New York Rangers: Can the draft get here already?
The long slog of an offseason is slowly driving Rangerstown insane. The sooner the draft comes, the sooner everything goes back to normal.
After watching nearly four rounds of the NHL postseason, most Ranger fans are ready for the draft. It seems like an eternity ago since New York laid an egg on the last day of the season against the Philadelphia Flyers. Sitting on the couch for as long as the Rangers have is a relatively weird thing around these parts. All things considered, the team had not missed the playoffs since the 2010 season.
Aside from the dismissal of former head coach Alain Vigneault, every part of the offseason has developed slowly. The Rangers dismissed Vigneault just mere hours after their season finale. After that, the team took a long hard look at the coaching market. Long after the two other teams without head coaches found their picks, the David Quinn rumor mill picked up.
After ruling himself out early in the process, the Quinn train picked up during the last week of the IIHF World Championships. Larry Brooks of the New York Post reported that Quinn was the Rangers guy on a Saturday. By the following Wednesday, Quinn was behind the podium with Jeff Gorton, Glen Sather and Chris Drury flanking him.
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Now that the team has some semblance of an identity and a message, fans are getting antsy. With a shade over three weeks until the entry draft, the armchair general managers and trade insiders are out in full force.
The rumor mill
The most powerful force between the end of a team’s season and the entry draft is the rumor mill. Players that have not even sat down with their respective team to discuss extensions have already been shipped out according to the internet rumors. For example, with little traction, TSN has Nashville Predators defenseman listed as the tenth best piece of trade bait.
That is after Subban had a Norris trophy caliber season for a team that finished a few points away from the President’s trophy. The lunacy of the rumor mill can make things seem inevitable, even when they are just pure speculation. Remember when there was absolutely no chance that Erik Karlsson would be an Ottawa Senator following the trade deadline? That move never came to fruition even though the Vegas Golden Knights came close.
Just this week, the rumored asking price for both Jeff Skinner and Ryan O’Reilly made its way across the internet. With more talented players out there for the taking, especially at a reasonable cost, the feeding frenzy commenced. The arm chair general managers were ready to throw Kevin Hayes and one of the team’s first round picks by the way-side for the very same player who once drove his pickup truck into a Tim Horton’s under the influence of alcohol.
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The point being, the anxiety surrounding the unknown is driving everyone crazy. The Rangers just need the draft to get here so everyone can exhale. The state of next year’s roster is still very much up in the air because of the numerous holes still in place. On top of that, just two weeks after the draft, the free agency window opens.