The New York Rangers are in the midst of a total roster overhaul. With so much of the NHL being a feeling out process, there is a ton up in the air.
As in any other part of life, one man’s trash can be another man’s treasure. In the case of the NHL, there are wildly varying evaluations as to what a player’s performance is worth. The old boy’s club of hockey rears its head when it comes to the development of a roster. If a player does not fit the mold that a hockey executive is accustomed to, they have a bad attitude.
During the window between the end of the Stanley Cup Final and the start of the free agency period, nothing is concrete. With all 31 organizations staring each other down and working the phones, the fluidity of the league is never at a higher point. With little else to do on the agenda, general managers take a long hard look at their roster and determine what is and is not expendable.
It is during this period that teams shoot for the fences. With the draft looming on the horizon, there is an eagerness to make things happen. However, with such varying degrees of talent evaluation, it is hard to understand just what some teams might be interested in. This is where the drastic and eye opening one for one trades develop.
For the Rangers, it is important to keep things in perspective during this window. The team should look to build out through the draft and only make a trade if it makes sense. Capitalizing on other team’s differing means of player evaluation could help speed things up.
What exactly is “good?”
The english language is based on the premise that we all agree on the same definitions of certain words. In the hockey world, the definition of good varies from organization to organization. For some franchises, a good character player is worth more than a talented bottom six player. In a vacuum this seems counter intuitive to the concept of team sports. Typically, the goal for constructing a roster is to accumulate as many good players as possible.
Yet, for some organizations, this is not the case. Take the Montreal Canadiens for example. At face value, the team has made some outright terrible trades in the past calendar year. Swapping P.K. Subban, Mikhail Sergachev and Alex Galchenyuk for Shea Weber, Jonathan Drouin and Max Domi looks horrendous on paper. The Canadiens however would say that they are cultivating a specific type of culture which the players they traded did not fit.
Yet, logically, this is not the case. Montreal has missed the postseason two of the last three seasons and likely would have missed it all three with Alex Radulov had not had a strong comeback season. But, in house, the Canadiens think those trades made their team better as a whole. This is due to them having a different definition as to what a quality hockey team is.
Jeff Gorton’s magic phone
Looking at Rangers general manager Jeff Gorton’s track record, he seems to have a decent grip as to what a good trade looks like. With the exception of the Eric Staal trade two years ago, he has capitalized on the value of his assets. This should allow Gorton to properly make moves during this lead up to the draft.
According to Larry Brooks of the New York Post, Kevin Hayes is the player that Gorton has fielded the most calls on during the lead up to the draft. In addition to that, Brooks has repeatedly written that the Rangers are expected to be as active during the draft as they were at the trade deadline. If those to pieces of context are added together, it is likely that the team will be making another big trade very soon.
If Gorton can turn his glut of centers into a quality winger and defenseman, he will have done well for himself. The Rangers need to take advantage of other organization’s who put a value on different traits or skills. In the same vain as the Canadiens trading Galchenyuk for Domi, the Rangers could swap Hayes for Noah Hanifin or Jacob Trouba.
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New York just needs to find a team that does not have the same definition as to what a quality player is. In particular, those Edmonton Oilers have a bizarre definition as to what their hockey team is about. If Gorton were smart, he would be playing phone tag with both Peter Chiarelli and Marc Bergevin consistently during the lead up to the draft.