In a rebuilding year for the New York Rangers, much of the season was spent looking ahead to the future. With so much uncertainty on the horizon, enjoy these final four games.
Whenever an organization is willing to adopt the white flag for a calendar year in the form of a rebuilding season, it forces everyone to focus heavily on the future. The New York Rangers have spent the 2018-2019 season as cannon fodder for the better teams in the league but managed to play at a respectable level for a majority of the season.
Yet, for all of the progress that players like defenseman Tony DeAngelo and forward Filip Chytil have made this season, there’s little in the way of tangible results. Player development is the most important thing when it comes to rebuilding, but the Rangers are a few pieces away from legitimately being ready to compete again.
In terms of talent development, prospects take years to be ready for the bright lights of the NHL. Aside from the special talents that go first or second overall in the draft that are ready to immediately make the jump from amateur hockey to the professionals, it typically takes time.
While the Rangers certainly have time and prospects on the horizon, it’s made this season seem like an afterthought. There’s so much conjecture about whether losing to improve lottery odds or letting the young players gut out wins would be better for the future that the enjoyment of this season was lost.
There’s not a ton to enjoy when it comes to a team that’s likely to finish with the fifth or sixth worst record in all of the NHL, but that defeats the point.
For many, Rangers hockey is a relief from the stress of everyday life. Sports are supposed to be a distraction from the daily monotony and bring everyone in the fanbase together. Instead, this rebuilding season which was supposed to be fun and exciting put everyone at each other’s throats.
While a professional hockey team was never going to outright put a bad team on the ice in hopes of losing, we’re looking at the Ottawa Senators, the allure of tanking for odds at a better draft pick is enticing. The Edmonton Oilers and Buffalo Sabres have made tanking to the bottom or in this case the top, an art form.
However, that was never going to be the Rangers approach to things. The team should be commended for not just outright giving up and playing a gutted roster until after the trade deadline. In another universe, general manager Jeff Gorton moves both Kevin Hayes and Mats Zuccarello at last year’s draft and really hangs this year’s team out to dry.
Building a culture is a multi-year process and often a defining feature on championship caliber teams. It’s also at least part of why neither the Sabres or Oilers will ever get out of the ruts they’re both respectively in.
The crowd that firmly believes in the merits of tanking are never going to be convinced that the Rangers winning these games in late March were a good thing. And that’s okay.
The point is, Rangers hockey is coming to an end in the first week of April for the second straight year. With arguably the most important summer in the team’s history on the horizon it’s time to appreciate what’s happened this season.
There wasn’t a ton of winning, but players were given a chance to grow and the team appears to have found its head coach of the future in David Quinn.