1. Busy times both positively and unfortunately negatively for the Rangers as they continue to find their footing in this uneven regular season. As consistent as when the sun rises and sets, the rumors around Sabres forward Jack Eichel and connections to his old BU coach and current NYR bench boss David Quinn have not gone away. Initial rumors go back to last September with an unprompted Bob McKenzie twitter thread that Eichel may have requested out of Buffalo and NYR were rumored to have been the first call. It obviously didn’t go anywhere with the Rangers or other teams and Eichel re-affirmed his commitment to Buffalo with the Sabres making a big splash in UFA by signing Taylor Hall to a contract and acquiring Eric Staal in a trade. However the Sabres have stumbled out of the gate, were shut down by covid and the rumor mill churned again with Elliotte Friedman telling a Buffalo radio station that he could see the Sabres taking calls on Eichel’s availability again. 

2. Eichel signed an 8 year, 80 million dollar contract back in 2017 and that contract bought 4 years of his UFA eligibility. Now the biggest clue into these trades is when the NMC kicks in as it does on Eichel’s deal in September 2022. It is believed Eichel is due a $7.5 million signing bonus on 9/15/22 which is the start of the league year. Whatever team paying this is important when it comes to compensation back to the Sabres in any deal, especially at a time with teams recording nothing in ticket sales and soon to be ~15% in arena capacity.

3. Hypothetically speaking, compensation back to Buffalo is obviously the biggest sticking point but there are several factors. Lafreniere is completely untouchable in my eyes so that’s out. The Rangers have two big gluts in their lineup, left handed wingers and RHD. Given the cap isn’t going to go up much, if at all in the next two seasons, you would have to figure one of Strome, Chytil or Zibanejad would be in this trade. Strome doesn’t figure to have much of a future with NYR past expiration of his contract at the end of summer ‘22 so getting something of value there would be ideal. Chytil would be most likely to move in my eyes given he’s a second line center due a modest raise. Depending on timing of any trade, it would start the clock on what to do with Zibanejad who will be due a significant raise and it wouldn’t be much in NYR’s interest to pay their top two centers 20% of the cap as they would be ramping up to Cup contention. Not a lot of financial sense there. Another roster player might have to be thrown in to make the deal work depending on how much cap space NYR would have to take on. Buchnevich has been a name I’ve seen thrown around and would make sense given age, UFA status and raise owed this summer. Kakko’s name has been thrown around as well, although I’m a little more hesitant about making that move.

4. What’s next would depend on how Sabres’ GM Kevyn Adams wants to structure the deal. Would they want picks and prospects to rebuild with or actual bodies to kick the can down the road a little further along? The prospect route might interest the Rangers the most as they can afford to open the prospect cupboard a little bit. Vitali Kravtsov would be mostly likely to go in this scenario. NYR could also entertain moving Nils Lundkvist, which would sting a bit but with Adam Fox and Jacob Trouba occupying the right side defense for the long term future, it would make sense. Same reasoning applies for Braden Schneider, who was recently named captain of his WHL team, whom NYR just drafted 19th overall last fall. 

1. As we all know, Marc Staal was traded yesterday for the Rangers second round pick next season, but the most important thing was the 5.7 million in space that it opens up on the cap this season. This post isn’t going to go into the positives and negatives on Staal’s tenure in NY, but where the Rangers are from an asset management standpoint not just with the defense, but with several other places on the roster with the draft 9 days away from this writing.

First thing is how do NYR replace him? The most obvious answer is K’Andre Miller who skated with the team before the bubble playoffs began and impressed the coaching staff seemingly enough for them to feel comfortable with moving Staal out. From most accounts, the Rangers still feel high enough on Libor Hajek to give him another look in training camp after a lackluster and injury filled 2019-20 season. There is a darkhorse candidate as well, Tarmo Reunanen, who the Rangers selected in the fourth round of the 2016 draft and is looking to playing North American hockey for the first time in his pro career this winter. Reunanen is also 22 in the second year of his entry level deal and the team needs to see if he can play.

2. There is also the potential for a veteran left handed shot to be inserted into the lineup, which I believe the Rangers will be in the UFA market for regardless of anything else. I floated the idea of trading for Shayne Gostisbehere on twitter, who has 3 years left on his contract at 4.5 cap and very much in need of a change in scenery. I’m not sure the Flyers would be thrilled about trading him in the division but the cost to take on his whole contract probably won’t be that much. If the Rangers somehow found the money for it, Torey Krug could be an option, although it wouldn’t shock me if a team came calling for Krug’s rights prior to UFA signing season starting. Cheaper options could include Andrej Sekera, Brenden Dillon and although he didn’t play full time with Trouba, his former Jets teammate Dmitry Kulikov could be an option.

3. The ripple effect from moving Staal’s contract out goes well beyond the defense but the offense as well. I honestly have no idea how to gauge where the Rangers are now on re-signing Ryan Strome and considering how short the Rangers are at center, they always may not have had a choice but to re-sign him at some point. Gut hunch tells me that term will be the sticking point there. It seemed like Jesper Fast was on his way out (you know the Flyers were going to be knocking on his door) but I wonder now if NYR would give it one last try with the open space. Again, I think term would be a sticking point here as well as the fact that Fast might want to be paid like the top 6 forward that his role was last season, rather than the top 9 role he’s better suited for. That one was always going to be tricky.

