The New York Rangers acquired Adam McQuaid from the Boston Bruins for spare parts. That’s all the veteran defenseman is, a spare part.
It does not take much to incite Rangerstown when it comes to any front office decision. The instant a trade is announced, everyone races to their phone to fire off a tweet to sound the most intelligent. Often, this rush to sound smarter than everyone else leads to an excess of snark and a forecast of gloom and doom. The New York Rangers will be okay even though they traded for Adam McQuaid.
Adding a veteran right-handed defenseman with a bit of snarl to their game in a rebuilding year does not throw the rebuild off course. The Rangers did not trade away a first round pick or a blue chip prospect. General Manager Jeff Gorton sent a fringe NHL player, Steven Kampfer, and a fourth round pick (as well as a conditional seventh) to Boston. Last time I checked, Kampfer was a below average replacement player.
In all seriousness, McQuaid has a single year remaining on his contract and does not figure into the Rangers’ longterm plans for the future. A soon to be 32 year old defenseman does not exactly fit the model of a rebuilding piece. In addition to his physical style, McQuaid is simply a warm body to prevent a younger player from getting thrown to the wolves.
There are other arguments to be had about the trade, but simply the merits of the trade are nothing to be concerned about. The former Bruin is a replacement level right handed defenseman with a bit of a bite to his game as Cody McLeod can attest to.
The best case scenario
If McQuaid cracks the opening night lineup as the third pair defenseman on the right side, he figures to be a part of the team for this season. Being that the soon to be 23-year-old Tony DeAngelo is running out of chances at the NHL level, the veteran defenseman could be a death knell to his development.
Being that DeAngelo now has to pass waivers to go to the AHL, the Rangers are married to him. If he starts the season in the NHL, he has to stay or another team will likely claim him. The ideal situation here is a rotation of the two with one serving as the seventh defenseman. In terms of style of play, they are polar opposites from each other.
DeAngelo is a silky skating, bullet pass firing puck moving defenseman without a physical bone in his body. On the other hand, McQuaid is as old school as they come and will be sure to crack some skulls during the course of an 82 game season. Coming off of a fibula injury, it’ll be important to see if McQuaid still has his legs under him after missing most of last season and briefly returning for the playoffs.
Best case scenario is McQuaid being an occasional starter used to give the wounded a night off here and there. Being that this is the NHL, injuries are going to happen, it’s just a matter of when. Keeping a serviceable veteran like McQuaid around as insurance is a wise move.
The worse case scenario
On the other hand, if the Rangers decide they’re going for high floor low ceiling in a rebuilding year, McQuaid could be playing second pair minutes. Now, the thought of McQuaid skating alongside Marc Staal would move the needle if it was 2012, but in 2018, it’d be punting on 17 minutes per night.
Neither defenseman has the ability to skate at the level required for today’s NHL. While they’re both passable players with the right partner, neither is gonna look good trying to keep up with an odd man rush. So, if the Rangers decide they want to try and hang around in games and go for a high floor season, they’d roll with McQuaid most nights.
Not everything has to be an earth shattering move that alters the course of history. There is no sense in getting irate over a depth defenseman. Rangers’ hockey must be on the horizon if everyone is frantic over a short term stop gap move.