New York Rangers paid a lot for their Championship runs

It has been 24 years and counting since the last Stanley Cup ticker tape parade.  For the last decade the New York Rangers have done everything to try to win, but failed. Instead of criticizing them for trying, Rangers fans should be grateful that they have been blessed with a contender every season.

Now take a step back and imagine this…

The clock read 1.6 seconds.

Dominic Moore was ready to take the faceoff against Jonathan Toews to the right of Henrik Lundqvist. The noise was deafening with everyone at Madison Square Garden on their feet. With the score 2-1 in their favor, the Rangers were on the verge of winning the 2015 Stanley Cup.

The puck was dropped and Moore won the draw. The puck skidded towards the boards and the game was over. The Stanley Cup was finally back in the Big Apple for the first time in 75 years.  Delirious fans chanted “1940” for the first time with joy instead of despair. The drought, one of the longest in professional sports, was finally over.

Gary Bettman handed the Cup to captain Ryan McDonagh who circled the ice once before handing the trophy to Martin St. Louis. The King was next, as befitted the winner of the Conn Smythe Award as Playoff MVP.  From Lundqvist, the Cup went to Keith Yandle, the late season acquisition who assisted on both Ranger goals in the clinching game.

At last, the Rangers could erase 75 years of frustration and near misses. Somewhere in the Garden was Neil Smith, who had been vilified for trading away a future all-star team in 1994 in an attempt to end the drought. It was all for naught as Bernie Nicholls’ goal in triple overtime of game seven of the Conference Finals ended their season, in a game that the Devils had tied with only seconds remaining. Gone was the anguish of seeing the Devils go on to win their first Stanley Cup in five games against the Vancouver Canucks.

Ranger fans, fearing the same result had protested in 2014 when the team traded Ryan Callahan and two first round picks to Tampa for St. Louis. Their predictions came true when the team came ups short against Los Angeles in the Finals. There were calls for Glen Sather’s head when he traded rising star Anthony Duclair and draft choices for Yandle.

But all was forgotten as the team passed the Cup from player to player and the fans stood together to salute their heroes. One fan held up a sign that read “Now I Can Die in Peace.”

Back to reality

Okay. We all know that this didn’t happen, but it easily could have. For years, the team has been criticized for “mortgaging” their future only to fall short. They did the same in 1994 with one major difference. They won.

It’s worth looking at what the Rangers gave up in order to win that Cup. It’s staggering. The trades the Rangers made were so one-sided, if they had not won it would have gone down as the worst series of trades in sports history.

Here is a chart showing the players the Rangers traded away and what they did in regular seasons after leaving New York:

The 1994 Playoff Run

Here’s what the players the Rangers acquired accomplished as Blueshirts.

Here were the deals:

Tony Amonte to Chicago for Stephane Matteau and Brian Noonan

Amonte played almost three seasons for the Rangers. He scored 35 goals in his rookie season, 33 in his sophomore season. He slumped to 16 in 72 games and fell out of favor with “Iron” Mike Keenan. In his nine-year career, he scored 416 goals including 268 goals for Chicago.

Brian Noonan played the entire strike-shortened 1995 season for the Rangers, scoring 14 goals before being traded to St. Louis.  He later returned to NY for a half season.  He ended up with 24 goals in 101 games as a Ranger.

Stephane Matteau played less than two full seasons in New York, scoring 11 goals. Of course, he scored THE GOAL in game seven of the Conference Finals.

The totals?  Amonte scored 332 goals after leaving while  Matteau and Noonan scored a combined 35 goals as Rangers.

Todd Marchant to Edmonton for Craig MacTavish

Todd Marchant’s played all of one game as a Ranger without scoring a point. For Edmonton, he played 10 years, scoring 136 goals and 207 assists for 343 points. With stops in Columbus and Anaheim, he played 19 years in the NHL and finished with 186 goals and 312 assists for 498 points.

Craig MacTavish played the last 12 games of the season and the playoffs. He won the most famous faceoff in Ranger history, then signed with Philadelphia and played four more years.

The totals? 186 goals and 498 points for Marchant. Four goals and six points for MacTavish.

Doug Weight to Edmonton for Esa Tikkanen

Current Islanders coach Doug Weight was a top prospect for the Rangers, scoring eight goals as a rookie and 15 goals by the trade deadline in 1993. He lasted 19 years in the NHL, scoring 278 goals and amassing 1,033 points. He played most of his career with Edmonton, but also played for four other teams.

Esa Tikkanen played parts of two seasons in New York, scoring 23 goals, but was traded to St. Louis for Petr Nedved after winning the Cup.  He came back to New York at the end of the 1997 season and scored one goal in 14 games.