1. I know it’s been awhile here and I hope this finds whomever is reading in good health. After the Rangers were the victims of a one-sided sweep at the hands of the Hurricanes last week, this was not going to be a happy column. However, with lady luck falling the Rangers way on Monday night, things changed in a hurry. The Rangers still have to look at what went wrong over the course of those 3 games and decide how much stock to put into that but the sting and embarrassment of leaving the bubble after just 9 days in Toronto is gone. Give a ton of credit to Carolina properly scouting out the Rangers and then executing that game plan to near perfection. I’m not going to go over the series here but you could imagine the self-reflecting is underway as Gorton, Quinn and JD complete exit interviews. Although this doesn’t seem like it’s going to happen, but I hope the Rangers don’t put too much weight into their brief playoff stint into their decision making this fall. The true Rangers were the team we left off with post deadline. A team not stepping on eggshells over Kreider and the trade deadline, plenty good enough to beat other .500 teams around the league and not good enough to defeat the more elite teams. If Gorton wants the Rangers to be harder to play against, they need to look at being better against teams like the Flyers than Carolina with two months advance scouting time.

2. Drafting Alexis Lafreniere first overall is franchise changing to put it mildly. Change was going to happen regardless at the top of the Rangers lineup, but adding Lafreniere forces the Rangers’ hand to do more. Next year, there won’t be a veteran like Fast to place-hold the second line winger spot for Kakko because let’s be honest, unless a big contract gets shipped out or retires, the cap room won’t be there. Is there buyers’ remorse over Kreider’s contract already, given Lafreniere would’ve slid into that spot sooner rather than later had Kreider been moved out at the deadline? And who is going to be there to feed Lafreniere those pucks? The biggest question in my opinion of this entire offseason is what to do with Strome and what’s the cheapest number you can re-sign him at if that’s the route Gorton chooses to go. And if not, where does his replacement come from? Frankly, you don’t even have to look off of the Rangers current roster to find a decent cap comparable for Strome and that’s Zibanejad’s contract. Gorton gave Mika $26.75 million over a 5 year deal and that equates to 7.13% of the cap (h/t Capfriendly). Assuming Strome gets and signs the same deal they gave Zibanejad adjusting for cap inflation, you’re looking at just under 6 million per in cap space gone which is just less than half of available cap space the Rangers have. Personally, I’m not crazy about giving Strome a super long term deal anyway. Certainly not more than 4 years.

3. Jeff Gorton told media members a day or two ago that the team will not go into next season with 3 goalies on the roster. Obviously. As an organization, the passing of the baton from Lundqvist to Shesterkin has been relatively smooth. Getting out from Hank’s contract likely won’t be. JD said during the Rangers’ draft special on MSG Tuesday night that he had a conversation with Hank after the team landed back in NY. Lundqvist has what might be an impossible decision to make. I said this on twitter before the playoffs started and I think it’s still valid now. There remains a non-zero chance that he “retires” and goes to play with his brother Joel in Frolunda. The next NHL season isn’t a 100% certainty and if the twin brothers want to play together before they both retire, this might be the time. At some point recently during one of the MSG broadcasts, Steve Valiquette disclosed that Lundqvist wanted to play at least two more seasons after this one. I can’t imagine leaving behind the 5.5 million he’s owed next season would be the driving force behind Hank’s decision making, but one more crack at a Cup is the goal in mind. But the chances of that happening in NY in 2021, whether the season gets off the ground or not, are quite low. 

4. This will be the last Four Thoughts until just before the draft as I’m planning a small prospect write up with players that NYR could take with the second first rounder they have assuming there’s no trade in the works as well as other draft scenario’s. I’ll leave you with some first round predictions I made privately elsewhere.

PHI 6 CBJ 7 WAS 7 CAR 6

1. Quickly around the league before settling in on the Rangers. Winners of deadline day? To be honest, no one immediately jumps out like Columbus did last year when they made a big push to try to make a run at a Cup. Carolina kind of did that this year to a lesser degree but oddly didn’t acquire a goalie after the now infamous EBUG incident in Toronto on Saturday. Ottawa now has 7 draft picks in the first two rounds this year thanks in part to the Islanders, giving up two picks and possibly three (if they somehow win the Cup) for JG Pageau. The Devils had a good week, accruing cap space and acquiring one of the Lightning’s top prospects and a first for Blake Coleman. Edmonton acquiring Andreas Athanasiou from Detroit to stick him on a line with McDavid will be fun to watch. Although to me, there were several losers around the league for deadline day. Florida jumps to the top immediately for dumping Vinny Trocheck for spare parts on the Hurricanes, all on expiring contracts. Nashville shockingly did virtually nothing. Ditto for the Maple Leafs who couldn’t find a suitor for Tyson Barrie and did nothing to improve their blueline and are looking at another first round exit in all likelihood. I’ll get to this later, but I thought the Flyers could’ve done better than Derek Grant and Nate Thompson.

2. To the Rangers, starting with the Skjei trade... kudos to the team and the front office for identifying that Skjei’s contract was by far, the worst deal on the team and jettisoned it. Not only that, the Rangers got a first round pick for it and didn’t have to retain any of his salary. Major win there. There have been rumors around Skjei that have been there for quite some time. Even going back to the 2018 draft when the Oilers were reportedly sniffing around but wound up keeping the 10th overall pick and drafted defenseman Evan Bouchard. Skjei was given ample opportunity to make it work here. His play has gone nothing but backwards since Quinn arrived. To be frank, I think Skjei completely fell out of favor with the coaching staff starting late last season into this one, as Staal passed him on the depth chart and Lindgren wasn’t too far behind. It will definitely be interesting to see how this affects Trouba moving forward. How NYR deploy the defense now with Skjei gone will be answered soon enough.

