom line, it would really be a terrible waste if Kravtsov ends up becoming the next Lias Anderssen.

Henrik Lundqvist Calls It a Career

I won't mince words here. Henrik Lundqvist was the greatest Ranger NOT to win a Stanley Cup in the history of the franchise. There, I said it, and the facts bear me out. Jean Ratelle, Vic Hadfield, Rod Gilbert, Brad Park and Ed Giacomin were all a part of the best Rangers team since the days of Lester Patrick, and while all were outstanding players in their own right, none were on the same level as the King.

Lundqvist wasn't just the best player for a Rangers team that flirted with the Cup for several years; he was the best goaltender in the NHL for most of his 15-year playing career. Among his peers, only Carey Price ranks as a close second.

And yet this first ballot Hall of Famer never once drank from the chalice of champions. That's because as great as he was, the team he played on just didn't have that one elite player who could make a difference in a tough, seven-game series. 

In 2014, the year the Rangers went to the Cup finals, they lost to a Los Angeles Kings team that had Anze Kopitar, Jeff Carter and Drew Doughty; the following year when they won the President's Trophy, they were bested in the conference finals by a Tampa Bay Lightning team that had Steven Stamkos, Nikita Kucherov and Victor Hedman. 

A goalie can do many things, but he can't constantly be his team's best player. As brilliant as Andrei Vasilevsky is for the Lightning, he isn't their best player. Neither was Mike Richter back in 1994. He had Mark Messier, Brian Leetch and Adam Graves on that team; poor Hank had Derek Stephan, Rick Nash and Ryan McDonagh. Who would you wanna have playing in front of you?

When I heard that Lundqvist was retiring, my heart was heavy. On the one hand, I will treasure each and every save he made; on the other, I will grieve for what might've been. This mountain of a man might be at peace over his decision to hang up his skates, as Larry Brooks wrote in The New York Post, but for the millions of us who bleed blue, we will never get over the missed opportunities. 

Consider that during the reign of Lundqvist, the Chicago Blackhawks and Pittsburgh Penguins each won three Cups; the LA Kings and Tampa Bay Lightning won two; while the Detroit Red Wings, Carolina Hurricanes, Boston Bruins, Washington Capitals and St. Louis Blues won one a piece. And what did the Rangers accomplish? Two trips to the conference finals and one to the Cup finals, that's what.

Now you know why this moment is so bittersweet. The best goalie of his generation will leave the sport he loved without so much as one lousy ring. He deserved a better fate than the one the organization he called his home for 15 years gave him. True he isn't the only elite player not to win a championship. Dan Marino played 17 seasons for the Miami Dolphins without winning a Super Bowl, so it does happen. Greatness is no guarantee of postseason success. The sports gods can be cruel when they want to be.

But all that's of little consequence to a franchise that since 1940 has won the Cup once. Henrik Lundqvist gave this team a shot at a championship every season he played for them. And for that, all of us should be grateful. I know I am.

So long, Hank. In the words of Bob Hope, thanks for the memories.

No Jack City

Well, day one of free agency in the NHL came and went and Jack Eichel - or as he's known in certain social media circles, the second coming of Wayne Gretzky - is still a member of the Buffalo Sabres. Apparently, the fact that Chris Drury didn't panic and give away the farm for the privilege of bringing the injured center to Manhattan isn't going over very well among the faithful.

Frankly, I'm relieved. I am on record as being against this trade. It's risky, given Eichel's health; it would cost too much in assets; and it doesn't make this team better where it counts - in the playoffs. So, as far as I'm concerned, Jack can stay in Buffalo until it snows in August.

If anything, I was a bit miffed that Drury wasn't a little more aggressive shoring up his bottom six. Barclay Goodrow and Samuel Blais are a good start, but when you consider that the Calgary Flames were able to sign Blake Coleman for $4.9 million AAV, it's a little hard to imagine Drury couldn't get him for an even $5 mill. The guy's a legit 20 goal scorer and he and Goodrow would've made a great PK unit.