The totals? Weight scored 255 goals after leaving. Tikkanen scored 25 goals as a Ranger.

Mike Gartner to Toronto for Glenn Anderson

Mike Gartner was one of the greatest goal scorers in NHL history.  In his almost four full seasons as a Ranger he averaged over 40 goals per season. Mike Keenan felt that Gartner was not a winner and at the deadline he was dealt to Toronto. Gartner played four more years in Toronto and Phoenix, scoring 91 goals.

In Glenn Anderson, they got a player who had scored over 400 goals and won five Stanley Cups in Edmonton. He played in New York  the last 12 regular season games in 1994 and after the season, he signed as a free agent with St. Louis. His career ended two seasons later as he scored scored 18 more goals.

In the 1994 playoff run, Anderson played all 23 games and had three goals and three assists .  Ironically, the Maple Leafs made it to the Western Conference Finals before being eliminated. In 18 games that spring, Gartner scored five goals and had six assists for 11 points.

Is it possible that the Rangers would have won the Cup with Gartner instead of Anderson?  Judged on productivity, the answer is a resounding yes. Since Gartner never won the Cup, the 1994 Rangers were his best shot at winning it all and it is a tragedy he wasn’t able to do it.

The totals? Mike Gartner scored 91 goals for two teams while Anderson scored four goals as a Ranger.

Darren Turcotte and James Patrick to Hartford for Steve Larmer and Nick Kypreos

Darren Turcotte was a young center who could score. In four full seasons in New York, he scored 113 goals with a high of 30 in 1992.  James Patrick was a former first round draft pick who anchored the defense for ten years until Brian Leetch came along. After the trade Turcotte played six more seasons with 73 goals. Patrick continued his high level of play for 10 more years in the NHL.

Larmer was a holdout in Chicago who forced a trade to Hartford in November. The same day, the Whalers swapped him to New York. He played two full season with the Rangers and scored 35 goals before retiring. Nick Kypreos played parts of two season in New York and scored seven goals as a physical forward.

The totals? Turcotte scored 73 goals while Patrick played ten more years in the NHL. Larmer scored 35 goals and Kypreos had seven goals.

To recap

Almost 4,500 games versus less than 600. A thousand goals compared to 100. Over 10 times as many points with over 2,600. By 1996 none of the players acquired by the Rangers were still with the team. In exchange for Tony Amonte, Darren Turcotte, James Patrick, Mike Gartner, Doug Weight and Todd Marchant, the Rangers had Petr Nedved to show for those deals.

By the numbers, what the Rangers gave up was mindboggling.  Three years later, when the Rangers signed Wayne Gretzky he had no support and that forced more ill-fated deals to acquire Jari Kurri, Ulf Samuelsson and Luc Robitaille. The final result? A seven playoff drought, the longest streak in Ranger history. But no one cares because they won the Stanley Cup.

The 2011-2017 Rangers playoff runs

Since that drought, the Rangers made the postseason 12 times in 14 years. In the last six years that included a trip to the Stanley Cup Finals and two Eastern Conference Finals. Only Pittsburgh, Los Angeles and Chicago have done the same. What did it take to do this? It took a series of what in hindsight were really bad deals.

1. 2013 and 2014 second round pick, 2013 third round pick for Ryan Clowe
2. 2013 first round pick, Brandon Dubinsky, Artem Anisimov and Tim Erixon for Rick Nash and a 2013 third round pick.
3. 2014 and 2015 first rounds picks and Ryan Callahan for Martin St. Louis and a 2015 2nd round pick.
4. 2015 second round pick, 2016 first round pick, Anthony Duclair and John Moore for Keith Yandle, Chris Summers and a 2015 fourth round pick.
5. 2016 fourth round pick for James Sheppard.
6. 2017 second round pick, 2016 second round pick and prospect Aleksi Saarela for Eric Staal.
7. 2017 third round pick and a 2018 second round pick for Brendan Smith.

At the end of the 2017-18 season the  New York Rangers had exactly one player to show for all of these deals.  That was Pavel Buchnevich, the third round pick from 2013 acquired in the Rick Nash deal.

Sure, these were horrible deals, but they were awful for one reason; The Rangers never won the Cup.

Next: The only way signing Tavares makes sense

Now that the Rangers have joined the bottom dwellers and have missed the playoffs, all Rangers fans should be thankful that the team rolled the dice and they tried. If they won the Cup in 2014 or 2015, all of these deals would be a faint memory like the trades that helped the Rangers win it all in 1994.