3. Like most NYR fans, I’ve been going back and forth on Kreider for months. What put me over recently as far as keeping him goes was this. I’ve said for years that after the Rangers traded Sergei Zubov to Pittsburgh prior to the 95-96 season, the team never replaced a player like him until just this year potentially with Adam Fox. If they traded Kreider, they would’ve spent a decent pick or prospect trying to find a guy like him in a couple years when they should be significant Cup contenders. With rumblings late last week and into the weekend that the Rangers preferred to hang onto 20 rather than move him, that might have been a cue that NYR were further along in discussions than reported by Larry Brooks or Canadian reporters. I hope the Garden gives Kreider extra love next Sunday. He clearly took a bit less in actual dollars to stay. And you have to wonder if NYR slap the ‘C’ on his chest this summer.

3a. The other player that was being floated as a trade candidate was Jesper Fast, whom I’m not surprised stayed put. As I’ve mentioned before, for whatever reason, it doesn’t appear Fast has any trade value. I for one believe AV and the Flyers should’ve been at the head of the line for his services but that was never rumored. Again, Vegas not taking him in the expansion draft told me a ton about what other teams think about his game. No substantial talks ever seemed like they got off the ground, to the point where you wondered if Gorton pulled their impending UFA’s and RFA’s out of the trade market once the Kreider signing was official. And if that’s the case? The rebuild is officially over.

1. Deadline chatter is starting to pickup as the February 24th date ticks ever closer. Still no inclination into which way NYR are leaning, whether it’s buy, sell or staying the course, which can be an option if the Rangers play it correctly. To me, the hysteria regarding reports that Gorton hasn’t even talked to Kreider’s agent regarding a new extension are over-blown. The Rangers standard operating procedure tends to be signing pending UFA’s in February as to not tip their hand to other teams. I fully believe other reports that NYR haven’t made Kreider 100% available as the Rangers still might have other balls in the air. The prevailing thought coming out of the all-star game is that Kreider wants to stay in NY. You have to figure he was heavily, heavily recruited by other players last weekend during all-star festivities. Cap space is so tight league wide that most trades won’t be completed until much closer to the deadline. That weekend before the Monday cutoff could see a lot of movement.

1a. Small note on Jesper Fast whose contract is also up this season. I’ve been contemplating how other teams might value him as a depth winger on a legit cup contender. I’m still trying to figure out how Vegas passed on Fast during the expansion draft and I’ve been of the belief that’s a clue in how he’s viewed across the league. If there’s anyone on the Rangers that is going to be a true cap casualty it’s him and it wouldn’t surprise me if the Rangers made it through the trade deadline without trading Fast or re-signing him.

2. Georgiev’s case is slightly different. To be honest, I’d be blown away if Georgiev isn’t playing for the Maple Leafs by the end of February. And again, kudos to the NYR front office by practicing patience and not selling on Georgiev too soon. As the Leafs slip in the standings, you wait for them to become desperate and maybe NYR get a better offer.  Gorton and the front office should just wait on Toronto to make a move and not the other way around. The two teams make great trade partners and that’s not a secret. There’s no way the Rangers as an organization are leaving their goalies in the dark regarding everything. At the very least Lundqvist, who has become the third wheel in this rotation has to be somewhat in the know regarding how NYR are going to delegate his starts for the remainder of the season. They owe him at least that.

3. The Rangers are doing a masterful job and keeping their cards close to the vest and haven’t let anything trickle out regarding what they’re going to do. They showed their hand two seasons ago and as the Rangers project their arc higher you won’t hear much on the social media grapevine until it’s already done. NYR fans should credit JD for this. There’s a noticeable shift this year in how the front office operates regarding the flow of information and the buck almost assuredly stops at his desk. 

1. My summary of Igor Shesterkin’s first NHL start since I was in the building Tuesday night. I may have mentioned it on here months ago and I’m too lazy to read back and look for it... I was at MSG for Shesterkin’s preseason appearance and in warmups, he looked pretty nervous, not technically sound, etc. Typical what you would expect for a rookie goalie getting his first taste at NHL action. Tuesday night’s game was different. He looked pretty comfortable in warmups. Slightly interesting thing I noticed; Nikita Zadorov gave Shesterkin a tap on the pads in the middle of stretching. I was trying to see if they were teammates at one point in Russia considering they are the same age. Also, when not in net or stretching, Shesterkin was casually skating back and forth on the red line. Not sure if that’s his usual warm-up routine or just shaking out nerves. Igor mentioned post game that the game didn’t go the way he envisioned it. Maybe in a weird way, JT Compher scoring early helped ease the nerves a bit but it wasn’t until the third period where he really began to settle in. 

2. It’s going to take some getting used to the difference between Hank’s mannerism’s in net compared to Igor’s. Shesterkin has a fabulous glove hand. He’s not afraid to reach out for the puck like a first baseman would waiting for a throw across the field. I can’t imagine we’re going to see Igor heading a lot of pucks away. Lundqvist has said previously that he would never stick his glove in front of his helmet to make a save and that’s why you see him head pucks away all the time. Shesterkin, on one save I believe during an Avs power play had no problem doing this. The Ranger goalie is also going to be a one man breakout on NYR power plays of their own. His stretch pass to Kakko early on drew a significant reaction from the fans as if that’s something they’ve never seen a NYR goalie do ever. He’s a shiny new toy that’s been wrapped up in a box for years and years and Ranger fans got to open that gift Tuesday night. Igor is going to get every opportunity to succeed at this level and he’s off to a good start.

