too much power? they have a fucking salary cap that went up for the first time in a couple of years...and that amount was 4 million....
Tarasenko isn't the same player, agreed, but he was solid here playing with Kreider and Zibanejad, and has a reasonable $4.75M cap hit for two years. Not going to make it sound as if Tarasenko is a stud still, or would elevate us many levels, and I won't flip out about it, but he would have made the team better. Look, we are now 3 days down in free agency and Drury has basically done nothing, all we have done is lose players since the end of the season. At what point are folks going to start calling like it is with Drury, he is a disaster in his role, and in over his head.
I will say this, I have got to believe there is some kind of trade coming. Drury has done so little, and talked about everything is on the table to improve, it doesn't add up. There has to be some big deal brewing behind the scenes, it is the only thing that makes sense.
There are way worse gms in hockey than Drury. In his first three years the team has made ECF twice. Not many gms in hockey can state that on their resume. He has done a decent enough job so far. Gotta give the guy at least another couple of years.
Stanley cup winning teams aren’t built through free agency. By signing players through free agency is a hit or miss in most cases. Panarin and Trochek signings are the only ones that have worked out that I can recall recently.
Terrific post If you don’t have 45 seconds to take this in don’t bother, scroll on by, and no need to bust my balls. With all the outrage and acrimony of the Rangers not making a big splash in free agent frenzy, the scuttle-butt Jacob Trouba situation and looking into the future…I offer the following analysis, facts, and plausible explanations. Not getting something you wanted isn’t the end of the world, don’t wish too hard you might get what you wished for, and getting what you wanted rarely results in winning a Cup. 1. On the Captain. One thing we know is Chris Drury is as tight-lipped as any GM in the history of the NHL. The only one who knows what he’s thinking is himself. He doesn’t negotiate through the media, and certainly wouldn’t tip his hand at a card game. Larry Brooks has been ragging on Trouba since the Florida series, then a set of articles about why Trouba should be moved, and then puts the Detroit thing out there…the other writers cited Brooks and fire set…and then he goes into a series of articles about who the Rangers should go after. We know full well this is clickbait season…writers bank on 4 weeks of articles to make their numbers. While we know Drury is very tight-lipped and never shares what he’s thinking, we all know full well that Brooks is a self-serving dick. Brooks has already walked his original claim back to the station. 2. Free Agency - looking at the last 10 years of the frenzy…a review of the big free agent signings…of the top 30 free agent signings in each of the last 10 years how many of them helped their new team lift the Cup may surprise you. 2013 none 2014 none 2015 none 2016 none 2017 none 2018 only Tyler Bozak changed teams won a Cup (St.Louis in 2019) 2019 only Sergei Bobrovsky changed teams won a Cup (Florida in 2024) 2020 only Alex Pietrangelo changes teams won a Cup (Vegas in 2023) 2022 none 2023 only Evan Rodrigues and Niko Mikkola won a Cup (Florida in 2024) 3. What’s ahead…Rangers didn’t have a lot of cap space going into the offseason…$12.8M after waiving Goodrow…(who happened to score twice as many goals in the playoffs as Zibanejad and 1 more than Panarin). With only 18 players signed…Jones replaces Gus, the 4th line has Rempe and Edstrom, it is going to cost $7M to keep Lindgren and Schneider per Evolving Hockey (BTW, a good source of insight). That leaves $5.8M and to get to 23 players under contract a couple of guys may make the team (Othmann and or Berard)…leaves $3.8M…they swung a deal for Reilly Smith and while it isn’t a big name he’s a plug and play injury free winger with a career 55% Corsi. The money and term handed out this week was blatantly absurd and with Lafreniere and Shesterkin extensions on the horizon, there wasn’t much Drury could do. We wil be fine…again the last 10 years of free agency tells us a lot…most big swings don’t pan out. The solution usually lays within…the best way to go is develop your own draft picks. My dark horse is Brett Berard…gritty high motor energy guy who is a pest with good hands…a poor man’s Marchand. I also wouldn’t be surprised if Goodrow slides back over at the deadline. Hang tight Rangers fans.
Interesting...my ip was banned right after I copied and pasted from Facebook...I guess the cruise ship wifi I was using is banned?
I think that article makes a lot of good points. Big picture though, the Rangers are worse now than after they lost to Florida, and the team isn't good enough to get anywhere near a Cup. But the points made are legit and have merit, won't argue with that. One thing I will add is, I think we all know you are not building a SC winner through free agency. You can/need to supplement your team with some good signings, but you are not winning a Cup based on solely signings. In the NHL you need to have good young players, and I would also say make some smart trades. I hold out hope we will see a trade (or trades) that will improve this team. Happy 4th everyone!!!
Some 'insider' on Twitter is saying they've offered Kakko, Trouba, Robertson and picks for Zegras. Vatrano is mentioned as a possibility too.
Roslovic signed with the Canes, one year $2.8M. Not moving the needle, but pretty low risk deal for the Canes. Who knows if that specific Ducks rumor is true, but in general I do think the Ducks could be a good trade partner for us given where they are at in their process (Verbeek being very difficult to deal with notwithstanding). I assume the Ducks are not on Trouba's list, but if he got traded there, he would flip out considering he didn't want to be in Detroit due to his family. Anaheim is a little further away than Detroit....
Zegras is a risk. He blows in the faceoff dot. His defensive game is non existent. He's also the third center there now. However, the Ducks are a losing organization and have been for a while.
