Oh wait. 4th because the Devils don't have a pick. Think about that. Might as well make this the official draft thread.
If the Blackhawks "from cellar to Stanley Cup" has any validity, let the Rangers fail with whatever they have this year, get extra picks, and build with high draft picks.
They would never come out and admit it but I think this was a throw away season right from the very start. This will be a very different roster next season with a lot of money coming off and some of these wastes going away.
In hindsight I agree Mess. We did NOTHING during the summer. We kept Richards. We didn't make any moves at all. I think that spoke volumes. Play the year out, I am sure they thought we would be good enough to get into the payoffs at least, then miny rebuild the summer of 2014, and really go for it next season with the waste of space players gone, the cap back up, and Richards' money used elsewhere. I think that was the plan all along. And if we did better than expected, great. If not we focus on being a big team next season anyway.
Haven't researched the draft. I do believe that if they acquired a couple of 1st and 2nd round picks, they should spread it out over 2014 and 2015. 2015 is supposed to be an amazing draft.
If not we focus on being a big team next season anyway. Haven't we heard this shit for the last 15 years? LOL
I agree Step. Tomorrow never comes for this organization. But that is the theory of what they were thinking I believe.
We have some good pieces to build around, with obvious flaws. Nash Stepan Kreider McD MDZ Moore McIlrath Hags Miller these are all still young who would the part of the future, but we still need to find a way to get that #1C and some depth scoring. We have solid prospects but right now you cannot say any of them will be top-6 forwards, but they should add nice, cheap depth in the bottom 2 lines.
The part that gets me most is this absolutely did not need to be a throw away season, even with keeping Richards. Why didn't Sather add anybody to the top 6 in the offseason? I'd say MDZ's value back then was higher than it is now, a package of him and Miller could have gotten something good. Plus another guy who could actually finish would mean more scoring, = less pressure on the guys here now = less pressure on the defense = less pressure on Hank = everybody happy. And you would still have all that money coming off the books next year. Cannot understand why we stood pat this offseason. Hope Sather got a nice tan though.
I believe they were looking towards the year they could shed a lot of money and were interested in doing that instead of adding anybody. They will lock up who they need to and have a lot of money still to spend. Especially with the cap expected to go up going into next year. They figured might as well squeeze another year out of Richards so that things aren't a complete disgrace. There's no way they went into this year thinking this kind of roster was going to get it done.
