Last winter when the Rangers were in a tailspin, I wrote about the core issues of the team and three keys to a reset. At the time, I didn’t believe that the Rangers were a playoff bound team and my hope was that Drury would build for the future, shake up the core, and not try to fix an ACL tear (the core) with cortisone (trading the future for veterans). Half a year later, the Rangers are headed in the right direction as Drury has delivered exactly what I thought was needed.
The Rangers are headed in the right direction because of what amounts to the three most important moves made by Drury thus far this summer. The Blueshirts found their guy behind the bench and addressed the two most glaring roster needs. Though there’s still work to do, the Rangers are headed in the right direction.
1) Hiring Mike Sullivan
Sully has been my coaching target since David Quinn got fired. My guess is that he’s also been Drury’s #1 since that time and had to hire placeholders until Mike became available. Sully checks every box for me systems-wise and I think his hiring will help clean up the mess that has been our team’s defense the past several years.
Coaching is tough to quantify using stats, and even the most advanced models fall short of finding the true impact. Make no mistake, Sully will be the guy that gets the Rangers to settle down defensively and play a full 200 foot game.
2) Rebuilding the top 6
Bread – Trocheck – Lafrenière & Kreider – Mika – (endless list of temporary RWs) were a solid top 6 for many years and they took the Rangers as far as they could go. I will always be grateful for all of them, but the sands of time ran out as it always does. Rebuilding the top 6 this summer was mission critical.
The JT Miller trade was an obvious A+. I loved Filip Chytil, but his health was too big of a question mark. We won’t be able to really grade the Chris Kreider trade until we see what becomes of Carey Terrance or Artyom Gonchar (the pick the Rangers made with the 3rd round pick from Anaheim). However, getting rid of Kreider’s cap hit provided immediate and necessary relief.
The Kaapo Kakko trade looks like a loss right now, but I think Will Borgen is going to become a key defensive cog under Sully. He will likely draw the toughest matchups, have mildly ugly underlying stats, and will generally be under-appreciated by a certain segment of this fan base, but not by me.
Kakko will likely be a solid top 6 player for Seattle, but I think he just ran out of rope here with multiple coaches, systems, linemates, and just never seemed to take that next step. Not playing in the AHL early in his career probably didn’t do him any good either. Hopefully he fulfills his potential out west. However, not making that trade would’ve weakened the defense and perhaps blocked the surplus of young and upcoming wingers (Will Cuylle, Gabe Perreault, Brennan Othmann, Brett Berard, etc.).
3) Finding a 1LD for Fox
Acquiring an true top pair LD partner for Adam Fox was crucial to the reset. Much internet ink has been spilt on that need. From the private models I’ve seen, Vlad Gavrikov was one of the best defensive defensemen in the Western Conference. Getting him locked up at a $7M AAV and a max 7.3% of the salary cap is a huge win.
As for K’Andre Miller, I was a big fan of his. His potential is still somewhat untapped and can no doubt be a 1LD for the Canes. With that said, he still makes way too many mistakes in the offensive zone (errant passes, mistimed pinches, routes, etc.) to be trusted for a team chasing the Cup.
I also don’t think he would have reached his potential playing in the pressure cooker that is NYC. Some players just aren’t meant to reach their heights in this market and that’s ok. With all that said, 8 years and $60 million is a very risky contract to give someone who hasn’t figured it all out yet. Again, this is a trade we won’t be able to really evaluate until we see what becomes of the picks (1st & 2nd rounders next year) or if Scott Morrow (RD) is as good as his scouting reports.
All said, I like the direction Drury is taking this hockey club. I don’t love every move he makes, but on the whole I think he is getting the right players in, the right players out, and obviously got one of the best coaches in the league.
There is still work to be done however. I don’t think we can really compete with Florida with Mika Zibanejad in our top 6. I still hope he will waive his NMC and get moved at some point in the next year. That cap hit is just way too high for a 3rd liner, & moving him to RW maybe buys us a year at most. I’m also not sold on Juuso Parssinen as a 3C at this point, but hopefully he proves me wrong or another move can be made this summer or at the deadline.