Now Drury will have to look elsewhere to complete that line. Might I suggest he place a call to Nick Ritchie's agent. The now former Boston Bruin scored 15 goals last season and weighs an impressive 230 pounds. I'd say that's pretty gritty, wouldn't you? He's currently a UFA and made only $1.5 million last year. I'm guessing three years at $2 mill AAV should close the deal. If that's too rich for the Rangers, they could inquire what it would take to pry Ryan Reaves from the Vegas Golden Knights. Reaves (34) is in the final year of a two-year contract with an AAV of $1.75M. He's 6' 2", 225 pounds and hits anything that moves. In his first two years in Vegas, he registered 305 and 316 hits respectively. The man's a truck on skates.

But the day wasn't a total loss for Drury. He did manage to complete the back end of his defense by signing Patrik Nemeth and Jarred Tinordi. The former was a rental with the Colorado Avalanche last season, and at 6' 3", 229 pounds is a classic stay-at-home defenseman who will play alongside Nils Lundkvist next season; the latter played for the Bruins last season, and at 6' 6", 215 pounds is a depth defenseman who will fill in on those nights when the opposition is a bit more, how shall I say it, brawny. Nemeth's AAV is $2.5 million times three years and Tinordi's is $900k times two. One additional note, Tinordi went toe to toe with Tom Wilson last year and held his own, so circle October 13 on your calendar when the Blueshirts open their season against the Capitals in Washington. Might want to set the DVR while you're at it.

Drury also inked a couple of depth forwards that will likely start the year in Hartford. Their salary won't count against the cap, which is good. That leaves the Rangers with about $18 million in available cap space to re-sign their own RFAs plus any additional players they may want. Assuming they trade Ryan Strome, that should give them more than enough cap room to extend Mika Zibanejad, Adam Fox and Kaapo Kakko next year. If not, they can always consult Tampa Bay Lightning GM Julien BrisBois. The man is a genius when it comes to working around the cap.

To sum up, a good day that could've been better, but at least wasn't a disaster. I'll take it.

P.S.: Just as this piece was being put to bed, Larry Brooks of The New York Post reported that the Rangers have come to terms with RFA Filip Chytil. Two years at $2.3M AAV. That leaves Igor Shesterkin as the lone RFA yet to re-sign. I don't count Libor Hajek, who with the signing of Tinordi, is now pretty much out of a job with this franchise. That makes all three of the players the Rangers got in return for Ryan McDonagh and J.T. Miller in 2018 bonafide busts: Hajek, Brett Howden and, wait for it, Vladislav Namestnikov. Not quite the worst trade in Rangers' history, but definitely in the top five.

Drury's on the Clock

With his head coach and assistants in place, Chris Drury turned his attention to next week's Expansion Draft. But before he submitted his list of players he was going to protect, only one of whom - Kevin Rooney - was unexpected, he managed to swing a couple of deals, one of which could end up being the springboard that transforms this team of cream puffs into a team with some spine.

In a move that took most people by surprise, Drury traded a 7th round pick to the Tampa Bay Lightning for UFA Barclay Goodrow. You might ask why would Drury waste a pick on someone who's going to be a free agent in 10 days? Because he now has exclusive rights to negotiate a deal with Goodrow BEFORE he hits the open market, that's why.

The other move was equally surprising and provides some closure on one of the worst trades in Rangers history. Drury unloaded Brett Howden - acquired in the now infamous Ryan McDonagh / J.T. Miller deal -on the Vegas Golden Knights for a 4th round pick and defenseman Nick DeSimone, who's also a pending UFA but will likely sign elsewhere. The fact that Drury got anything north of a used puck bag for Howden was a bonus. While McDonagh has been a major cog for a Lightning team that has won back to back Stanley Cups, Howden has been a huge bust, scoring a paltry 49 points in three seasons in the NHL.

