Thankfully, the owner of the New York Rangers, James Dolan, focuses a majority of his energy on his other franchise, the New York Knicks. In this alternate universe, the roles are flipped and Dolan cares more about hockey.
For the sixth straight year, the New York Rangers have missed the playoffs and have a tiny bit of hope on the horizon. Following two years in which a surprising combination of aging players got the team into the postseason, the bottom fell out. With James Dolan’s incessant meddling, the Rangers have had three coaches in five years and three G.M.s in the same span.
This constant turmoil and shortsighted decisions have hamstrung the organization. Trading Brandon Dubinsky, Artem Anisimov and a first round pick for Martin St. Louis back in 2013 was a move that made sense in theory, but it was an overpay and a quick fix to a long-term problem.
The 2011-2012 team that made a surprising playoff run based on defense needed goal scoring. So, instead of letting the homegrown talent develop, or waiting for a player to reach free agency, Dolan overruled then G.M. Brian Leetch and forced the trade through. On a top-heavy team, St.Louis wasn’t able to produce at nearly as high a level as expected and failed to make an impact.
Following a first-round exit in the 2013 lockout season, coach John Tortorella was let go and Mark Messier was hired. In the alternate timeline, the former captain of the Rangers got the job he’s always lobbied for, but unlike playing hockey, Messier didn’t take to coaching.
Instead of making the Stanley Cup Final in 2013-2014, the Rangers had the bottom fall out. The team’s defense first system didn’t generate enough offense to win games and the blame fell with the coach. The ugly feud between Messier and Dolan turned the fan base against the organization and things only got worse from there.
New York has a top-five pick and instead of taking William Nylander or Leon Draisaitl, Leetch selects defenseman Haydn Fleury. The defenseman plays less than ten NHL games to the present day. This bad draft pick made things only worse and the core of the team slowly started to leave in free agency.
The mess
Being that the team was such a mess, none of Kevin Hayes, Jimmy Vesey or Neal Pionk signed with the organization as college free agents. With a front office drafting poorly, and no college free agents to supplement the aging team, it’s forced to overpay average players in free agency.
All of this is done under the backdrop of Henrik Lundqvist needing a contract extension to go into the 2014-2015 season. Since everything is going wrong at once, the Rangers were presented with two choices. Trade the goaltender away and try to recoup assets or overpay in a contract extension.
But, since these are Dolan’s Rangers, the team opts to sign and trade Lundqvist to the Toronto Maple Leafs for Morgan Reilly, Connor Brown and a first round pick. This leaves the Rangers with no high-end prospects in the prospect pool, no elite roster players, a rookie head coach and no discernable path back to being a contender.
It takes several years for the organization to start putting it back together. In this timeline, it’s the success of the Knicks that bodes well for the Rangers. With the Knicks perennial contenders in the NBA with a core centered around Giannis Antekopounmpo, Carmelo Anthony and Devin Booker, Dolan feels the need to monitor the basketball situation more.
The future
The sole hope of the Rangers franchise is drafted in the first round of the 2017 draft. The selection of Filip Chytil is the first step in a long rebuild. After several years of realizing he was in over his head, Dolan decided to leave hockey decisions to his front office people to start steering the team in the right direction.
With lots of cap space and three high first round picks on the roster, the Rangers have the parts to eventually be a good team if it can get just a little bit of luck when it comes to free agency. Yet, those in the NHL world still know that they’d be getting themselves into the James Dolan house of horrors that can blow up at any given time.
Final thoughts
For as bad as the Rangers are playing right now, it could always be worse. Thankfully, the hockey tenant at Madison Square Garden doesn’t peak the interest of James Dolan so its had success this decade. In the alternate universe above, the Knicks are the team that is well managed and littered with high upside young players and the Rangers are chronically mismanaged.
Everyone just needs to cross their fingers that Dolan doesn’t suddenly start caring about hockey or things might get a tad murky at the Garden. For those who are fans of the Knicks and the Rangers, it’s pick your poison would you rather have a good basketball or hockey team in your life.
I personally enjoyed the six years run the Rangers went on more than any other sports experience in my life. Always being in the mix for the Stanley Cup is an exhilarating rush and there’s nothing like the pulse-pounding adrenaline rush of postseason hockey.
However, I will say, the two-year stretch where the Knicks made the playoffs was absolutely insane. The world is a better place when the Knicks are good and the Garden is rocking. In an ideal world, both teams can be in the mix for playoff berths.
Between Kristaps Porzingis and Chytil, there is hope for the future at the Garden.