Rangers get an additional 2017 4th round pick Atleast Gorton got something. As good as Yandle's numbers were I don't remember a game last year where I thought he was dominant. Honestly, the team won miss him
That's a terrible contract. He's got a lot of flaws in his game. Florida is playing with fire. Ekblad is a RFA next season. I see him asking for 8+ million and if they don't give it to him I see a team coming in like Weber with a 10 million a year deal for 8 years and giving up 4 first rounders. He's worth it. They also have Trocheck who is a RFA and probably will ask for 5 plus million. Then Huberdeau next year who might ask for a Stepan contract at 6 + million. It just to show you the total lack of knowledge and unbelievable amount of morons who know nothing about hockey on HockeysFuture. They think it's a good contract. You honestly can't make up how stupid those posters are. No vision. No idea of how a teams cap will play out in two years because they do no research.
Not saying I love the contract but you guys are nuts if you think the team won't miss him. Unless we go find someone like him, like a Shattenkirk, we right now have one of the worst blue lines in the league in terms of offensive capabilities and puck moving skills. Other than McDonagh and to an extent Skjei, every other guy back ther handles the puck like a live grenade. Yandle was 8th overall in assists by a defenseman while getting screwed by AV in ice time and PP time, and I believe first in power play points per 60 minutes, and we won't miss him? His play with the puck on Stepans game 7 winner two years ago couldn't be made by a single other defenseman on this roster right now. Leonard wrote yesterday we're in on Shattenkirk. Let's hope that's true because right now a puck moving defenseman who is a threat offensively is now the biggest hole on this roster. We have no Doughty, no Keith, no Letang, and each of the last 6 cup winners has had one of those guys, guys who are threats with the puck on their stick. I cannot for the life of me understand why you keep going to that site if you think everyone there is so dumb. You post about them every time a move is made. I think Rachel Maddow is unbelievably dumb, so instead of watching every night and complaining about her I just don't watch.
Because this board is dead 90% of the year as are most other boards. It's the only board with any activity. It's not hard to figure out. You overrate Yandle so badly it's mind boggling. Who cares about the Stepan play. He sucks in his own zone. He never clears the crease. His turnovers are horrendous when they happen usually resulting in goals. He has no shot whatsoever from the point. This team will not miss him if they make the right deals. I'd much rather have Dumba than Yandle. Dumba is fast, young, right handed, has a huge shot, lays huge hits and is a max effort player. If the rumors are true that the Rangers can get him in a Stepan deal than our imbecile GM has to do it. Struds hit it on the head. The guy never played a game I saw where he was dominant. The fact is that the first priority of a defenseman is to play defense. The fact is that Yandle sucks defensively and pretty much always has.
I said we need someone like him in terms of offensive capability, not necessarily him, so since you're bringing up Dumba I assume you're agreeing with me. Disagree with pretty much every other word of your post. As for the Stepan play, well I care because I like seeing the rangers win and move on in the playoffs but that's just me.
It's amazing how fans in this fan base ignore the countless amounts of fuckups by players like Hayes, Yandle and Kreider yet find whipping boys like Staal, McIlrath and Fast and bitch about every little thing they do wrong. Yandle simply doesn't have near the defensive game to match up against Pitt, Washington, Tampa, Florida and others in this conference the next 4-5 years. The Rangers need more guys capable of shutting down those forwards like Skjei and worry less about defenseman who can pass but can't stop jack shit on defense.
This team didn't lose because of passing from its defenseman. It lost because guys were left standing wide open by our defenseman all season. Nobody on our defense hit anybody other than McIlrath. Nobody cleared the crease other than McIlrath. I saw more assclowns standing wide open in front of Hank this season than I had in the previous 5 combined. Personally, I think a lot of it was due to the fat, lazy bastards like Staal, Girardi, Yandle and Boyle getting paid a lot of money and no longer having that fire to win the cup. Staal of that group was the best defensively yet people made him out to be terrible. Yandle and Boyle suck ass defensively. No loss IMO.
I agree with you on Staal, I think he was crushed unfairly last year. I'd rather have Yandle because I think Skjei is ready to replace Staal (although not anymore with Yandles contract), but Staal can still be a good player for us. He barely skated last year before the training camp because of major surgery, and people underestimate how much that can affect an athlete. One way or another, we need another defenseman here who has a good balance of offensive, defensive and skating abilities. If Shattenkirk is available we should make a run at him.
One thing I haven't heard discussed..what do we do down the middle defensively if Stepan is traded? He plays a lot of important situational and end of game minutes for us. Brassard is below average defensively and gets sheltered by AV quite a bit matchup wise and zone start wise. Hayes is Hayes. Lindberg is out for months. Who takes those minutes? I hope to god we don't sign Backes to a bad deal, that would be a typical Ranger move. Is it conceivable that Eric Staal resigns on the cheap here to play a top 6 C spot? I know he sucked for us but the role was not there for him last year. 2 years, 3 million? We could do a lot worse than that. Brassard-Staal-Hayes down the middle maybe? I've seen worse.
Yes, Stepan is very good defensively. However, he sucks on draws and it hurts the team a lot. He's also making a ton of money and will have another NTC. You can always find defensive forwards to improve the forward unit defensively. It's not that difficult. It's a lot harder in the game to find big, fast defenseman with big shots from the point. Especially right handed which is why if the Wild are dumb enough to trade us Dumba, imbecile should jump on it.
You're right, we can find other defensive forwards, but it's somewhat harder to find good defensive forwards who can also play in the top 6 at a 60 point pace. I'm not opposed to trading Stepan, but that's going to open up a big hole that i don't see easily filled. A lot of moving parts here.
Yeah, but it's going to be the price you pay at this point to improve now and in the future. You end up moving a player you don't necessarily want to but you have to.
Yes, I get that, but unless there is a viable replacement for Stepan I dont see how trading him improves the team. He's a very important player, is young, and does a lot of things for us. That's why I suggested maybe bringing Eric Staal back. Obviously he isnt nearly as effective as Stepan but he could be that two-way top 6 center if he comes cheaply enough. I havent heard of any other rumblings on potential C's if Stepan were to leave and I havent seen anybody on here suggest anything either.
When the team went to the Cup, McD was the #1 offensive guy, so I think they could survive without Yandle .. I think Skjei might surprise people with his offensive talent. Maybe not on the level on Yandle but he'll be a good 2way guy This team has got to go back playing defense this year. Like dump said, this season guys were left wide open at the top of the crease every night. I've never seen Hank left out to dry so much in his 10 years here
This team also needs their coach to actually get his head out of his ass and give ice time to players who earn it and not give it to veteran players with past reps that play like absolute horseshit out there last year like girardi and boyle. Dylan should have been playing all season and as soon as they saw skjei he should have been worked in also. Someone like glass goes without saying and there were others that should have been benched if the coach rewarded performance and not blind loyalty. Yandle was supposedly AV's type of player yet mind numbingly he played 3rd line minutes and didn't see the power play until the 2nd half and that only because McD got hurt again. This coach as he did in vancouver has steadily gone downhill each season and should have been replaced. He is too set in his ways to make the necessary changes for this team to be successful and I think he'll be shown the door in december.