2a. Last thing on Tuesday’s game. I’ve been to hundreds of NYR games in my life and the Lindgren hit on Donskoi was the hardest check I’ve ever seen live. The thud echoed loudly in the building. And as I’m typing this, the NHL Dept. of Player Safety ruled no supplemental discipline will be handed down.

3. Time to start looking ahead towards the NHL trade deadline which is incredibly just 6 weeks away in this rapidly moving NHL season. It was reported recently that the Rangers haven’t officially made Kreider available and that could be taken as a sign that the Rangers are still looking to sign him to an extension. I know it’s an extreme long shot, but I genuinely wonder if Kreider would be open to signing a one year deal since the Rangers are going to be severely strapped for cap space if the upper limit doesn’t go up significantly next season. Kevin Shattenkirk’s dead cap charge goes up to 6 million next year and the Rangers are going to have to find a way around that. After the end of next season, with the team as is now, $32 million dollars in cap space will be freed up and allow the Rangers to re-sign their RFA’s which include Buchnevich, Chytil and Howden up front as well as Lindgren and Hajek on the blueline. Shesterkin’s contract would be up too and I can’t imagine NYR not giving him a healthy raise provided he continues on this course towards becoming the next franchise goalie. Kreider would be given a nice bump with term just as NYR become significant threats to come out of the East. The biggest question in the extreme short term... what to do with Georgiev?

1. As reported by Darren Dreger Saturday afternoon, Lias Andersson has requested a trade from the Rangers and has left the Wolf Pack while he waits to be moved. It’s a stunning fall for the former 7th overall pick who was previously the face that represented the beginning of the Rangers rebuild when they traded Stepan to Arizona for DeAngelo and the pick that eventually became Andersson. Perhaps even more stunning is how we arrived here to begin with, with Andersson making the Rangers opening night roster and then getting stapled to the fourth line averaging just 9:33 TOI in 17 games, although it seemed like much less than that most nights. 

2. I don’t usually side with alarmists when it comes to “the team not giving players a chance” but boy did Quinn and the Rangers do Andersson dirty this season. Now, it’s entirely possible that Quinn doesn’t think too highly of Andersson compared to other bottom 6 players like Lemieux and Howden and treated him as such. But the shocking thing to me was DQ’s rigidness with Andersson’s usage as well as not giving him a sniff at any PP time with the second unit, especially with Chytil away. It’s extremely tough to see a player that the Rangers invested a lot in, who should be beginning to enter his prime seasons this year, tossed to the wind without much care.

3. I tried to go back to articles from 2017 and review where draftniks had Andersson pegged, which was anywhere from NYR drafted him at to the bottom of the first round. I believe there’s a very grey line between a player being the “safe” pick and “NHL ready”. Andersson kind of fell in the middle and perhaps combined with how well he played internationally, it bolstered his draft stock into the top 10, in the Rangers view. Thankfully for NYR though it’s still early, no players Gorton and Rangers brass passed on between picks 7 and 21 where they took Chytil, are jumping off the page just yet. It’s worth noting here there was a persistent rumor floating around the draft floor at the time that there was one team that had Elias Pettersson ranked at the top of their draft boards. As time as gone along, listening to various insiders, it’s become patently obvious to me that NYR were that team that had him ranked that high and desperately tried to move up for him.

1. I had a write-up regarding the Rangers and their Kravtsov situation that quickly became old news Thursday afternoon when Kravtsov himself posted on his Instagram account thanking the Traktor Chelyabinsk club for his time there. On Friday, the Rangers officially brought him back with his second assignment to Hartford. With Kravtsov’s European clause in his entry level essentially wiped out, I hope he gives the AHL a legitimate chance. He has to notice how well Shesterkin is playing and the rumors floating around of the goalie being given a chance on Broadway relatively soon, as well as the call-ups of Chytil, Nieves and Lindgren. The Rangers will likely give Kravtsov clear direction as to what they’re looking for out of him and I can easily see Kravtsov with the Rangers as early as the trade deadline. Especially if particular forwards off the roster are plucked away to Cup contending teams.

2. I try not to look at analytics until the season rounds the quarter pole which has happened since my last column, but you can’t help but notice how badly the Rangers bleed shots against and it’s something that should be blatantly obvious to Ranger fans by just watching the games. It seems as though NYR value high dangerous scoring chances for and against instead of shots and attempts. David Quinn has repeatedly chided his players in the media for not shooting enough so that might have a little to do with it. The coach and the organization should still tread carefully and not dismiss stats like that as an isolated anomaly.

3. Speaking of Quinn, earlier this week I happened to be watching NHL network and the following quote from the coach appeared on the screen.

 “I think part of developing is learning how to win. So it’s very important for us to make the playoffs.” 

I completely understand that the Rangers didn’t sign Jacob Trouba and Artemiy Panarin to be a .500 team, but even they have to realize that this is a young team, ill-equipped to make a serious run now but rather in a couple seasons. Also if the Rangers trade deadline plans go the way most fans and pundits think it’s going, with Kreider and possibly Strome being shipped out for picks, it makes this quote incredibly odd. I’m mildly concerned that the Rangers are attempting to expedite their rebuild in order to get Lundqvist a ring. Even Lundqvist shouldn’t take precedent over the long term success the Rangers should have over the next 10 years. I firmly believe Lundqvist’s best chance at a Cup isn’t with NYR, but there doesn’t seem to be any chance he’ll waive his NMC. The next 18 months when it comes to Lundqvist’s contract situation and how it coincides with the rebuild will be interesting for sure.

4. Since I’ve seen a couple other outlets attempt this, so I tried to put together my version of the Rangers all-decade team. As you’ll see below, I didn’t place any games played requirements and just attempted to put together the best hypothetical NYR team I could. This was actually a lot harder than it seemed. Let me know your thoughts on twitter @fiveonfir3.

