off season
Quoted by David Quinn, former Rangers coach”So, it happened. Now the New York Rangers find themselves heading into a breakup day rather than Raleigh for the second round. The Rangers now face more questions than answers, as a group of superstars, and make no mistake that’s what they were, not a team, they were lifeless in Game 7 in Newark .
How did you come to this? How did the Rangers miss another stellar performance on the run by Igor Shesterkin? It’s very simple in fact, when no one shows up other than the goalkeeper, you are bound to feel embarrassed.
Enter the New York Rangers.
Make no mistake. I am in no way taking anything from the New Jersey Devils. They made amends, wanted it more, and got it. The Rangers also did nothing to respond once the adjustments were made. Big credit to Jack Hughes for being a superstar and showing how to play series and taking on Rangers stars (Artemi Panarin). Hughes was a difference-maker and Panarin was never more than a casual observer of his club heading off the cliff.
Here we are at the start of May and discussing a first-round exit for what seems like forever and Rangers facing more questions than answers. Are you trading Artemi Panarin? Is Alexis Lafrenière hanging out? Do you make K’Andre Miller available via trade? Limited resilience and a dreadful performance on national television lead a bitter rival into change.
Panarin transfer, while it may be ideal, is highly unlikely. Partly because of its NMC but no one is going to take $11.6 million off your hat in the flat cap era. Even if he’s a productive 90-point regular-season man, the Panarine’s recent failures will also hurt Drury’s bargaining power in any potential Panarine trade.
Lafreniere is the interesting name to be circulating around this summer. He’s heading toward restricted free agency and hasn’t done much to help his case for the playoffs with no points in the series. The first overall pick was expected to be a franchise-changing player (see Jack Hughes), but Lafreniere is not. Dangling Lafreniere can now address list-building concerns while selling early enough to get a decent enough return.
The only thing we “know for sure” is that Gerard Gallant will take a taxi in front of MSG to get out of town. Gallant warts are well known and revealed by Lindy Roof. Gallant’s stars let him down, but he still seemed like the sacrifice. Short of sacking Gallant, Chris Drury will have a lot of work ahead of him to overhaul this squad into a real cup contender. Because they aren’t now and that’s a huge disappointment.
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Rated: Offseason