New York Rangers: Patience or progress
It’s December 10th and the New York Rangers sit just outside of a wildcard playoff spot in the Eastern Conference. For fans who have suffered through the past two years without a playoff game, the thought of making the tournament this year is almost too good to be true. But should patience win out over progress?
For the New York Rangers, the playoffs are within reach. The team has shown the ability to play with the best teams in the league, but also the ability to bow to the worst, so should the Rangers do whatever it takes to make the playoffs this year?
Doing so may require moving a player or two that Rangers fans have grown very fond of, and moving them right now.
What’s really great about Rangers fans is that they truly embrace the players on the team. The “Once a Ranger, always a Ranger” mantra is not just lip service. Fans grow an attachment to players just as soon as they hit the ice at the Garden and remember players long after they are gone.
It is that kind of attachment that makes this year a particularly difficult one for Rangers fans. The season has been going pretty damn great so far. The wins are coming, the team is fun to watch and is developing nicely. The future looks as bright as Broadway on a Saturday night. But should the Rangers be looking at making a big move NOW in order to bolster their chances at making the playoffs in the spring?
A move like that would almost certainly include one of the following five players.
Tony DeAngelo
Yes, hockey is a business, and you have to separate your feelings for players from what may benefit the team, but losing any one of the players listed above right now would certainly feel like a beloved member of the family isn’t going to make it home for Christmas.
Who didn’t feel just a little sting when Derek Stepan was traded away, or even Jimmy Vesey? Certainly we all felt it when Mats Zuccarello was traded at the deadline last year. That’s the beauty of being a Rangers fan. These guys become like family, and we hate to see them go, even if it may be for the ultimate benefit of the team.
We embrace these guys and wish the team could reach the top with the same group of guys together for entire run. But we know that’s not the way it works. Just ask Mike Gartner.
Why make a trade?
Making the playoffs this year is not a mandate, nor is it even expected, but it certainly would be progress. By making the tournament this year, the growth of this team would be accelerated exponentially.
A young team needs to know what it is like to play in the cauldron of the NHL playoffs. Even playing four to seven games in a first round loss would be a lesson that would go a long way towards the ultimate goal of winning the Cup.
So by all means the Rangers should make a trade. Moving a family member now in order to get a player that would enhance the playoff prospects would be the smart move, and making the playoffs would take the sting out trading one of those players.
It also gives management a chance to see the real character that players have. Nothing exposes a weakness like the NHL playoffs. Getting a good look at how the younger players react can certainly help management to make decisions as to which players from the next generation stick around. After all, the Rangers have plenty of talent in the system.
Clearly it would be up to Jeff Gorton to figure out not just who can be subtracted from the team but who can be added that is a real difference maker and plays a style that David Quinn requires. But the right move, right now, could be the difference at this point in the season.
No Trade!
Of course the Rangers could just be patient and stand pat. Let the season play out until February and then see where their playoff chances sit. This seems like a much more rational scenario, and you may be able to squeeze just a little bit more out of a potential trade partner in the spring, but it may also mean missing out on the playoffs altogether.
The argument here is that the playoffs were not the goal this year, development was. Holding steady until the trade deadline, continuing to monitor player development both here and in Hartford will make trade deadline decisions that much easier.
Waiting may also make the fates of the five players listed above just a little bit easier to decipher, allowing both Kreider and Strome the chance to prove that an extension is the much better option for the team. Right now it’s really neck and neck between the two because there is no way both are coming back.
The down side of this scenario is that the return at the trade deadline will most likely be more picks and prospects. That means more time to develop and no playoff experience anytime soon.
Plus it already seems like the Rangers are having a tough time giving quality playing time to some of their top prospects. Do they need more of a log jam? Wouldn’t it be better to move some of the young talent out right now for a veteran who can help shepherd the youth through a playoff appearance and thus gain valuable experience?
It all comes down to patience versus progress…..pick your poison.
Or maybe real progress only comes with patience.
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