It has been a rocky road for the New York Rangers since Jeff Gorton took over as general manager. With that said, he has set up a future that looks bright and promising.
The past couple of years have not ended like most New York Rangers fans were expecting.
After watching the team make the Eastern Conference Finals in 2012 and 2015 and get to the Stanley Cup Finals in 2014, the past three seasons have led to disappointment for most. The Rangers haven’t had success in the playoffs and most likely won’t even touch postseason hockey this season.
The team began to underperform when Jeff Gorton took over as general manager, replacing Glen Sather.
In the latter stages of Sather’s tenure, he helped bring fans multiple years of playoff success. But it came at a cost.
To reach the success that the Rangers had once again, Sather sent away a large portion of its future. Many first-round picks and top prospects were shipped out in order to bring in veterans like Martin St. Louis and Keith Yandle.
Sather threatened the future of the organization in order to bring a Stanley Cup back to New York. While there were years of playoff success, the Rangers never achieved that ultimate goal, so in the summer of 2015, a change had to be made.
Gorton stated that he wasn’t going to give away the future of the team anymore and that changes would be made.
He didn’t stray too far from the status quo in his first year though.
During his first trade deadline as the general, he sent away two second-round picks and Aleksi Saarela to the Carolina Hurricanes for Eric Staal.
Ultimately, that move did not work out as the New York Rangers wanted it to. The Blueshirts were handily eliminated by the Pittsburgh Penguins in the first round of the playoffs and Eric Staal moved onto the Minnesota Wild in the offseason.
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A changing of the guard
In that offseason, Gorton sent Derrick Brassard and a seventh-round pick to the Ottawa Senators for Mika Zibanejad and a second-rounder.
That deal was the precursor to Gorton’s overall mission as GM; become a younger, quicker, and cheaper team.
Out went Derek Stepan, Dan Girardi, and Kevin Klein. In came Kevin Shattenkirk and Tony DeAngelo. The emergence of Pavel Buchnevich and Brady Skjei also made a tangible impact on the team as the youth movement ensued.
This year’s trade deadline was no different, as the Rangers moved Ryan McDonagh, Rick Nash, J.T. Miller, Michael Grabner, and Nick Holden. They brought in some prospects and young roster players like Ryan Spooner and Vlad Namestnikov.
Gorton’s work is not done yet, but at this moment, he has drastically changed the path of the Rangers’ future.
The change in current roster players is substantial, but most importantly, the Rangers now have an abundance of draft picks and cap space that they haven’t had in years.
The Rangers didn’t have a first round pick from 2013-2016, but have three first round picks for the upcoming NHL Entry Draft in June.
They also have plenty of cap space to go after young, talented free agents to speed up the rebuilding process.
It is difficult to tell if Gorton is doing a good job, but the answer will become clear soon. One thing that is for sure is that Gorton has given the Rangers many valuable assets to work with.
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The future is bright, and the moves that Gorton has made are the reason for that.