New York Rangers News: Deeper Look Into Zibanejad Trade

My heart was racing.

We all expected the New York Rangers to make a big trade at some point this offseason. The dog days of summer had begun and we were without an earth-shattering trade to talk about. We actually really didn’t have anything too noteworthy to talk about other than topics that had been overdone here and in every other corner of New York Rangers media.

And then I got messages from the Blue Line Station staff.

Here I was eating my lunch just after I had gotten back to my house from the gym when I saw 3 back to back messages saying “what the hell”. When I saw those messages, I knew the Rangers had made a trade, and I was anxious to turn to the Twitter and find out who was involved. I had my suspicions, but your guess was as good as mine.

Then I saw this tweet…

And I froze.

I think I literally stared at my phone’s screen for 5 minutes straight, and no I was not looking at my Pokemon Go team during that stretch–which, by the way, is pretty awesome. My initial reaction after i had processed what I read was one of anger. How could the team trade one their best playoff performing forwards?

Derick Brassard was one of my two favorite current New York Rangers–the other being Mats Zuccarello. Whether it was the clutch goals, the heavy slapper, the energetic celebrations or how much he loved his teammates, I fell in love with Brassard from the first game he played in a Rangers uniform on April 4th 2013, when Brassard put up 4 points in a 6-1 rout of the Pittsburgh Penguins at the Garden.

But this trade makes a lot of sense.

Look, Derick Brassard is not one of the players that the Rangers should have been looking to trade. He was one of, if not, the best forward on the team. But for the return they got for him, they would have been stupid to pass it up.

Mika Zibanejad is a 23-year-old Swede who is developing into a potentially special player. He and Brassard–both former number 6 overall draft picks– are almost an offensive wash as of right now. Brassard had 7 more points than Zibanejad last season despite being started in the offensive zone less than Zibanejad (60.3 to 58.5). When it comes to faceoffs, the two virtually had the same numbers (Zibanejad has a 50.5 FO% to Brassard’s 50.4%). Zibanejad is slightly taller than Brassard and carries a bit more weight, but it shouldn’t really be too much of a factor. Zibanejad only landed 8 more hits than Brassard did last season. I think Brassard is currently the better player, but I do think Zibanejad has the potential to be the better player for years to come.

Zibanejad has had two straight 20 goal seasons. There are only 5 other players age 22 and younger in the league that have been able to accomplish that same feat according to New York Rangers Public Relations. Those 5; Filip Forsberg (NSH), Alex Galchenyuk (MTL), Johnny Guadreau (CGY), Nikita Kucherov (TB), and Sean Monahan (CGY). That is some phenomenal company.

Zibanejad’s point total has gone up every year of his NHL career. He had 33 points in 2013-2014, 46 points in 2014-2015, and 51 points last season. He is a guy that brings a lot of speed into the lineup with a sneaky good wrister and lots of hockey IQ. He is also an excellent penalty killer, which has been a trend in Rangers land this offseason. Zibanejad spent 1:25 per game killing off penalties for the Senators last season, which ranked third on the team in that particular stat. Zibanejad is also great in the clutch, as he led the Senators with 7 game-winning goals last season. Big Z is also a great shootout threat, scoring in 13 of his 28 chances in the post-overtime skills competition.

Zibanejad’s cap hit is also a lot smaller than Derick Brassard’s. His cap hit is $2.625 for next season compared to Derick Brassard’s $5 million cap hit. This will give the Rangers some more wiggle room in the ongoing Chris Kreider and Kevin Hayes contract negotiations, while also giving them the flexibility to add a little bit of salary in a future trade. Zibanejad will be a restricted free agent next summer.

This deal also gives the Rangers a right-handed shooting centerman, something that the team has lacked for a long while. Letting a young core of centers in Derek Stepan Zibanejad and Kevin Hayes develop should be fun for the Rangers and their fans, because that group has the potential to be deadly down the road.

Even if you said that the two players involved in this deal are even, then you still have to like how the Rangers came out of this trade because of the draft pick they received. They essentially received a 2nd round pick for a 7th round pick. That is obviously some fantastic value.

At the end of the day, this trade makes the Rangers better in the future, and possibly today as well. General Manager Jeff Gorton seems to agree. “He’s just scratching the surface,” Gorton said in a media availability after the trade was pushed through by the league. “At age 23 there’s not a lot of guys that have done what he has done as far as score 20 before that age. I think since he’s come in he’s gotten better every year.”

Next: New York Rangers Trade Derick Brassard to the Senators

I couldn’t agree any more with that assessment. Don’t look at this with your heart, trust me, it hurts like hell when you do. But when you think of this trade with your head in a rational state, you begin to realize that the Rangers may end up being the winners of this deal in jumbo sized proportions.

I’ll miss you Derick, but welcome to the club Mika. Score some goals for us pal.