New York Rangers: Moneyball, Staring Dan Girardi

The New York Rangers alternate captain is viewed by fans as a misfit. Number five has a long road ahead to get back in the fans good graces and an even bigger season ahead.

Many New York Rangers fans find themselves screaming and chanting “trade Dan Girardi!” Rangers fans are more interested in treating Girardi like a useless player and are ready to grab their torches and pitchforks to get him out-of-town like he is the creature in Frankenstein.

As a person who believes in seeing all sides of the argument I will now spin this and take the side of every other Ranger fan. Let’s trade Dan Girardi. He is a useless defender who hurts the team way more than he helps them. There is no reason to have him on the team so let’s get him out of here. He STINKS!

Now let me again take a different role here, let me take the role of another team’s GM. Before I go any further let’s revisit the criticisms made by fans. Essentially the scouting report given to the other teams from the fan base is, this player is not at all worth the money and he sure as heck is not worth any sort of assets to trade away.

So now let’s take Dan Girardi, an alternate captain, and try to dump him. Trade him away. All of the fans have persuaded me into jumping off the Dan Girardi train. What would fans really be hoping to get in return for Girardi? A draft pick? Well seeing as how Keith Yandle was traded for two late round draft picks, and seemingly all fans saw him as a top 4 defenseman, and that was the return, what can the New York Rangers trade Girardi for?

Draft Picks

If the team was to deal Girardi for draft picks, they would probably be looking at a 7th round pick, and a late 7th round pick too. Maybe the Blueshirts can find a successful team and trade Girardi away to a team that needs a 6th defenseman making $5.5 million for the next four seasons. Not likely but I’ll keep playing devils advocate.

Now calling all Ranger fans to take a second and think about this for a second. If Dan Girardi was to be traded, and I really am curious to find out the opinions of everyone and anyone out there, what would be a satisfactory yield? Because trading him for a late 7th round pick straight up is a HUGE L, as the kids say for the Rangers.

Players

Before anyone gets their hopes up thinking that I could even begin to think of players that would improve the team while getting rid of ‘the liability’ without costing more money, I’ll save the suspense I can’t. Essentially Girardi has a trade value next to nothing, again that is the belief.

So what player could possibly fit the mold of a player that would cost little to no money while also improving the team? This question is where the money ball title comes into play. For all that have seen the movie think of the scene where Billy Beane (played by Brad Pitt) and his scouts meet to talk about potential free agent targets.

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“Is there a defenseman that the Ranger can trade Dan Girardi for that will drastically improve the team? And if there was could they afford him?” No. Then why are we still talking about Dan Girardi and his down season? There is no fix for it, there is no magical trade that can be made that will satisfy everyone. Like it or not Dan Girardi will be a New York Ranger next season and probably until his contract expires.

For those that are for dumping him either via trade, release, buy-out next summer, expansion draft, or whatever other ideas everyone comes up with to be able rid the team of number five. These are Dan Girardi’s stats.

A career +46 defenseman with a +18 in a down year, and for anyone out there saying plus/minus is not important, just don’t forget that it literally means how many goals were scored when you were on the ice for vs against the team. It is arguably the most important statistic, especially for a defenseman.

Anyone out there that has watched a game of hockey this past season saw Dan Girardi was not his usual self this year. In an interview with SNY, he mentions it. However before we continue to bash Girardi and praise and miss Keith Yandle, let’s remember Yandle committed countless neutral zone turnovers, forced passes and in his year and a half in NY was only a +2. For those that say Yandle saw more ice time, actually, he saw less time than Girardi on average last season. Also before we get into the goals scored while on the ice statistic.

Also before we get into the goals scored while on the ice statistic, I’ll avoid conflict by saying, yes Girardi is a much less skilled OFFENSIVE player than Yandle was. Only 1 power play goal for with Girardi on the ice, 28 for Yandle. 5v5 61 total goals for vs 80 totals goals for respectively. I am not at all ignorant to the stats. Yes, even the 5 on 5 goals against swing in Yandle’s favor. Could this be because the majority of the ice time Yandle saw was on a man advantage?

Also, the numbers may tell a story that fans want to believe, but I can promise they won’t tell a story that shows this. This is the spark notes of the Yandle experiment in New York.

The reason why I compare these two players is because while fans are upset that Yandle left. They don’t see just how much of a liability he was. His offensive output makes his defense, or lack thereof, become an after thought. Also the argument of money, Yandle is now getting $6.35 million per year, so he is quite honestly just as bad if not worse of a defenseman making more money per year.

Before we toss Dan Girardi to the wolves let’s just take a second and give him some credit, he handled a demotion this season about as well as anyone could. He was playing with a broken knee cap for the majority of the season and then suffered a concussion just before the playoffs.

I am not unaware of what Dan Girardi looked like at times the past campaign, I just refuse to call him useless nor do I think he will be anything but an asset for the Rangers moving forward. I believe that while numbers never lie, they don’t tell the entire truth.

Next: New York Rangers: What the Key RFAs are Worth

Like Scott Hatteberg in Moneyball, nobody really wants Girardi, not even his own fan base. Yet also like Scott Hatteberg in Moneyball, Dan Girardi could be a huge part of the New York Rangers success this upcoming season.

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