What the New York Rangers rebuild could resemble
The teams that have won the Stanley Cup this decade are prime examples of successful rebuilds. These examples offer the New York Rangers attributes and models to follow.
Rangers fans recall the fateful day in February 2018 when General Manager Jeff Gorton issued “the letter” to the club’s fans. Gorton knew the direction he was going to take and wanted to share his vision as well as alerting fans to the likelihood that fan favorites would be dealt at the trade deadline
“The decisions we make going forward will be based on long-term and not trying to save the season,” Gorton said. “We need to do what we can to get as many assets as we can and give us as many chances to rebuild this as we can, and basically try to find the kind of players we want. We want fast players, we want character players, we want players we can build our team around. That’s what we’re looking for.”
Despite the urgings of local beat writers, bloggers and fans for the Rangers to buy their way through and accelerate this rebuild, Gorton has stuck to his plan. Over 70% of the Rangers roster consists of draft picks and players acquired through trades and amateur signings since the 2016-17 season. The rebuild approach was acknowledged by newly introduced team President John Davidson, who remarked at the press conference that rebuilds “require both patience and resolve”.
It’s hard to find examples of full rebuilds in the NHL. However there are several resets and retools. The Gorton-led makeover of the Boston Bruins is comparable with the drafting of Milan Lucic, Brad Marchand and the acquisitions of Tukka Rask, Marc Savard and Zdeno Chara. The Pittsburgh Penguins are another example of a team that went through a complete gutting of their team with the good fortune of getting Sidney Crosby, Marc Andre Fleury and Evgeni Malkin after years of being basement dwellers. The Washington Capitals’ rebuild commenced with drafting Alexander Ovechkin and Nicklas Backstrom and culminated in a Stanley Cup last spring.
More recent examples include the Tampa Bay Lightning on the championship cusp which began with taking Steven Stamkos and Victor Hedman with their lottery picks. The Toronto Maple Leafs are past the cycle point of prominence currently riding the tandem of Auston Matthews and Mitch Marner. No surprise the Lightning and Leafs are among the teams seen as pre-season favorites to compete for the Stanley Cup.
The NHL salary cap has a lot to do with triggering contemporary rebuilds and resets while the added dimension of the NHL expansion rules has forced league GM’s to juggle all of these variables. It has become near impossible for a team to sustain itself long term among the league’s elite. Each year at the trade deadline teams must decide if their window is closing or if it’s reached the time to retool or start over. Teams that have acknowledged the end of the road have recovered faster than those who have mistakenly held on too long.
Chicago style deep dish
One of the most interesting and successful rebuilding stories of recent memory and the one that resembles the cycle the Rangers are in currently is the Chicago Blackhawks. The Blackhawks have won three Stanley Cups this decade but their journey was anything but simple and easy. To their credit, they stuck with a plan, experienced good fortune as well as finding treasure along the way while making shrewd trades to compliment the overall effort.
In 2004, ESPN Sports Network named the Chicago Blackhawks “the worst franchise in professional sports”. To the surprise of no one, the award personified a fledgling period of ineptitude of qualifying for the playoffs but also due to the policies of then-owner Bill Wirtz. Wirtz earned the name “Dollar Bill” for blacking out Blackhawk home games from local television in the Chicago area. He claimed at the time it was unfair to the team’s season ticket holders. Wirtz then raised ticket prices making them among the most expensive in the NHL. All along this penny-pinching road the Blackhawks made the playoffs only once from 1997 to 2008.
Their rebuild began after the trades of fan favorites Jeremy Roenick, Ed Belfour, Chris Chelios and the free agent departure of top scoring winger Tony Amonte. As the NHL resumed play following the 2004 Lockout, Dale Tallon was hired as the team’s General Manager. While most will point to the lottery pick pair of sensations Patrick Kane and Jonathan Toews, they found several gems in the later rounds of drafts which is a tribute to their scouting staff but also points to the realization that all picks matter.
Protecting the house
The anchor of the backline was Duncan Keith, a two-time Norris Trophy winner and a tremendous find in the second round (2002). Keith has been the mainstay of the Chicago defense core that was bolstered with first rounder Brent Seabrook (2003), and Niklas Hjalmarsson, a fourth round pick (2005). High energy Dustin Byfuglien was discovered in the eighth round of 2003 while puck moving defenseman Brian Campbell was a key free agent signing in 2008. Even as first rounder Cam Barker (2004) didn’t pan out fully, Tallon was able to flip him for useful blueline pieces Nick Leddy and Kim Johnsson.
