New York Rangers: Understanding how to decipher news reports

Depending on where information is reported, it can give a greater level of insight into processes. In the case of the New York Rangers’ trade deadline action, where it’s coming from tells a lot of the story.

As reported ad nauseam, the New York Rangers were expected to try and trade the team’s three pending unrestricted free agents, Adam McQuaid, Mats Zuccarello and Kevin Hayes prior to February 25th’s trade deadline. However, the surrounding trade market is making that more difficult than initially thought.

With Matt Duchene, Mark Stone and Artemi Panarin all potentially in play prior to the deadline, Zuccarello and Hayes don’t exactly stand out as much. Fine players in their own right but not true game breakers like the three forwards previously mentioned. This is what makes the latest developments in the trade market so interesting.

As Larry Brooks of the New York Post reported on Friday, February 15th, the Rangers’ front office made overtures towards Hayes and Zuccarello’s representation about possible contract extensions based on what the market has to offer. With bigger fish available, it may be smarter to hold onto Hayes and Zuccarello over taking less than the front office wants.

With Brooks being the person who reported the news, it’s safe to say that it came directly from the Rangers’ front office and not a secondary source like a player representative. However, as year’s past prove, occasionally Brooks gets stories wrong because he’s purposely fed misinformation from executives so a particular narrative can develop.

During the summer of 2016, Brooks held fast that the Rangers were not in the running to sign then unrestricted free agent defenseman Kevin Shattenkirk up to the day of that free agency started. Of course, this is a case of a reporter being given bad information by sources in direct competition with someone else.

What it means

Granted, the Rangers could have every intention of negotiating in good faith with both Hayes and Zuccarello in the time leading up to the deadline. However, the nature of contract negotiations with the Boston College product reveals a great deal about how the organization views Hayes and where his value is.

The simple fact is that the front office dared Hayes to go out and have a career year if he wanted to earn more than $6 million per season. Naturally, the Boston native is in the midst of a career-best year at age 26 with 40 points through 48 games played. The center is just nine points away from eclipsing his career high which he set back in the 2016-2017 season.

With Hayes playing like the player he always was supposed to, his negotiating power is at an all-time high which puts the Rangers between a rock and a hard place. If the team avoided playing bridge deal roulette this summer with Hayes, it would not be in this situation. Instead of paying up front for an above average and borderline elite player, it low balled Hayes.

Things are slightly different when it comes to Zuccarello because he’s 31-years-old. Yes, the Norwegian’s style of play won’t age him in dog years, but father time is undefeated. There is a market for the winger but he was also mentioned in Brooks’ report.

Ultimately, the report from Brooks means one of two things. Either the front office is trying to scare a potential suitor into increasing an already existing offer for one of Hayes and Zuccarello or it is legitimately trying to extend the pair.

In my opinion, with the report coming less than two weeks away from the trade deadline, it seems as if its an attempt at leveraging a better trade offer. Neither Hayes or Zuccarello is capable of making an impact comparable to that of Stone, Duchene or Panarin, but nice pieces to sure up a contender’s depth.

There are nine days until the NHL trade deadline and with so many teams looking to sell off expiring assets, a flurry of action is sure to come.