But getting back to Goodrow, Drury cannot afford to let him test the free agent waters. At 6' 2", 203 pounds and only 28, he's just what the doctor ordered for a team that looks at driving to the net the same way vampires look at sunrises. Though he played mostly left wing for the Bolts, Jon Cooper often relied on him to take important draws. His 50 percent win ratio would instantly make him the Rangers best face-off man. Don't be shocked if Gerard Gallant uses him at center. Imagine Goodrow and fellow Lightning line mate Blake Coleman out there killing penalties and making life a living hell for opposing teams best offensive lines. 

A while back I wrote that Drury needed to target both Goodrow and Coleman during the off season. If he were to sign Goodrow before the 28th, he would be half-way home. How hard do you think it would be to entice Coleman to come to New York with Goodrow already inked? I'm guessing not that hard at all.

The question is how high does Drury go? The last two seasons, Goodrow made $925,000 per. Clearly, having played a not-so insignificant role in this year's Cup run, he's due for a substantial pay raise. Word is Goodrow is looking for a six-year contract at $3.25 million per, while Drury would prefer a four-year term at $2.5 million per. I'm thinking split the difference: five years at $3 million per. That's $15 million over half a decade. More than fair, and it gives Drury the flexibility he needs to go after Coleman and retain his own RFAs, plus add a physical defenseman to play on the third defensive pairing. Perhaps Ryan Suter could be had for $1.5 million.

Let's not forget that while the Rangers have $23 million in available cap space to play with this offseason, after next year, they will have several players who will be seeking huge pay increases. Mika Zibanejad, who's currently making $5.35 million, will be a UFA, and Adam Fox, fresh off his Norris Trophy win and making only $925,000, will be an RFA. Even if Zibanejad were to take a home-town discount, you gotta think he's going to get somewhere in the neighborhood of $9 million per over six years. As for Fox, assuming the Rangers opt for a two-year bridge deal, that's still going to translate to at least $5 million per. And then there's Ryan Strome, who's signed to a team-friendly $4.5 million this upcoming season. If Drury decides to retain him, he too will come with a hefty price tag. If he trades him, whoever he gets in return will not be cheap.

Welcome to today's NHL, where the salary cap is expected to stay flat for quite some time. Money just doesn't go as far as it used to. Now you know why I was so against the Rangers trading for Jack Eichel. Not only is he the wrong player for this franchise, his $10 million cap hit would cripple the team's ability to make the changes necessary to become a contender for the foreseeable future. Ask the Edmonton Oilers how it feels to have two players tie up over $20 million in salary cap space. The same Edmonton Oilers team, mind you, that has won exactly one playoff game the last two seasons. Or how about the Toronto Maple Leafs, who haven't won a playoff series in seventeen years and blew a 3-1 series lead against the Montreal Canadiens? With three players combining for $33 million in salary and $75 million already committed next season, they don't have enough cap space to sign their two best checking forwards, Zach Hyman and Nick Foligno. That's called incompetence, people.

Drury cannot allow that to happen to the Rangers. He knows he'll only get one shot to get this right. He has all the chips he needs to make the right moves. What he can't do is panic just for the sake of making a splash. His counterpart on Long Island wrote the book on extracting maximum value from players, and he has the championship rings to show for it. Love 'em or hate 'em, right now the Islanders are closer to winning a Stanley Cup than the Rangers are. Only a fool would bet against Lou Lamoriello, or think he can be upstaged. This about it: while Drury was getting the negotiating rights to Goodrow for a seventh rounder, Lamoriello got the Arizona Coyotes to take Andrew Ladd and his $5.5 million cap hit off his hands for two second rounders and a third rounder. Who do you think had a better day?

The bottom line? Drury's on the clock. This is his make or break moment.

Rangers Had Themselves A Pretty Good Day

I so seldom have the opportunity to say this about one of the teams I root for, but here goes. The Rangers had themselves a pretty good day yesterday. In fact, it was one of the best days the organization has had in quite some time. And that's saying something, given that last year they chose Kappo Kakko with their first-round pick and signed Artemi Panarin. Larry Brooks of the New York Post put it best: "The Rangers are finally back."

