Should the New York Rangers Re-tool or Rebuild?

New York Rangers Future at Jeopardy

The New York Rangers season ended with a whimper in a 6-3 drubbing from the Pittsburgh Penguins in Game 5 of the first-round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs. The Rangers were outscored 21-10 in the series, including 11-3 in the final two games. The better team won the series, but where does that leave the Rangers—a win-now team that didn’t win now.

Do the New York Rangers blow it up completely, or do they try and move some pieces around to be competitive again?

Rebuilding would seem like the most sense, given the amount of money the Rangers have tied into this team right now, but they still have one thing that will keep them from rebuilding completely: Henrik Lundqvist. He’s been the backbone of the team since he became the starter, and he signed a long-term extension because he wanted to compete for the cup every year.

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So that leaves re-tooling, which can end up with mixed results. On one hand, you can look at the Boston Bruins as a team that has re-tooled their roster since flaming out in the playoffs in 2013. They traded away Milan Lucic, made some questionable free-agent signings and trades (looking at you, Adam McQuaid and Zac Rinaldo) and have missed the playoffs the last two seasons. So, yeah, that re-tool didn’t work quite as planned.

On the other hand, you can look at the San Jose Sharks as a successful team that re-tooled. After blowing a 3-0 lead to the Los Angeles Kings in 2013, the Sharks reshuffled the deck; only eight players—nine if you include Marc-Edouard Vlasic, who missed the game due to injury—that played in that Game 7 are on the team now. They let some of their veterans with high cap hits—Martin Havlat and Dan Boyle, for example—walk, changed coaches after missing the playoffs last year, got a bonafide starting goaltender and got younger and deeper. The result? They just beat the Kings in five games, and are a legitimate contender.

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The New York Rangers can’t afford to rebuild; at least not as long as Henrik Lundqvist is still putting up .920 SV% year after year. Can the Rangers re-tool their roster? Absolutely.

Sure, they have horrible contracts on the books, like the Dan Girardi and Marc Staal disasters, but there are plenty of ways to get creative with retaining salary and teams that need to reach the salary floor. There could also, you know, just be some teams that think Girardi and Staal are still top pairing hockey players—Rinaldo was traded to the Bruins for a third-round pick. Let that sink in for a second.

The New York Rangers can definitely re-tool this roster by making some simple decisions: trade one of Girardi/Staal for whatever assets you can get; re-sign Keith Yandle at all costs; let Eric Staal go in free agency; re-sign your young players; and, if for some reason, the coach can’t make the right lineup decisions, then Alain Vigneault should be let go.

The “window” for this group has been emphatically shut. It’s up to the Rangers’ management to open it back up.

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