Don't understand why team didn't wait till end of season to make this decision. Since they fired torts right after he signed multi year deal I guess they can fire Mr. bubblegum also if the team goes down the chutes this season.
At the end of the day coaching extensions rarely mean much, as he can still be fired at any time (and the dead money is no sweat to the Rangers). I was very down on him after the playoff debacle last year, but the guy is still one of the better coaches in the league and deserves the raise. People scapegoat him a ton but I'd still take him 100x out of 100 over Torts and Renney. He is far from perfect, especially with his favoritism, but no coach is perfect. Congrats AV, now get us the cup.
The way they are looking tonight, they should've extended him for five more years. This stupid organization will always be stupid.
Need to make a trade especially if there's interest in Nash, he's been playing decent hockey and his contract ends next season. The following are RFA's at the end of the year - Zibanejad, Pirri, Fast, Puempel, Lindberg, and Clendening. The Rangers are currently $2.379 under the Cap, need to free up some money.
Im starting to sound like a broken record but they cannot do this because they will not meet the expansion draft exposure requirements.
Oh yeah you're right, i totally forgot Klein was the dman to be exposed. Ha, 'exposed', that should be his middle name. Clendening added would free up another 1m which would give them enough to add someone decent.
My view is quite simple. Trade only if you can get younger and NHL ready talent. We are not just one guy away from being a legit Cup contender. If so, I'd say go get that guy. We need to balance building for next year with building for a few years from now. And before people are saying I'm packing it in for the year, I'm definitely not as I will root for this team and hope and pray we win it all, but I'm also a realist and this team has more than a one player fix. We need a big defenseman (who we can get for $$$ and not assets in the offseason with Shattenkirk, we just need to move money in trades right now) and we need a 1-2 more gritty goal scorers who aren't afraid to go into the middle of the ice and grind out a dirty goal, like Kreider does when he's on. Get that, we are a legit contender. I'd like us to be sellers for once at the deadline and get better for next season instead of being a buyer and trading away picks/youth for this team and mortgaging the future again. Regardless, it's gonna be a fun/interesting last few months of the season.