It’s difficult to rebuild without having quality goaltending to help keep your team in games as you’re bringing along young players. Corey Crawford was a great pick in the second round of 2003 and seen as the goaltender of the future but needed time to season in the minors. To buy time, Tallon’s first move as GM was signing Nikolai Khabibulin as a free agent who carried a heavy workload for the next four seasons. Tallon signed veteran backstop Cristobal Huet in 2008 and the tandem helped Chicago to its first hundred point season in 17 years and a return to the playoffs. Crawford eventually took over and led the Blackhawks to Cups two and three.
How the Rangers compare
The Rangers have future Hall of Fame goaltender in Henrik Lundqvist to provide mentorship to a deep pipeline of quantity backstops. Alexandar Georgiev (24) has climbed theNHL ladder while showing tremendous promise last season. The recently signed Igor Shesterkin is also 24 years old coming off an incredible season in the KHL. Shesterkin will likely play in Hartford next season.
On the back line the Rangers have several blue chip prospects with first round picks K’Andre Miller, Nils Lundkvist, leading a core that includes Hobey Baker finalist Adam Fox, Libor Hajek, Ryan Lindgren, Joey Keane, Tarmo Reunanen all under the age of 22. The key here is bringing these players along at the right pace and using excess depth to acquire other assets down the road.
Scoring depth essential
It’s clear the Blackhawks made out with the pair of Kane and Toews and their offensive production moved them over the .500 for the first time in seven years and eventually their Stanley Cup championships. But the Blackhawks rebuild demonstrates that most championships are not possible without secondary scoring. Most teams have an answer for a top line and it’s with depth and flexibility that helps get teams through the grueling four rounds it takes to win it all.
Tallon made perhaps the single biggest trade in his tenure when he acquired winger Patrick Sharp from the Philadelphia Flyers for nondescript forward Matt Ellison. Sharp had 10 productive seasons in Chicago. Andrew Ladd was an experienced Cup winning forward also acquired via trade. Dave Bolland and Bryan Bickell were key two-way productive forwards who were originally second round draft picks (2004). The feisty and combative Troy Brouwer was a trivial seventh round success from that same draft. Through the free agent route Tallon landed perennial sniper Marian Hossa who would be among the top playoff scorers in eight playoff seasons in Chicago. From the 2011 draft clutch forwards Brandon Saad and Andrew Shaw were taken in the second and fifth round respectively to help round out the offense.
How the Rangers compare
The Rangers continue to build their offensive depth having taken forwards Lias Andersson, Filip Chytil, Vitali Kravtsov in the first round in the past two drafts. Center Brett Howden made the big club out of training camp last year and Brendan Lemieux was acquired in the Kevin Hayes trade showed grit and scoring talents. Pavel Buchnevich, Mika Zibanejad and Vlad Namestnikov are all middle twenty year old veterans. But perhaps their first lottery pick in a few weeks will be the franchise fortune turner as the Rangers will add the mercurial talents of Jack Hughes or Kaapo Kakko which is a no loss proposition.
The final analysis
The window of the Blackhawks dynasty is nearing a close but it’s a prime example of how teams rebuild through quality drafting. It certainly doesn’t hurt to hit the lottery twice, but it’s also how a team finds contributing players in all rounds as one only has to look at the Edmonton Oilers that it takes more than just lottery luck.
Building a formidable blue line provided a framework from which the rebuild was in full motion. Using excess depth to acquire secondary scoring and leveraging free agency to land a few big marquee players was the formula that helped the Chicago Blackhawks end their fifty year Cup drought.
The Rangers have built quality depth within their back end with a good mixture of veterans and high end prospects within their top 12 defensemen in their system. While they are a bit thin on the right side, they have assets and cap flexibility to acquire a top pair right shot defenseman to help balance their blue line depth.
With obtaining Hughes or Kakko with the second overall pick in this year’s draft the Rangers offense continues to improve and gives them a formidable top six. With five picks in the first 68 picks Gorton will look to add secondary scoring depth and the Rangers are believed to be be in the market to add several interesting free agents to accelerate their rebuild.
The Rangers have solid goaltending both near and long term at all levels from NHL to the minor league teams of their farm system. Their depth at all positions is also young and protected from expansion poaching when the Seattle expansion team joins the NHL after the 2020-21 season.
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