New York Rangers: Is Kevin Shattenkirk part of the Rangers future?

The New York Rangers marquee free agent signing from last summer had a solid start to the season before his injury caught up to him. At age 29, does he fit the direction of the organization?

It is safe to say that this season did not go to plan for the Rangers or for Kevin Shattenkirk. The 11 year NHL veteran signed with his childhood favorite team on July 1st last summer. At the time, this was viewed as the move that put New York over the top. It addressed their biggest team weakness, a lack of a playmaker on the blue line.

Unfortunately for the veteran defenseman things got off to a terrible start. In the preseason, Shattenkirk suffered a torn meniscus ligament. The ligament absorbs shock in the knee to keep the joint stable. The defenseman and the Rangers made the conscious decision to play through the injury on a pain management system.

The injury is manageable in the short term. However, expecting Shattenkirk to play the entire regular season on a torn meniscus was unrealistic. The team’s fortune, like Shattenkirk, has gone south and it has resulted in a roster overhaul.

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The pre-trade deadline moves have brought the future of the Rangers organization into question. The front office has shipped out players of Shattenkirk’s stature like Ryan McDonagh and Rick Nash. This naturally presents the question: does the organization’s window match Shattenkirk’s age? Will a soon to be 30-year-old defenseman coming off of meniscus surgery fit with the team’s direction?

The track record

In his NHL career, Shattenkirk has proven himself a good, borderline elite player. Thus far, the defenseman has 321 points in 536 career games. This averages out to 49.1 points per 82 games, a number comprabable to most top pair defenseman in the league. In terms of recent Rangers history, Ryan McDonagh averaged 37.9 points per 82 games and Keith Yandle averaged 46.4 points per 82 games.

Of all defenseman in recent Rangers history, Shattenkirk has far and away the best conventional offensive stats. Going further than that, his posession metrics compare favorably to others the team has relied on. For his NHL career, Shattenkirk has a Corsi For Percentage of 53.1%. This means that when Shattenkirk is on the ice, his team has 53.1% of the shots. These stats are bolstered by the fact that the defenseman has started 57.8 % of the time in the defensive zone for his career.

Using his Rangers contemporaries as a baseline, there is only one player that is comprabale in terms of CF%: Anton Stralman. The defenseman hasn’t been with the Rangers since 2014, but his career posession numbers, 53.1 CF% and 53.6% offensive zone starts are the strongest of any player in this championship window. It should be noted that playing with Victor Headman the last three seasons has bolstered Stralman’s numbers.

Based off of his play in the past, it’s clear that Shattenkirk is a very good if not great hockey player. His play with the Rangers got off to a strong start this season, but as the season developed, his injury caught up with him.

The contract

The team friendly contract that Shattenkirk signed last summer is one of the best moves that general manager Jeff Gorton has made. The four year deal came with a cap hit of 6.65 million per season. This was considered a discount that the defenseman took in regards to both term and salary. On the open market Shattenkirk realistically could’ve drawn north of $7 million per season for five years.

The first season of the defenseman’s four year deal came with a full no-movement clause. This means that unelss Shattenkirk approved, he could not be traded anywhere. The next three years on the deal have limited no-movement clauses where he would submit a list of teams he would not be willing to accept a trade to. For the 2018-2019 and 2019-2020 seasons, he picks 10 teams. The final year of the contract, 2020-2021, has Shattenkirk pick eight.

This is a reasonable contract that would be fairly easy to move based on the New Rochelle native’s track record.

The window

The factor working against Shattenkirk is time. The defenseman will turn 30 years old on Janurary 29th of 2019 and it is very possible the Rangers will not contend next season. It is too early to tell what the team’s goal for next season will be. The draft and free agency period will be an indicator of the team’s status for next year.

The players the team acquired at the trade deadline are still well off from being NHL ready. Ryan Lindgren, Yegor Rykov, Brett Howden, and Libor Hajek are all at least one year if not more away from being NHL ready. On top of that, their three brightest home grown talents, Filip Chytil, Lias Andersson and Igor Shestyorkin are unproven on the NHL level.

Combine the uncertainty of prospect development and the team’s current roster means that contending is at least two years out barring a major trade. If the Rangers were to say, trade for Erik Karlsson, this might be streamlined.

That would make Shattenkirk 31 years old by the time the Rangers might be able to even sniff the playoffs. This means that the organization may be better off trying to trade the defenseman to recoup more assets that would fit in that window. It is a difficult pill to swallow that things may not work out for Shattenkirk. It was rumoured that he wanted to sign with the Rangers for years before finally getting the chance.

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If the Rangers were to unceremoniously dump Shattenkirk in an effort to recoup assets, it would be a hard sell. The team’s direction is unclear at the moment, but there is definitley a means in which the veteran can be a contributor.