New York Rangers: Analyzing Jeff Gorton’s Job So Far
By David Bruce
Jeff Gorton has made his mark on the Rangers in his short tenure as Rangers GM, though questions remain about his team building ability. Here is how Gorton has impacted the team so far.
When Glen Sather and the New York Rangers finally parted ways, it felt like a positive change of image was on its way. The old way of doing things was on its way out, and a younger GM who was considered more in touch with today’s game took the reigns.
When Gorton traded Aleksi Saarela for Eric Staal, questions arose about his abilities, and if he would truly bring the desired change to New York. Many also believed that, despite the change in office position, Glen Sather was still in Gorton’s ear as an advisor, and the Staal trade was indicative of this.
With the 2016-17 season wrapping up without a big splash at the deadline, an atypical move for a big market team like the Rangers, the focus shifted to Gorton again, with many believing that Gorton was finally free of Sather’s influence and was able to fully make his own decisions. In spite of this, some curiosities still remain: how much blame does he deserve for the team’s faults? Has he been as good a general manager as it may appear?
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Alain Vigneault Drives The Rollercoaster
The number one concern has been coach Alain Vigneault’s pressure on Gorton. This arose when Tanner Glass made his return to the Rangers after spending most of his season in the AHL with Hartford.
This season’s roster implied Gorton’s desire to ice a speedy, skilled team with depth throughout the lineup, but coach Vigneault may have had other ideas.
In this case, Gorton deserves some blame for not standing his ground about the team’s style, but it is also important to keep an amicable relationship between coach and GM. It is possible that Gorton knew the move would not be permanent, and agreed to it with Vigneault in the hopes that it wouldn’t stifle the development of young players like Pavel Buchnevich and Jimmy Vesey.
What Gorton deserves a lot of credit for is the vision he has for this team. While they have struggled this year, it has been difficult for him to do much with the defense as currently constructed. Most of them have little value, and the Rangers also lack prospects with which to acquire high quality defensemen.
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The Disastrous Defense
Acquiring a defenseman without sacrificing a top forward or first round pick was smart, and holding fast on waiting to acquire Shattenkirk may, too, prove to be a positive move. Should the Rangers keep Brendan Smith, buy out Girardi, trade Klein, and sign Shattenkirk in the offseason, Gorton will look like a genius. Early signs point to this being Gorton’s end game.
Whether he is able to reconstruct the defense will not be known until next year, or even the year after, but it is clear he has a much better understanding of the current game than his predecessor. With that knowledge of Gorton’s vision, it should be expected that he will have a strong summer and build the team the way it needs to be to put a winning product on the ice.
Final Thoughts:
For Gorton, the difficulty in managing the Rangers is being under the pressure of a large market. He knows that, unlike smaller market teams, a from-scratch rebuild would not be positively received by fans. He must build a competitive team every year out of what he is given and rebuild on the fly. Despite the struggles and weaknesses the team has, he has managed to do just that.
The way this season has gone, it is difficult to truly judge Gorton, as there is only so much he can do with the team as it is now. This summer and the following season will be the true test of Gorton’s ability to build a roster.
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He has the modern hockey vision, that much is known. What he, as well as the rest of the staff, does with that vision remains to be seen. As for today, Gorton deserves a lot of credit for doing what he has so far with such minimal resources.