Jeff Gorton is not seeking a rebuild for the Rangers, but rather what multiple individuals within the industry have categorized as a “reset” following the 2015-16 Last Ride that ended bloodily with that five-game, first-round face wash by Pittsburgh.
But the counterintuitive reality confronting Gorton is that in order to give the Rangers a face lift on the fly that will afford the team a chance to contend for a Stanley Cup in Henrik Lundqvist’s age 34/35 season, the general manager is going to have to be willing to trade two or three of his best players — we’re talking Rick Nash, Derek Stepan, Chris Kreider and Kevin Klein — in order to get it done.
The Rangers are not waving the white flag. They are not engaged in a traditional rebuild, which would be a relatively easy process to kick-start by dumping everyone onto the market in order to restock the organizational cupboard that was raided throughout a four-year, all-in philosophy during which Brandon Dubinsky, Artem Anisimov, a couple of months of Ryan Callahan, Anthony Duclair, Aleksi Saarela, four first-round draft picks and two seconds were traded for Rick Nash, 15 months of Marty St. Louis, 15 months of Keith Yandle, a couple of months of Eric Staal and a third-rounder used to select Pavel Buchnevich.
Relatively easy and extremely painful with no guarantee of success in even the intermediate future. There are organizations out there, some now lauded for “proper management of assets,” that have been rebuilding forever.
This is not going to be easy for the Rangers. One source reports that Gorton “is juggling about a half-dozen balls in the air” as the NHL prepares for Entry Draft Weekend in Buffalo that will follow Wednesday’s official expansion announcement and awards show in Las Vegas. Another source refers to the GM as “playing dominoes … when one piece falls, they’ll all fall in line.”
It wasn’t that the Blueshirts were too old through last year’s 101-point season that was largely a mirage created by Lundqvist’s and Antti Raanta’s overriding brilliance; it is that the mix on the ice and in the room grew old and stale. In order to push the reset button and re-energize a team that lurched through the year, Gorton is going to have to move marquee players. Shuffling the bottom six up front or the third pair on defense isn’t going to get the job done.
And neither is selling off assets at 60 cents on the dollar, even if a looming cap squeeze must inform Gorton’s program. That wouldn’t only be counterintuitive to a reset, it would be counterproductive.
If the Rangers are obligated to A) take on an onerous contract, B) retain a significant portion of his salary, or C) both of the above in order to deal Rick Nash and his $7.8 million cap hit that extends through 2017-18, then there is no reason to deal the 32-year-old winger, who has been the Rangers’ best forward through his four seasons in New York, even if 2015-16 was the worst of his career.
The idea of dumping Nash or Stepan ($6.5 million through 2020-21) to clear space in order to get into position to be able to bid on impending free agent Steven Stamkos is nonsensical. Unless Tampa Bay’s No. 91 is willing to take an extreme discount to play in New York, the Blueshirts would have to move approximately $10 million in total cap space to accommodate Stamkos. But why would he want to join a stripped-down team? The scenario is far-fetched.
If the Rangers reset by moving money out, they don’t seem committed to bringing money back in. Unless there has been a recent dramatic shift in thinking, New York management is not interested in dealing for St. Louis’ right defenseman Kevin Shattenkirk and then giving him the six-year, $42 million extension it would probably take to keep him off the free-agent market next summer when his current deal expires. So while Nash (or perhaps Kreider or Stepan) going to the Blues in exchange for Shattenkirk makes intellectual sense, it does not appear a deal the Rangers are pursuing.
If the Blueshirts deal Stepan, then it would have to be in a trade that brings back another top-line center; perhaps to Edmonton for Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, who is carrying a $6 million cap hit through 2020-21. It is a swap that would increase the Rangers’ talent level (while providing Edmonton with veteran leadership), but it would also leave a void in the team’s two-way game down the middle, with Stepan having been coach Alain Vigneault’s default matchup center the last three years.
Would Colorado, a club in need of experience and defensive consciousness, get in on a deal for Stepan with the offensively explosive Matt Duchene coming the other way?
Again, though: Ranger forwards were deficient on the defensive side of the puck last year. So they’re going to deal their most defense-minded forwards in an attempt to improve? Interesting approach.
The necessary remake of the blue line that was dreadful in its own end a year ago and will feature incumbents Ryan McDonagh, Marc Staal and Dan Girardi (if not Klein) might cost Kreider, who is a restricted free agent with salary-arbitration rights two years away from being able to flee.
Would Carolina move top-pair righty and power-play point man Justin Faulk in a deal for Kreider?
Would Minnesota, in as much need of a makeover as the Rangers, deal emerging first-pair, 21-year-old righty Matt Dumba in a deal featuring Kreider and Klein or Dylan McIlrath? Or would the Wild or Gorton be more interested in a deal in which, say, Stepan and Klein are exchanged for Mikael Granlund or Charlie Coyle in the middle and either Dumba or Jonas Brodin on defense?
A rebuild is matter-of-fact. A reset is not. In order to improve, the Rangers are going to have to trade a couple of their best players.
I’m not exactly sure how that is going to work.