Don't Mess With The Metro

We’ve seen the interviews, we’ve read the articles, we are watching it unfold. The New York Rangers are “Rebuilding on the Fly”. In the past 10 days the Rangers have bought out Dan Girardi, Traded Derek Stepan and Antti Raanta for Anthony Deangelo-a 21 year old RHD with Offensive upside- and the 7th Pick-Which the Rangers drafted center Lias Andersson-, Re-signed Defenseman Brendan Smith and Signed Defenseman Kevin Shattenkirk. Weakening their center core while revitalizing their defense.

GM Jeff Gorton is attempting to rebuild with the remains of a team that was 3 wins away from a Stanley Cup 3 years ago while not sacrificing the remaining years of 35 year old Superstar Goalie Henrik Lundqvist and still pleasing the pressures of being a New York team. After 3 conference final appearances in 4 years the Rangers were knocked out of the 2016 Playoffs by the Penguins in 5 games, reporters and bloggers were claiming the window was closed.

There are 3 ways to rebuild an NHL team.

1) Open up Cap Space by trading Veterans for Prospects

2) Sell Veterans for Draft picks

3) Combine the previous 2 options

On July 18th 2016 GM Jeff Gorton Started that process: “The New York Rangers traded forward Derick Brassard (28/ 5m cap hit) and a seventh-round pick in the 2018 NHL Draft to the Ottawa Senators for forward Mika Zibanejad (23/ 900k cap hit) and a second-round pick in the 2018 draft.” The Rangers had gotten younger, cheaper and added a draft pick. But this was only the beginning.

10 months later Derick Brassard and those same Senators eliminated Mika Zibanejad and New York from the Playoffs in the 2nd Round. Changes were still needed the process still had 3 needs: To get Younger, gain cap room, and add Draft Picks.

After acquiring Deangelo, Resigning Brendan Smith (a 28 year old defenseman they had acquired from Detroit at the deadline) and Buying out Girardi the Rangers had one step left to revive their defense. Find Ryan McDonagh a top pair d-Partner, the Target, Kevin Shattenkirk-a 28 year old offensive defenseman. Saturday July 1st, GM Jeff Gorton had done just that. Shattenkirk was a Ranger signing a 4 year 6.65 AAV contract with New York.

In 10 months the Rangers have gotten Younger (Average Age from 27.7 to 26.65*) Cheaper (having around 11 Million* in cap ^via cap friendly^) and most notably revamped their defense and farm system. Players like Lias Andersson, Filip Chytil, Ryan Gropp, Neal Pionk, Sean Day and Igor Shestyorkin are currently being groomed ready to fill in whenever they get their chance.

Only time will tell how successful “rebuilding on the fly” will be for the Rangers and if it can actually be successful for an NHL team, but Jeff Gorton and the Rangers are ready to find out.

Process: complete

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*Both average age and cap room were computed on the assumption Kevin Klein will retire (Widely reported by Larry Brooks/NYPS)