New York Rangers Stand Still as the NHL’s Landscape is Altered
Within the blink of an eye, the NHL landscape has changed dramatically, and the Eastern Conference got a whole lot stronger…
Everything in New York Rangers’ Land is quite; too quite. This may come as a surprise to everyone since within the past few hours, there have been two surprising blockbuster trades and one major UFA taken off the market.
Firstly, the New Jersey Devils absolutely swindled the Edmonton Oilers in a deal where they acquired former number 1 overall pick Taylor Hall for former number 6 overall pick Adam Larsson. The Oilers need for a defenseman was certainly there—and they were desperate for one, obviously—but in no way is, was, or will Adam Larsson be nearly as good as Hall. Hall is 24 years old and has already had two 60+ point seasons.
Then there was the deal that saw P.K. Subban getting traded from the Montreal Canadiens to the Nashville Predators for Shea Weber, which honestly might go down as one of the most substantial, star-studded, one-for-one trades in NHL history.
This deal was so interesting because I’m not sure that it has a clear winner, although most people on hockey Twitter will tell you that the Predators won this in a landslide. P.K. Subban has 5 years remaining on his contract with a full no-movement clause—which he obviously waived for this deal to go through—which holds a substantial cap hit of $9 million. Weber has 10—yes, 10!—years remaining on his contract with a cap hit of $7.85. Weber’s contract does not include a no-movement or no-trade clause. While Subban has had 50+ points in 3 straight seasons, he has never scored more than 15 goals in a season—which is still impressive—while Weber has scored at least 15 goals in each of his last 7 seasons (not counting the lockout year). There is no question that Subban is the better than Weber defensively, but I still think Weber is an above average defender.
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After those two bombshell moves were made, the Tampa Bay Lightning announced that they had re-signed coveted Unrestricted Free Agent Steven Stamkos to an 8-year contract worth $8.5 million a year. Stamkos was rumored to come to the Rangers, as well as a million other teams via free agency, and the Lightning did not let him get to July 1st so that those other teams could have a shot.
I was of the belief that Stamkos was going to stay in Tampa Bay the whole time, and kind of brushed off the rumors of him coming to New York, which is why I didn’t really say too much about it this offseason, and listed it as very unlikely to happen in one of my New York Rangers rumor updates.
With all of these moves being made, I really do think the floodgates have been opened and the offseason, as far as trades are concerned, has officially begun. If we learned anything today, it’s that defensemen are valued pretty highly—especially defensemen who play the right side—in the trade market. This gives me hope that the Rangers may be able to find a suitor for Dan Girardi and/or Marc Staal at some point this offseason.
Next: New York Rangers Potential Repacements for Keith Yandle
Time will tell, but while the Rangers haven’t done much yet, as we saw today, one moment can change the landscape of the league.
Stay tuned…