Gaborik-Zibanejad-St.Louis Nash-Richards-Zuccarello Kreider-Stepan-Panarin  Miller-Brassard-Callahan

1. Quick recap of last night’s game against the Caps... Anything would’ve been a decent showing compared to the absolute disaster that was the Florida trip last week. The Rangers still took down a depleted Washington team but I’m convinced that 17 beer leaguers plus Ovechkin could be a playoff team. But the Rangers played like a competent pro hockey team, minus some PK warts and issues in defensive zone which were nullified thanks to Mr. Post and Mr. Crossbar behind Lundqvist all night. Maybe it’s just a coincidence, but Kakko’s return seemed to lift the bottom of the Rangers roster. That line with Lemieux and Howden played well up until DQ moved Kakko up in the lineup with Buch riding the bench in the second period.

2. I’m truly at a loss at how Lias Andersson’s career arc has gone since being taken 7th overall in the 2017 draft. It’s actually inconceivable to me that this is where we’re at in his development as a prospect. Even more inconceivable was mentioning Andersson’s name and trade in the same sentence without looking like a total fool, but now even that is somewhat in play. It completely plausible that a change of scenery could be good for him at this juncture, especially given NYR’s young depth down the middle. After Andersson was cut from the team during training camp last season, Jeff Gorton told a room of season ticket holders that once Lias Andersson was called up to the Rangers, he’d be in NY for good. Since then, he’s been sent back to Hartford twice. Depending on where and how you place blame, this isn’t entirely on Gorton. But his usage so far this year, especially recently with Zibanejad out of the lineup has me at a total loss. 

3. The direction in which the Rangers are heading in has me confused as well. Drafting Kakko 2nd overall has in the Rangers in an “accelerated rebuild” according to Gorton, but anyone with any kind of hockey sense can see that this team is still no where remotely close enough defensively to contend for a Cup. How is it that defensemen who were Rangers last year, are having decent years elsewhere? (And no, this doesn’t mean I’m ceding some ground in my opinion of Shattenkirk) Is it the system? Talent? Skjei has been in complete regression for the better part of 2+ seasons. Basically since just before he got his big contract, which I was critical of on twitter at the time. Trouba’s offensive game has fallen off a cliff with just one point in the last 12 games and he was taken off the top PP unit. The state of the NYR blueline says a lot more about Fox and his future than it does about anyone else. That second round pick the Rangers are going to soon send to Carolina, once Fox plays 30 games this year, will be well worth it.

1. As we all know last week, the Rangers and Vitali Kravtsov decided the best recourse for his development at the current time is going back to Chelyabinsk, his KHL team and playing out the string of regular season games there, before coming back to Hartford or NY once the KHL season ends on February 27th. I’m not going to attempt to discuss what has been said on Russian media interviews with Kravtsov after he went back to Russia to avoid taking things out of context or being flat out wrong in translation. I’m going to be honest, I think the Rangers screwed up in kind of a big way here. Kravtsov had spent the entire summer training here, learning the smaller ice in a honest attempt to get himself on the opening night roster. I can’t imagine how crushing it was on his confidence to be among the last cuts. On the same side, I don’t think Kravtsov himself is completely absolved of blame here either. Hartford was winning games. Losing sucks but that wasn’t the case there. Should he have given Hartford more of a chance rather than bolting the second he could? Kravtsov is going to be a large part of the NYR’s immediate future. Hopefully for the sake of this teams’ foreseeable success, the Rangers didn’t dig themselves into having their own Josh Ho-Sang situation on their hands.

2. Without recapping the game, I wanted to quickly go over last Tuesday’s well deserved win over the Lightning. In addition to Tampa being bad, the Rangers did a lot of things right. No, Haley fighting and knocking down Pat Maroon did not jump start the Rangers. A lot of the good you saw was a team effort for 60 minutes. Quick zone exits supported by the wingers to get out of their own zone. A bend and not break PK. Georgiev was fantastic in goal and the lone mark against him was as a horrific line change as you’ll ever see from NYR, which hung the goalie out to dry. The Rangers defensively got a boost from having Lindgren in the lineup and Staal out of it. Chytil looked like he hadn’t missed a beat centering Kreider and Buch. Having him there opens the door to reunite Zibanejad and Panarin, along with Kakko to supplement that line. This is why I’ve been beating the Chytil drum since the beginning of the year.

3. As a Rangers fan who grew up in NJ, I don’t have the same hate for the Isles that I’d assume the majority of NYR fans have for that franchise. For me, it has always been Devils and Flyers. More recently because of the playoffs, add Montreal and LA to that list. Nashville, because of the bandwagon, un-knowledgeable fanbase that has dumber chants than most buildings in the league. But the Tampa Bay Lightning, since the 2015 ECF, skating by the injury depleted Rangers in that Game 7, have always been a thorn in my side. Perpetuated by the hockey media as being this unstoppable team, at least on paper, but have literally ONE SCF appearance at the expense of the Rangers no less to show for it. Made worse by former Rangers finding their way there. I can’t tell you how happy I was that the Rangers, minus Zibanejad and Lundqvist took down the Lightning last Tuesday. I was celebrating those 3rd period goals in my apartment almost like it was another Game 7. Such an overrated, overhyped team, even after falling flat on their faces to CBJ in the playoffs last spring, deserve even less success than what they currently have. Does it make me vindictive? Perhaps. Does it make me wrong? Nope. But go ahead, Bolts. Keep wasting away the prime years of Stamkos and Kucherov. Your team doesn’t have half of what the 2004 Cup champs had.

