New York Rangers: Maximizing asset value is most important

As a rebuilding team, the New York Rangers cannot afford to waste any resources. Every single dollar, draft pick and prospect counts when the organization is climbing uphill back towards relevancy.

While none of New York Rangers general manager Jeff Gorton’s trades are outright bad, there is a case that the executive failed to maximize the value of his assets. Getting fair value for anything on the trade market is a fool’s errand with the rare exception of mutually beneficial one player for one player trades.

In Gorton’s tenure, he’s made a series of deals that were about restoring organizational depth. Now that the pipeline has working pieces for the future, it’s a matter of complimenting that group and developing their talent. The Rangers are likely at least two more seasons away from being a playoff contender and that’s why it cannot afford any setbacks.

This summer, Gorton and the player personnel department will have opportunities this summer to add at the draft, in free agency or potentially even in a trade. The big challenge will be for the front office to not try and fix everything at once. In the past, the Rangers had a bad habit of just throwing money at the problem and hoping it’d go away.

Today’s decisions will impact the team five years from now. There are no easy paths out of rebuilding in professional sports, only difficult choices. Sign this free agent now, and there’s no money to extend your own restricted free agent the following summer.

Whether it be a draft pick, cap space or an asset acquired, the front office needs to have an understanding of how that could impact the roster design next year. There is no such thing as an asset without value in the NHL.

Even a bad contract for a player that’s essentially retired can be worth something for a team trying to reach the salary floor while keeping a cheap roster overall.

Simply put, the Rangers need to make the most of this opportunity. The front office has played all of the right cards to have success in the future, now it’s just a matter of making that the reality.

There cannot be any wasteful moves this summer, even a bad short term-contract could have negative repercussions. Part of being a rebuilding team is having young players that are either on entry-level or restricted free agent contracts, meaning that their cap hit is cost controlled.

But, if the team splurges this summer on a player like Artemi Panarin or Erik Karlsson it could hinder the team’s ability to retain its own assets. So, before Gorton and company go and spend enough for a small army, they need to maximize the team’s assets.