Going into the trade deadline, it was looking more and more like the Rangers were going to trade pending unrestricted free agent Chris Kreider to one of several teams for a first round pick and a top prospect. Supposedly, the Colorado Avalanche and the Boston Bruins were the most likely destinations for Kreider.

Both sides, it seemed, were at an impasse. Kreider, multiple sources said, wanted $7 million a year for six years, the Rangers were willing to go as high as $6 million per. Given that Kreider's market value as a free agent would probably be somewhere in the neighborhood of $7.5 million a year, a trade seemed imminent.

But then both sides compromised and met in the middle. They finally came up with a deal that will pay Kreider $6.5 million per year, but for seven years. The extra year was, no doubt, a concession from the organization to keep Kreider in a Rangers' uniform throughout the rest of his playing career.

One cannot overlook the significance of this deal. Ever since Jeff Gorton informed Rangers' fans in February of 2018 that the organization was going to rebuild, the Blueshirts have been in sell mode. There are now only four players left from the team that went to the Stanley Cup finals back in 2014: Henrik Lundqvist, Marc Staal, Jesper Fast and Kreider. And Fast, it should be noted, played only 11 games that year with no points.

A lot of talented players have been shipped out since then and a lot of promising prospects have taken their place. But prospects don't always pan out the way you think they will. And even for a fan base as loyal as the Rangers, management had to give them something to hope for. So Gorton and team president John Davidson rolled up their sleeves, sharpened their pencils and made it happen.

Kreider was having himself one helluva season going into the trade deadline, which usually translates into landing a bigger haul. Either those offers weren't enticing enough or Gorton and Davidson simply decided that it was more important to keep an integral member of this team in the fold. Regardless, it was the correct thing to do. Maybe the last three years of this contract don't equal the first four; that's the chance you take when you sign a player to a deal like this. There's always an element of risk, on both sides. Kreider undoubtedly left a lot of money on the table; and the Rangers compensated him by agreeing to the extra year. Both sides got what they wanted: Kreider got the security of a long-term deal; the Rangers locked up a valued asset at a reduced price.

But Gorton and Davidson weren't done. Now that they locked up Kreider, they had another problem: how to pay him. It should be no secret that next year the Rangers were going to be carrying a lot of dead-cap space, the vast majority of it courtesy of their decision to buy out Kevin Shattenkirk before the start of this season. The amount of that hit comes to $6.1 million, only $400 thousand less than what Kreider will earn. And with three restricted free agents to contend with during the off season - two of them in line to receive significant pay increases - the Rangers were looking at cap hell if they didn't get some relief, and soon.

So they traded Brady Skjei to the Carolina Hurricanes for a first-round pick. For all intents and purposes, it was a salary dump. Skjei was in the second year of a six year contract worth $5.25 million per. Without him on the books next year, the Rangers will have the resources necessary to retain all their RFAs in the off season, and maybe even add a depth player.

So why would the Rangers give up on a promising defenseman who's only 25, especially when they don't have a lot of depth on the left side? Apart from the monetary relief trading him gave them, the fact is that there are currently two players in the system who are projected to be better than Skjei and could compete for roster spots next year: the first is Libor Hajek, the throw in from the Tampa Bay  Lightning in the Ryan McDonagh and J.T. Miller trade two seasons ago, who is having an outstanding year with the Hartford Wolfpack; the second is 2018 first-round pick K'Andre Miller, who is currently playing for the University of Wisconsin, but could be playing for the Blueshirts next year. And let's not forget that Marc Staal and Brendon Smith are still under contract for 2020-21 and are hardly chopped liver.

To sum up, yesterday was a pretty good day for the Rangers. They kept an important cog in an engine that is a couple of years away from possibly contending for the Stanley Cup, and they did it while clearing the cap room necessary to keep their core together for the foreseeable future. To the fans who have been patient throughout this whole process, they can now take comfort in the knowledge that this organization, while not completely done retooling, has nonetheless committed to putting a winning product on the ice.

