When is the last time you could say that? That being said they have failed miserably the last 2 times vs. Pitt and vs the Wild. Lost to Jackets in a close one as well. So, should be interesting to see what Gorton does down the line. I pray he doesn't piss away more picks like the organization has done for years now.
With the terrible performance of their AAA Hartford team, my guess is that Gorton will want to instill draft talent into their "top" farm team. Trading draft picks for "has beens" just does not work. All it does is give their fan base empty dreams.
I would guess he is looking for a top 4 R shot dman. That's the need. As for the prior trades, the only one I hated was the Yandle deal. First off Yandle himself was not nearly as good as I thought he would be. Second we gave up a 1st AND DuClair (who has struggled this year). The other deals we gave up picks in the 20's for a shot at that time. I have no issue with that. We also made up for dealing two of those 20's picks by signing Hayes and Vesey (good to be in NY). Plus we still have good youth upfront. If we say in hindsight they didn't work out because we didn't win the cup...okay that is fine can't argue that...but if that is the bar then 99% of trade DL deals don't work out I guess. Only one team can win the cup. All you can do is try your best to add the right guys to the mix, and then hope for some good breaks on the long grueling battle for the cup. Don't undersell the value of NY though. Being able to sign FA's like Hayes and Vesey is huge, and clearly eases some of the pick dealing we have done. And the picks are in the 20's...not top 10 even. Plus if you look at our forwards only Nash is even 30 (he is 32). Zucc and Grabner turn 30 at the start of next season, but even then just 30. So we are young there. And dealing Brass for Ziban was big in that regard as well...Z is only 23 going on 24 in April. Same age as Vesey and 1 year young than Hayes. So upfront we are good IMO. On D is where the focus needs to be. Klein and Girardi are each 32. G 33 in April, and Klein just turned 32. Staal will be 30 in 12 days. And Holden will be 30 in May. So outside of McDonagh, going to be 28 in June, and Skjei, 23 in March, we lack youth on D. Reading some of your posts recently I like seeing you write we have some good talent down below on D kreider. That is where we need the youth for sure. Upfront we are young and fast and to me have no concerns over the next 3 or 4 years. On D though we need to rebuild with youth or we could be in trouble. Getting Shattenkirk would be real big, and based on what you guys have been writing it seems possible (he will be 28 this month). As for this season, when healthy this team can compete with anyone...but we need a top 4 R shot D added...hopefully Gorton can get us one and we'll take our shot again. All you can ask for.
For starters. The Pack coach should be told to start Halverson almost every game or he's going to be fired. Playing Hellberg is completely useless for the organization. Forgarty as I feared sucks. Couldn't score much in college and is basically doing nothing in the AHL. 4 points in 23 game blows. Nieves is also starting to suck as well. 12 in 32 games. Neither Nieves or Fogarty are 20 year kids in the AHL. They are closing in on 24 fast. Tambellini is showing promise despite the assclowns on the team. Kovac's is just 19 so he's going to struggle. Graves is a stud. Stromwall got hurt but he sucked also in the 21 games he played. Have to question the coaching staff there. No offense on a nightly basis from the team. While the forwards are not big talent, offensive forwards. There should be better production from the offense.
Trading the picks away has killed the organization on defense and offense in their farm. Signing Hayes and Vesey doesn't fix that. If they held onto those picks, they could have built up the farm much more which would allow them to deal a player like Nash and eat some of his salary. Or move a Klein and get back some picks. You can't just discount all the picks given away because they signed 2, FA forwards in Hayes and Vesey. Getting a top 4 righty defenseman in a trade is going to cost a boatload. Every team out there is going to want a combination of some of the following. Shesterkin, Zborovskiy, Day, Buchnevich or Miller. Rangers can't afford to trade away any more picks or prospects. Their cap situation is going to be very tight. Especially when they sign Shattenkirk. I can't see anything the Rangers can do this year for a righty defenseman other than Stone on Arizona which might be a rental if they can't sign him which they won't if they sign Shattenkirk unless they find a way to dump Nash and Staal at some point.
It is not ideal or dismissed simply because they signed Hayes and Vesey. But we also need to keep it in perspective. The picks we dealt were in the 20's. We did sign Hayes and Vesey to ease some of the pick loss. And we took our shots. So there has to be some realization of that as well when judging things. Nash only has one year left after this season. So his huge 7.8 mill cap hit will be gone maybe this summer, or worst case next summer. That is huge. I also think after this season a Girardi buyout becomes much more possible/likely. And Klein only has one year left after this season as well. So I think we'll find room to get the deals done we need to get done. As for this season, I do think if a deep Rangers team is right there come trade DL time we will look to add a dman. Not saying we'll be in on the top of the pile rentals, but we'll add someone IMO. When you have the forward depth and talent we have you shouldn't waste that...and I don't think Gorton will if we are in it come trade DL time. I don't expect/want some big youth/pick trade to be done, but I do think we will do something 2nd level to add a dman if we are in it. And that makes sense to me because I do think we have the talent and depth upfront.
There are no d-men available that the Rangers can either afford with the cap or the price. As I said. Stone if the Yotes want to be reasonable which I'm sure they won't.
I think they can find a dman of use on an expiring deal in the 3-4m range and maybe the team will take Klein as part of it. It's too bad he's dropped off so much. If Ottawas out of it i bet Wideman gets moved.
I looked at all the teams struggling or border line playoff teams. I didn't see any guy that was on the last year of his contract that would make sense for them. So I don't expect them to do anything.
Well...that's that I guess. No need to even have a trade DL day for the Rangers. Cancel February 28th lol.
Do some research. There aren't defenseman on non playoff teams in the last year of their contract that make sense. Sorry, but the team won't be pissing away picks like you love them to do every f'n year. Not this year.
First, you have no clue what I love. Second, I said above I don't want some big youth/pick trade. So not sure where you come up with me wanting to deal picks every year. Did you come up with that based on my 11 posts? I actually thought you were kidding kreider. Who makes a declarative statement that you researched all the teams and the Rangers won't be doing anything at the DL 8 weeks from now. Now if you have connections in the league I stand corrected, but based on your posts I don't think you do. Anyway, I will stand by what I said. I expect we'll look to add a top 4 R shot dman, and we'd look at the 2nd level down not the top level guys. We'll see how it plays out. We have to play well for any of this to matter, so that's step one.
Rangers tried your way Chuck. It sucked and led to our farm being depleted in forward prospects. Now it's time to try something different.
Who is Chuck? Whomever you think I am I am not. Anyway, done with this one. We have each expressed our opinions, we'll see how the next 8 weeks go and then we can discuss more in late February if we are still right there. Only comment I will make is we are fine at forward as I have laid out with all the guys we have under 30, and many under 28. We have way more issues with an aging D than upfront.
Dude, we know it's you Chuck. No big deal. This isn't nearly as funny as Derrick from Texas......ack ack!
Chuck we're glad it's you and not 'DDD'. Remember his fake congrats on the Rangers when we lost but when Pitt lost he disappeared?
Rangers top farm team, Hartford, is the worst team in the American Hockey League. If there is any talent on this team, Schoenfeld, their GM and their head coach have no clue how to get the best out of their players. Just a horrible team to watch. I expect changes to be made.
That's what happens when you piss away draft picks going for it every year. Only Clark has saved us from complete disaster by find steals in goal and on defense. However, he needs high picks to re-stock the forwards.
