New York Rangers: Why Rick Nash and Michael Grabner will be Rangers next season
The Rangers free fall into mediocrity continues and with that trade talks are swirling. Rick Nash and Michael Grabner could be on the block, but that doesn’t mean goodbye forever.
The Rangers are an outright bad hockey team. There were small signs of hope following a poor start of the season. Then the team turned things around and suddenly the preseason talks of a deep postseason run came back. Now, those seem like a distant memory as the team is in free fall mode and the bottom still seems far away.
The Rangers have secured just five regulation wins in the past two months. The team is 3-7 in their last ten games. That mark is tied for the worst in the league. The Rangers are currently dead last in the Metropolitan division. This year seems like a lost cause which prompted team President Glen Sather and general manager Jeff Gorton to publicly say so on Thursday afternoon.
With the Rangers as active sellers on the market, two players who are likely to move are Rick Nash and Michael Grabner. Both will have high value and both will be sorely missed by New York. However, they won’t be gone for long. Both will be blue shirts once again when the Rangers resign them in the offseason.
Both players have spoken about how much they’ve enjoyed playing in New York. Specifically, Nash made comments about how hard it would be for his son that he did not play for the Rangers anymore. He also acknowledged the fact that its a business, but the organization has treated him the way players should be treated in his situation.
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Rick Nash-
Plain and simple, Nash loves New York. This isn’t some sort of insider secret. Nash has said multiple times that he is a fan of everything about being a Ranger. The one knock on the winger is that he holds a 7.8 million dollar cap hit with him. That will change however, as Nash is set to hit the open market at the conclusion of this season.
He will end up in New York for a few reasons. One, he is familiar with the organization. The Rangers love Nash, Nash loves them and I doubt a trade will bring bad blood between the two teams. Two, Nash loves the area and the city itself. As we saw on the Road to the Winter Classic, Nash is raising a family. He even said that he would like to raise the family in New York.
The biggest thing to overcome will be salary. Nash is a player with a name who can command high caliber money. The problem is his play hasn’t dictated what he has been paid for the last five seasons or so. The Rangers may be the only team who Nash would consider a discount for. There could be a team out there that would offer him top dollar, but I believe that Nash is serious about a return to New York and Sather and Gorton can persuade him to come for a reasonable price.
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Michael Grabner-
Grabner seems like the easier one to me. I think he will be a heavily sought after player for the Rangers this offseason. He has been so good for the team over the last two seasons. He seems like a natural fit on the team. Not only chemistry wise as a locker room presence, but chemistry wise on the ice as well.
In Grabner’s two seasons with the Rangers he has potted 48 goals. He has been a constant threat at five on five and shorthanded. New York may love him as a fit even more so than Rick Nash. The one plus with Grabner over Nash is that he will undoubtedly come with a lower price tag, even if Nash takes a pay cut.
Grabner will come back for a different reason than Nash. While Nash will want to come to New York because of a home town discount and his love for the city, Grabner will come back cause he will be highly sought after by New York. If anything, the Rangers will try to pay Grabner extra. He should be a Ranger for years to come.
The Bottom Line-
Both Nash and Grabner will be back. The Rangers have a path where they can sell at the deadline and still add them back in the summer. There may be a slight part of me that is wishful for this to happen, but I think logically there is a way to back things up as well.
Nash will take a home town discount and Grabner will be pursued until the Rangers are able to get him. It would be great to see both back in a Rangers sweater for another few seasons.