Rangers Finally Call It A Night

Give Jeff Gorton this much: when the Rangers' GM made the announcement on February 8 that the team was going to be sellers at the trade deadline, he wasn't joking. Sellers? The last time we saw a selloff like this, Charlie Finley was the owner of the Oakland A's.

Consider the moves Gorton made over the last week: Defenseman Nick Holden to the Bruins for defenseman Rob O'Gara and a 2018 third-round pick; forward Michael Grabner to the Devils for a 2018 second-round pick and defensive prospect Yegor Rykov; forward Rick Nash to the Bruins for a 2018 first-round pick, forwards Ryan Spooner and Matt Beleskey, defenseman Ryan Lindgren and a 2019 seventh-round pick; and last but not least, defenseman Ryan McDonagh and forward J.T. Miller to the Lightning for a 2018 first-round pick, forward Vladislav Namestnikov, prospects Brett Howden and Libor Hajek, as well as a conditional 2019 pick that could be a number one if Tampa wins the Stanley Cup this year.

Throw in the waiving of defenseman Brendan Smith the day after Gorton's decree and the buyout of defenseman Dan Girardi and the trading of center Derek Stepan and goalie Anti Raanta over the summer for defenseman Anthony DeAngelo and a 2017 first-round pick and you have an almost one-third turnover in personnel in less than a year. If you happen to own a 2016-17 yearbook, put it someplace special. It'll be worth something one day.

Let's get a couple of things straight here. First, Gorton didn't dismantle the '79 Canadiens. This core, while talented, never delivered on its promise. Two trips to the conference finals and one cup final appearance in six years is nice, but it's hardly what I would call a run. Compare what the Blackhawks did during a similar stretch: three Stanley Cups and a conference final loss to the Kings. Now that's a run.

Secondly, while this "fire sale" might seem extreme, quite frankly it's two years overdue. Since their unceremonious exit in the conference finals in 2015 against the Lightning, the Rangers have endured two consecutive seasons in which they underachieved: a first-round humiliation at the hands of the Penguins in 2016 and a second-round upset to the Senators last year. Any reasonably objective observer of this team would've concluded that its window had closed. To allow the decline to go any further would've been gross negligence.

Given that the Rangers telegraphed their intentions - never a good idea - I'm surprised at the haul Gorton got back for his players. Holden, Grabner and Nash were due to be unrestricted free agents over the summer. Rentals rarely fetch such high returns. As for McDonagh and Miller, well let's just say that the former hasn't come close to his near Norris trophy play since 2015, and was, even at the age of 28, showing signs of wear and tear. And so far as Miller is concerned, he was a bit of an enigma: there were games where he played like the best forward on the team, and others where he wound up in what John Davidson used to refer to as Chateau Bow Wow (the dog house).

Now comes the hard part. Tearing down a team is easy; all you need is a phone. Putting one together is where it gets interesting. Gorton has a shitload of draft picks at his disposal this Spring: three number ones, two number twos and two number threes. What he does with them will determine whether this rebuild is successful or ends up being his Waterloo. He also has at least two NHL caliber forwards in Spooner and Namestnikov, as well as some interesting, if untested, prospects. Spooner contributed two assists in a loss to the Red Wings in his first game as a Ranger and Namestnikov was having a career year playing alongside Stephen Stamkos.

The first objective for Gorton will be to draft a number one center to replace the departed Stepan. It's clear that Mika Zibanejad, though competent, was never going to fill that void. And while Kevin Hayes has talent, that talent is better suited on the wing. Gorton doesn't need to get a Mark Messier or Sidney Crosby, but he'd better not wind up with another Pavel Brendl. At the rate the blue shirts are plummeting in the standings, their own number one pick could well turn out to be THE number one. So the pressure will be on him not to screw up.

Next up for Gorton will be to add some size to this team. It was no secret that the Rangers lacked the physical presence to go toe to toe with the bigger teams in the league. All throughout the 2015 playoffs their opponents – first the Caps, then the Lightning – bottled up the middle on them, forcing them to the perimeter. That, more than anything else, was the reason they didn’t make it back to the finals. Apart from Chris Kreider, there isn’t a single forward on this team that can drive to the net with authority. Gorton must address this weakness.

