New York Rangers: How to Rebuild On the Fly

A fact that many New York Rangers fans don’t want to admit is that the team needs to make lineup changes if it wants to stay competitive next season.

The counter-argument says the Rangers ran into the Pittsburgh Penguins in the first round, one of two teams playing for the Stanley Cup right now, meaning there aren’t as many issues as it may seem. However, over the course of the regular season, it became painfully clear that the current roster is in need of tweaking. If not for the hot start and the phenomenal play of Henrik Lundqvist, this consistently inconsistent roster definitely would not have made the playoffs in 2016. A complete blowup doesn’t need to happen, however some fresh faces need to be brought in.

The Wonder Twins

Marc Staal and Dan Girardi have affectionately been nicknamed ‘The Wonder Twins’, and not for good reasons. These two have continuously caused the Rangers to give up goal after goal, game after game. Staal was turning into a puck-moving force to be reckoned with before the injury to his eye derailed his progress and turned him into an unreliable player in his own end. A rumor that keeps surfacing sees Staal going to the Colorado Avalanche in exchange for Tyson Barrie, a player TSN analyst Bob McKenzie said on June 4 on TSN 1260 Edmonton, “There’s no question in my mind, I think Tyson Barrie is going to be traded.”

Dan Girardi has been awful since the end of the 2012 season, but moving that $6 million per-year contract that expires in 2020 will be next to impossible. Sadly a buyout would probably be the only way he leaves the Big Apple. Sure he has ‘grit’ and ‘heart’ and whatever other word advanced statistic deniers use to describe his play, but it’s not hard to see his struggles just by watching Girardi play on a game-to-game basis. The same people who defend Girardi simultaneously bash Keith Yandle—the first Rangers defenseman with 40+ assists in a season since Brian Leetch had 45 in 2001-2002.

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The Curious Case of Rick Nash

Before digging into other points, Nash has 18 points in his last 24 playoff games, most of those primary, so the argument of him being ‘invisible’ in the playoffs is easily debunked. He’s also a 200-foot player, doing a lot of little things that get overlooked by many fans. However, Nash has a hefty price tag. The Rangers don’t pay the power forward $7.9 million a year to score just 15 goals and 36 total points in 60 games (2015-16). Due to the lack of cap space the Rangers currently have, trading Nash could potentially be their only solution if the wonder twins stay in New York.

Learning From Other Teams

Last season, Pittsburgh got knocked out in the first round by the Rangers, and San Jose didn’t even make the postseason. Sharks fans called for a complete rebuild, and Pittsburgh was completely lost. Rangers general manager Jeff Gorton should puppet what these two franchises did to completely revamp their rosters. The Sharks brought in a smart coach while keeping aging players like Joe Thornton and Patrick Marleau. Adding valuable contributions like Joel Ward and Paul Martin solidified San Jose’s bottom six and defensive pairs, respectively.

New York doesn’t necessarily need to trade everybody of value, besides potentially Nash, because a young and dangerous core already exists. Fixing what isn’t the issue is not how to build a championship team. Pittsburgh certainly mastered the art of rebuilding on the fly when they hired Mike Sullivan mid-season and traded for Carl Hagelin, all the while getting invaluable contributions from new faces such as Matt Cullen and Nick Bonino. A dangerous bottom six, highlighted by Conor Sheary and Bryan Rust during this playoff run, only solidifies the notion that a team needs all four lines to have the ability to put the puck in the net. Tanner Glass, for example, while ‘gritty’ and ‘plays with heart,’ isn’t someone a team can count on to deliver when they need a goal.

Next: New York Rangers Won't Sign Three 2014 Draft Picks

This New York Rangers team doesn’t need to have a fire sale, however if it continues to stay put with obvious anchors, it won’t get very far in the foreseeable future.