New York Rangers: All things considered, it could be a lot worse

In professional sports, when a team struggles, the blame typically falls on the front office. Over time, if the front office consistently fails, the team’s ownership will bear the ire of fans.

All things considered, the New York Rangers are in okay shape. The franchise has a solid prospect pool, more than a few workable roster players and a G.M who has a plan. When a team consistently struggles overtime, it can typically chalked up to a lack of direction from the top. Thankfully, Rangers G.M Jeff Gorton is in the midst of carrying out the plan for a rebuild.

When it became apparent that the writing was on the wall last season, Gorton did not hold onto players on expiring contracts with hopes of simply making the playoffs. The G.M went for broke and got nice returns for all of his tradable assets. In fact, there are still players, Mats Zuccarello and Kevin Shattenkirk, that could still be moved because they do not fit the team’s window of contention.

On top of the fact that the team has a good pool of prospects, there are still exciting players on the roster. A healthy Chris Kreider that will turn 28 during the course of the season figures to chase down that ever elusive 30 goal mark. Will Brady Skjei bounce back from his sophomore slump? The point being, even if the Rangers are terrible record wise next season, there will still be storylines worth following.

The Rangers have a future worth keeping up on, in relation to other teams, their situation is enviable.

The Good the bad and the ugly

For as much parity as the NHL has, the same group of teams consistently end up in the bottom half of the league for the most part. As of the moment, there are a handful of teams, the Ottawa Senators, New York Islanders, Buffalo Sabres, Edmonton Oilers, Detroit Red Wings, Vancouver Canucks, Florida Panthers, Chicago Blackhawks and Montreal Canadiens that have no clear paths back to success.

This contingent of teams will likely be in the bottom ten of the entire league for the foreseeable future. Through chronic mismanagement and poor drafting, these teams simply don’t have the players to be good. They will simply tread water as teams in rebuilds, even though that implies that there is progress being made. In the Rangers case, there is clearly light at the end of the tunnel in the form of prospects.

For the Ranger fans cringing at the thought of missing the playoffs for the second straight year, this is where perspective comes in. The Rangers could have an owner that has no interest in catering to a fan base like the Senators. Instead, the Rangers owner, James Dolan, stays out of the way and lets the hockey people make his decisions. In fact, this is why the Rangers have been successful while the Knicks have been an utter disaster. Dolan meddles in the Knick’s affairs and reverts back to people he’s comfortable with instead of getting the right people.

The Rangers have a clear plan in place, David Quinn is here to bring along the young players and has time to do so. The team is going to be terrible next season, but that does not mean the team cannot benefit. It is important to keep perspective on the overall health of the franchise, and the Rangers are going to get worse before they get better.