The New York Rangers defeated the Buffalo Sabres by a score of 6-2 on Thursday night. For a box score, click here.

Wanted to cover tonight’s game in particular because I think this game is going to be important in the grand scheme as this season continues on and the Rangers continue to try and find their foothold.

As John Tortorella used to say as NYR coach, these type of games cannot be “special”. It has to be how the Rangers expect themselves to play every night. Not just a few times per month.

As they say, you’re never as good on your best days and never as bad on your worst days. This has been the Rangers over the last few weeks. They are way too talented up front to be as bad as they’ve been lately.

First thing that jumped out at me immediately was puck support up ice. No forwards flying the zone when NYR possessed the puck deep in their own end. Quick, efficient zone exits. The Rangers puck possession early on never allowed the Sabres to play their game in the first period. 

The Sabres had a decent second period as old habits tried to creep back into the Rangers game. Kudos to the Rangers for keeping a good Buffalo team to 2 goals and not letting the late goal in the second affect them in the third.

Quinn’s changes up front made all the difference. Splitting up Panarin and Zibanejad 5v5 seems like it’s going to be a norm moving forward. And that line with Strome, Panarin and Buchnevich dominated all night.

Kakko was up and down. Bad giveaway led to the first Sabres goal, but nearly scored on a pretty backhand early in the third. Having Zibanejad as his center opens up so much more ice for him compared to Strome or Howden. It’ll come with time.

I have no idea how Fox’s assist on Kreider’s late goal was his first point of the season. He’s been such a bright spot on blueline it’s kinda hard to believe.

And nice of Kreider to get off the skid with his first of the season. You’ll take those garbage goals however they come. 

I’ve been harping on how Quinn deploys ice time lately. He plays his top guys way too much when they’ve been down in games. It’s October, it’s way too early to be shortening the bench like that. Tonight was much more evened out, even though NYR played up by 2+ goals for most of the game. Moving Kakko off the top line up two heading into the third I thought was a little odd.

Andersson under 10 TOI tonight. With contributions from Howden and Strome tonight, he’s gonna be there for a while longer.

1. As we all know, Vlad Namestnikov was traded to Ottawa last Monday for a 4th round pick in 2021 and an AHL player who’ll never see MSG ice. It was a long time coming for Namestnikov, who could never find a niche on the lineup and found himself on the fourth line to start this year. The Rangers are better off banking the new found cap space rather than have four million buckled onto that fourth line. There’s no doubt Gorton had been looking to move that off the cap possibly since the draft and finally found a buyer in Ottawa. I’d suspect there wasn’t a lack of interest in Namestnikov, but rather a lack of available cap space elsewhere around the league.

2. On the opposite end of that spectrum, Mika Zibanejad has led the NHL in points for a decent chunk of the season, before some guy named Connor McDavid passed him last Thursday, despite the Rangers playing just 3 games in 13 nights. The first two games, specifically the one in Ottawa was nothing short of incredible. The passing play with Buchnevich was unreal and the puck distribution that was displayed on the power play which led to Panarin stretching the lead to 4-1 was artwork. It’s hard to think that this was the same player the Rangers got when they traded for him, sending Derick Brassard back to Ottawa in 2016. Mika has taken his game to incredible heights and is somehow still underrated in most hockey circles in the US and Canada. His current scoring pace is obviously un-sustainable but it sure has been fun to watch, especially since we’ve been exposed to watching a downright bad Rangers team for the last two years.

3. A bit of sidebar... Brassard told Newsday reporter Andrew Gross almost two weeks ago, that in his opinion, looking back, it didn’t make sense as to why Ottawa would trade for him and send away a former top prospect in Ottawa’s system in Zibanejad, whose better days were clearly still well ahead of him.  Seeing that on twitter put a big smile on my face. I loved Brass as a Ranger, but Ottawa got absolutely scorched in that deal. You could easily argue it’s worse, (positively for NYR) than the McDonagh-Gomez trade

1. Rangers’ roster cuts came out Monday morning... at least to me, there was a shocker of a cut that came through. There was some posturing by writers on twitter and otherwise that Filip Chytil’s spot wasn’t 100% safe, primarily because Lias Andersson was playing so well and most kind of shrugged it off, but as we all should know, where there is smoke, there’s fire. I’d be even more shocked if Chytil isn’t back by the absolute latest, thanksgiving. But this issue goes back two years since they were both taken in the first round that I’ve blogged about and tweeted about ad nauseum. There just isn’t enough spots in the lineup for both to play in the middle. Add in the fact that they’ve added Vlad Namestnikov and Ryan Strome to the middle of the lineup in the last 18 months and you have to force at bare minimum two of the above to the outside. And we haven’t even gotten to Vitali Kravtsov, whom I’m not convinced the NYR front office themselves know what position they’re gonna have him play in for the foreseeable future. Ultimately, I’m curious what would’ve happened if both Andersson and Chytil played well enough in the preseason to merit spots on the opening night roster. Then what?  

2. With Chytil in Hartford for the time being, it is mildly concerning that the second line center job is no where close to being cemented, given Chytil was penciled in for that role coming into camp. Having Ryan Strome there for now is fine, but hopefully the NYR front office and coaching staff isn’t relying on him to shoot the lights out as Strome did with his 22.5% shooting percentage a year ago. It’s also important for Kaapo Kakko on that line as well with Chris Kreider to get off to a good start. I’m fully expecting Kakko to go through the normal rookie process. Expect him to hit a wall at some point during the doldrums of the season, leading to other issues we’ll cross if/when it comes. Not that I think it’s going to happen, but it’s worth noting here that Kakko’s contract is the only slide eligible deal on the team right now, meaning once he plays his 10th game, the clock starts on his ELC. And no, I’m not expecting Kakko to be in Hartford by the end of the month.