Last but not least comes the coach. The brain trust will have to decide over the summer whether Alain Vigneault should be retained behind the bench. If he stays, he will have to agree to some changes. There’s little argument that the key to winning in the NHL is a strong transition game. Getting the puck up ice as quickly as possible has now become standard operating procedure. But speed is but one component of a successful team. Dumping the puck into the corner and grinding it out is another. And while Vigneault can’t be faulted for his team’s lack of size, he can be faulted for not adjusting his philosophy of coaching, especially during the playoffs where the Rangers’ transition game was often stymied by bigger and brawnier opponents. Also, Vigneault’s style of coaching tends to favor older, more established teams that have a veteran presence. Apart from Henrik Lundqvist, Mats Zuccarello and Marc Staal, there isn’t a single player on this team who comes close to 30 and who has more than six years in the league.

If Gorton and Glen Sather feel Vigneault is not the right man for this rebuild, they have a suitable replacement already behind the bench. Lindy Ruff has done a good job with the young crop of defensemen he has inherited and with a couple of exceptions – the blowout to the Bruins that precipitated the selloff being one of them – the overall play in their end has been credible. Plus, he’s a former blue shirt and the franchise has a history of staying in the family whenever possible. He’s been to the finals twice; once as an assistant coach with Florida in 1996, the other as head coach of Buffalo in ’99. If he has one flaw, it’s that he tends to be a little too outspoken with respect to the media, a trait John Tortorella exhibited on numerous occasions. The league has fined him twice for remarks he made towards officials.

I'm actually encouraged by what's happened here. This is a franchise that historically has had a hard time letting go. It takes a lot of courage to admit defeat, but it's an important step in any recovery process.

A Stay of Execution?

I'll admit it. I thought it was over. Admit it. You thought it was over too.

After Curtis Glencross converted his own rebound past Henrik Lundqvist with 9:06 remaining to give the Caps a 1 nothing lead, the Blueshirts were looking like toast.

The Presidents Trophy winners were less than ten minutes away from bowing out in the second round of the playoffs with their skates between their legs.

And then...

With less than two minutes remaining in their season, Derek Stepan, who had his best game of the playoffs - perhaps the whole damn season - gained the Caps zone, pulled up and fed a perfect pass to Chris Kreider who one-timed a shot passed Braden Holtby, who is having the series of his life.

And just like that, tie game. The Garden erupted with joy as the Rangers forced overtime. And in the extra session, it was Stepan to the rescue again, setting up the winning goal by Ryan McDonagh off a feed from Jesper Fast.

Game over. Rangers win. They live to fight another day.

In a game which saw the Blueshirts dictate the pace early and pepper Holtby with 11 of the game's first 13 shots, it was poetic justice that the two goals they managed to score were the result of deflections. Pretty? No. Effective? Yes.

Now the scene shifts back to Washington where the Caps will be under pressure to close out the series or face a game seven at the Garden, where the Rangers are now a perfect 9 and 0 in elimination games. In their history the Capitals have blown 3-1 series leads four times. That burden will be weighing heavily on them Sunday. Talk about a turn of events. The Caps were this close to moving on. Now they've given their opponents something they haven't had since game two of this series: momentum. 

The odds are still against the Rangers prevailing. Despite the emotional win, they are hardly out of the woods. Let's not forget they were 1:41 away from being shutout for the second time in three games. For all their resilience, they're still way too cute with the puck. Several times last night, they found themselves in ideal scoring situations and elected to pass rather than shoot. Kreider, who scored the tying goal, looked like Mother Teresa with the puck. I got it, no you take it. They won game five, but if they plan on winning games six and seven, they're going to have to bury the few opportunities they are afforded.

For now, though, they're alive. There WILL be a game six Sunday night. The season continues. Maybe the hockey gods will smile on them and they will go on to win the Cup, or maybe last night was just a temporary stay of execution. 

We'll know soon enough.