3. While I certainly wouldn’t have the patience that the NYR front office is exhibiting with their rookies and second year players, I commend them for sticking to the plan. It might have been David Quinn over the weekend who said that the Rangers were still tearing the roster down, although from my basement chair, I don’t know what’s left to tear down. Gorton admitted this week that there hasn’t been any talks with Kreider and his agent in weeks and that they seem satisfied letting some of the season play out. Marc Staal is the only skater on the roster over 30 and he’s not going anywhere. I’m beginning to wonder what NYR’s exit strategy is going to be with Lundqvist, who has this year and next left on his deal. A trade seems to be completely out of the question. Assuming the Rangers don’t shock the NHL and make a run for it this season, a serious cup window might open again until after Hank turns 40. I guess if anyone is able to turn back the clock on their career for a chance at the cup, if that serious run happens in the next 2-4 years, it’s him.

1. I’m not going to recap most games this upcoming season, but since I was in the building last Wednesday night, just quick run down on the first preseason game against NJ. First off, the power play. I don’t want to get excited too quickly, but that top unit is going to be lethal once they get more time playing together. I know Panarin is more of a playmaker than scorer, but his goal was basically unstoppable and he needs to use that more when the games begin counting. 5v5 that line played more in the defensive zone than what you would expect otherwise which gave a glimpse into how Kakko played away from the puck. I watched him basically all night and he is as advertised. Pro ready day one. He didn’t look out of place for one second and is only going to get so much better from here. Kravtsov is going to make the NYR decision to send him down to Hartford basically impossible. Again, one game but I think he’s too good for the AHL already and should stay in NY to start. Shesterkin did not look sharp during warmups and I was concerned how any game action would go for him. He was fine once he settled in, but it looks like he’s miles away before he’s even being considered for the backup job behind Hank. Georgiev on the other hand looked sharp through out. Despite the four goals the Devils put up, you can’t blame either goalie for any of them.

2. A couple more from Wednesday’s game... A player to watch this season is going to be Lias Andersson. He looks bigger on the ice than he has in the last two seasons. Zibanejad has taken him under his wing this summer and it shows. I’m expecting a big year from him this season. Greg McKegg is going to be someone else to watch moving forward. Admittedly, I’ve never even heard of him prior to signing but I can see him getting games with the Rangers this year if one of the rookies struggle or the injury bug hits. I’m really concerned now more than ever about the left side of the NYR defense. Skjei didn’t have a great night and Trouba isn’t exactly someone you would rely on going up against another team’s top line on a consistent basis. Not saying they’ll have to be sheltered but team defense and sustained puck possession is going to have to win games this year if the Rangers want to win more than they did last year. Going to have more of a preseason wrap up in a couple of weeks.

3. Anthony DeAngelo finally signed with the Rangers last Friday for 1 year and 925,000 thousand, the same contract Brendan Lemieux got a few days prior. NHL dot com writer Dan Rosen somewhat implied on twitter that DeAngelo was looking for term which would’ve driven up his price a little bit more. He never had leverage despite the year he had last year and I somewhat believe he’s on several teams and GM’s “no” lists. Depending on what happens with NYR this season, there could be a team or two out there willing to take a chance on him at the deadline and NYR would likely get a better return on investment than the one they received from the Coyotes in the Stepan trade.

In a somewhat surprising turn of events, the NHLPA voted Sunday night to keep the current collective bargaining agreement in place until 2022 when it expires. In a statement from NHLPA executive director Don Fehr, the players...

 “...have concerns with the current CBA, we agree with the league that working together to address those concerns is the preferred course of action instead of terminating the agreement following this season. We have been having discussions with the league about an extension of the CBA and expect that those talks will continue.”

It wouldn’t be too much of a stretch to say that no one expected this to happen back in the beginning of the summer and that the NHLPA was almost definitely going to opt out of the current CBA. By most reports this afternoon, the league and the union’s talks up to this point were revolved around working towards extending the current CBA an additional three years with an expiration date upon completion of the 2024-2025 season.

I’ll be curious to see how much the leverage the PA loses as a result of keeping everything status quo. The league’s TV contract is up with the expiration of the CBA in the summer of 2022, in addition to the NHL’s 32nd team coming into play that season as well, the players had the owners in a vice for the first time in a long time and elected to pass.

As I wrote in Four Thoughts last week, the escrow issues still remain as well as the players getting long term confirmation of international tournaments like the Olympics and the World Cup of Hockey which is supposed to take place at some point in the summer of 2020 or replacing the all star game with the World Cup tournament in February 2021.

1. The Traverse City tournament is hockey’s equivalent to baseball when pitchers and catchers begin reporting and signals the homestretch of the offseason. The luster behind the tournament this year was taken away a little bit when Kakko missed the first two game with an illness, but he more than made up for it in the one game he did play. Kakko and the entire baby Rangers began slow against the Wild, before turning the porch light on in that big third period with Kakko’s highlight wraparound ending it in OT. But it wasn’t just Kakko who had a heck of a tournament. Fox’s 2G, 3A game two against the Stars turned some heads, Kravtsov showed some of his magnificent puck handling capability, dangling defenders in open ice and put up plenty of points as well. As a Rangers fan, the aforementioned baby Rangers who are expected to make the team, gave you everything you hoped for in a high end prospect tournament. 