Giving Credit Where Credit Is Due

A year ago, I took Rangers' G.M. Glen Sather to task. The Rangers had just been been rudely bounced by the Boston Bruins in the second round of the playoffs and Sather "relieved" John Tortorella of his coaching duties. While no one was shedding any tears over Torts' exit, Sather, I felt, had to share in the blame for the team's dismal performance.

Since being hired by the Rangers, Sather has had a rather strange and often bewildering tenure. He hired former Islander center Brian Trottier as coach, then fired him 54 games into the season. Sather hired Tom Renney, who led the team to four consecutive playoff appearances. But when Renney couldn't get passed the second round of the playoffs, he was replaced by Tortorella. In 2012, Tortorella coached the Blueshirts to the conference finals, only to lose to the New Jersey Devils. It was generally acknowledged by many that it was Tortorella's style of coaching, combined with his shortening of the bench, that contributed to the team's failure to advance to the finals. They simply ran out of gas.

While Sather was responsible for drafting players like Henrik Lundqvist, Ryan Callahan and Marc Staal, he's also been responsible for some of the worst free-agent signings in the club's history, like Eric Lindros, Chris Drury and Scott Gomez. Yes, he signed Marion Gaborik, but when the winger wound up in Tortorella's doghouse, Sather traded him away. And while he did get Derick Brassard in return, Gaborik leads all players in goals in this year's playoffs with 11. The nightmare that was the 2012-13 season was as much Sather's fault as it was Tortorella's.

But if it was fair to hold Sather accountable for the wheels falling off last season, it is now equally fair to give him credit for the team's resurgence this season.

Of all the moves Sather has made, perhaps none were more critical then the signing of Alain Vigneault as head coach. It goes without saying that Vigneault was the polar opposite of Tortorella. While Tortorella ran his players ragged, played favorites and often chewed them out in public, Vigneault has treated them like adults, gotten valuable contributions from his role players and has earned the respect of the entire team. His calm and collected persona was the perfect tonic for a team that, for over four years, lived under a reign of terror.

By rotating four lines throughout the playoffs, Vigneault has managed to keep his team fresh. Thursday night's conference-final finale was a text-book case of how to coach a team. The Rangers speed and relentless forechecking pinned a Canadiens team that looked exhausted in their zone most of the night. The only goal of the game was fittingly scored by the fourth line. Under Tortorella, they would never have seen the ice so late in the game.

But Sather didn't stop with just hiring the perfect head coach. His controversial decision not to buy out Brad Richards' contract could have blown up in his face. Had Richards not rebounded this season and decided to retire afterwards, the Rangers would've been stuck with almost $6 million of the remaining $17 million Richards is owed against their cap. That would've been a huge pill to swallow. But Sather rolled the dice and, so far, has been rewarded. Richards has been one of the team's strongest leaders and steadiest players.

The story gets better. Sather's most difficult decision was to trade his captain, Ryan Callahan, who was demanding more money than the team was willing to pay him, to Tampa for winger Marty St. Louis. Throughout the balance of the regular season, the trade looked very much like a bust for the Rangers. But in the playoffs, St. Louis has been a valuable cog in this improbable run. The tragic passing of his mother acted as a springboard for a team that was trailing three games to one against the Penguins and looked dead in the water. Since then, the team has won seven of nine games and is now four wins away from its first Stanley Cup in twenty years.

But perhaps Sather's most clever move as G.M. occurred five years ago when he stole defenseman Ryan McDonagh from the Montreal Canadiens for Scott Gomez. McDonagh has not only been the Rangers' best blue liner this season, he's tied with Derek Stepan and St. Louis for the team lead in points this postseason with 13. Talk about redemption.

If the Rangers go on to win the Stanley Cup this year, Sather will have had a lot to do with it. He made all the correct moves when it counted. It will also mark the sixth time he has been the architect of a championship team; the other five coming with the Edmonton Oilers. He deserves much of the credit for climbing out of the hole he was partly to blame for digging.

He will also have the last laugh.