2. But you also saw a glimpse into the not so distant future as well. Karl Henriksson, the 58th overall pick in June’s draft shined in the final game against the baby Blues, registering three assists with prior linemates Kravtsov and Kakko not even dressed. He didn’t look out of place with one or both of the Rangers’ prior first round picks on his flank. I’m not sure of his contract situation back in Sweden, where he plays for Frolunda, but I can easily see him making the team in a year or two when the Rangers move out a ton of salary. Couple more players that I wanted to mention.... Tarmo Reunanen, NYR twitter darling and 2016 draft pick had an up and down tournament, but showed positive flashes. I didn’t watch the final game, but all accounts were positive with the increased ice time. Getting used to smaller ice as a young Euro defenseman isn’t the easiest thing. Matthew Robertson is going to make NYR one day as a bottom six defenseman. Good skater, excellent first pass out of the zone and had a hell of a goal in the second game, pinching into the zone and driving to the net. In goal, this was Shesterkin’s first game action on NA ice so growing pains were to be expected. He was hung out to dry in the first game, but was better in the third game, keeping the Rangers in it while they found their legs. Huska was the beneficiary of better teams in front of him in both games. Traverse City doesn’t set a depth chart with goalies but you know there will be a lot of interest in Shesterkin’s first start in the preseason and how he handles NHL’ers for the first time. 

3. Moving on from the tournament, the Rangers are down to one RFA (at the time of this writing) with Brendan Lemieux signing a one year contract at $925,000 leaving around a million dollars left for Anthony DeAngelo. JD in a press conference on Thursday afternoon didn’t seem like he was going to budge off of his current offer in ongoing negotiations with DeAngelo’s agent. This doesn’t seem like something which should cause DeAngelo to miss any time but given how the current RFA market is still, who knows. He certainly has an argument to get a nice bump following a decent season last year, but players up and down the roster across the league are feeling the squeeze of a lower than expected cap ceiling . Luckily for NYR, they only have to worry about bottom of the roster players signing new deals.

1. The acquisition of Jacob Trouba and signing has gone about as well as anyone could’ve hoped. The art of acquiring Winnipeg’s first round pick for Kevin Hayes and then trading it back to Winnipeg for a top-15 defenseman in the league was a masterpiece executed by Jeff Gorton. The contract itself was a bit divisive among NYR fans, but it shouldn’t be. By cap percentage, Trouba slots in just ahead of Marc-Edouard Vlasic and behind Aaron Ekblad and Trouba’s former teammate Dustin Byfuglien. He’s going to get plenty of bang for NYR’s buck over the next several seasons and be a cornerstone on the blueline. As I said in a prior Four Thoughts, this was an amazing deal for player and team and the dividends from this will come in quickly.

2. Regardless of the confusion as to when the Rangers second buyout window opened, Kevin Shattenkirk has been informed that he will be bought out. Shattenkirk’s tenure as a Ranger couldn’t be described as anything less than tumultuous. The buyout writing on the wall honestly began when he blew out his knee during training camp two years ago and attempted to play on it until he was forced off the ice in early January 2018. In my view, it’s entirely possible, if not likely he’s still on the team today had he gotten it taken care of when the injury happened instead of playing on it for four months. Hell, he would’ve been able to finish out the season regardless of the wheeling and dealing that took place over the last 18 months if surgery happens in September instead of 4 months later and not succumbed to the pressures of his contract. As Shattenkirk himself admitted to, it impacted his offseason training and his skating ability suffered as a result of it. Last season, it seemed like Shattenkirk had to scratch and claw to get thru a grinding schedule which saw him in the press box multiple times as a healthy scratch. His shooting percentage fell to a career low, which could speak to a number of things, including the injury itself instead of poor puck luck.

As I said on twitter yesterday, I think the knee injury has impacted his game to a point where he’s too much of a liability. Granted the Rangers have plenty of other issues on the blueline; on the ice and behind the bench. I don’t need to say anything about Staal, as it now appears likely that he’s going to finish out his bloated contract as a Ranger. Brendan Smith is going to be the Rangers 7th D and 13 forward at the same time. The NYR blueline is pretty poor and having Shattenkirk there wasn’t going to make things any better. We wish him the best moving forward, but it’s not easy to fit a 30 year defenseman on a rebuilding team with a big cap hit.

3. The rough part to this is where it comes financially on the cap and how it affects other players. It clears up cap space to sign Anthony DeAngelo and Brendan Lemieux to contracts and leaves them with just enough to stay under the cap. The nearly 6.1 dead space charge in 2020-21 stings. I wonder if this is the Rangers’ method of “going for it” this year while they have as many as 7 players starting opening night on entry level deals, while giving out 20% of their cap space to two guys. This method likely forces the Rangers to use Kreider as their own rental this spring if this is the route they have chosen to go and we could see one of the longest tenured Rangers to walk to UFA on July 1, 2020. It would be a bold strategy to attempt to get Lundqvist going for another Cup run

4. As I’ve said before, I like to look at Four Thoughts as an extension to my twitter account and wasn’t going to say a whole heck of a lot when it came to NYR signing Panarin until Greg Wyshynski of ESPN wrote a lengthy article on July 23rd on where the Rangers are in the process of rebuild. This quote in his article from John Davidson immediately jumped out at me. 

"He's studied the Rangers through his computer. The Pavel Bure years. Things along those lines. He told us he'd love to win in New York, just like Mark Messier did. I don't want a guy that wants to be in New York. I want a guy that wants to be in New York and wants to play for the Rangers. That's been something that's important to him."