The New York Rangers have entered the ‘Tinkering’ stage

The Rangers must take advantage of Artemi Panarin’s prime

When Artemi Panarin was recently announced as one of the three finalists for the Hart trophy, not only are the Rangers beyond the “rebuild,” they’ve blown by the “build” phase, too. It’s imperative for teams to not waste prime years of superstars–and you can look at the Rangers of not-too-long ago as an example. During Henrik Lundqvist‘s prime, the Rangers were one of hockey’s most successful franchises. They were routinely in the playoffs, and were one of the winning franchises in playoff series throughout the last decade. Unfortunately, they came up short in their quest to win the Cup.

Panarin, no doubt, is in his prime, and the Rangers cannot afford to let his best years go by without a ring. There are only so many lifetimes us fans have before we’ll start calling for the front office’s heads if they don’t deliver.

A strengthened core

The Rangers have identified their core that they believe will lead them to success. This core begins with Panarin, Mika Zibanejad (a superstar in his own right), and Chris Kreider. And there are some of the kids who–while they haven’t been in the league for very long, they’ve been revelatory in their time in blue–are being placed into this group in good faith: Adam Fox and Igor Shesterkin. (Again, a small sample size, but it’s obvious from the organization’s actions that the Rangers believe these two are foundational pieces.) That means the Rangers have their number one center, defender, goalie, left wing, and possible captain as players to build around.

That’s not including the other players about to enter their prime or youngsters like Pavel Buchnevich, Filip Chytil, Kaapo Kakko, Ryan Lindgren, and Tony DeAngelo. This is where the “tinkering” phase comes into play. The Rangers are high on all of these talented players, but if the right move comes along–like a certain center from the Buffalo Sabres becomes available–you tinker with your lineup and trade a few pieces to deliver that Cup. (Personally, I believe that Kakko is probably an untouchable, unless it’s for Jack Eichel. Even then, I would do everything I could to exclude him from the package.)

Signings and trade chips

All this means the Rangers are in an interesting bind. What do you do with a player like Ryan Strome? When your organization’s goal is now to be the best it can be and win the Cup as soon as possible, where does he fit in? He delivered, yes, but was surely the beneficiary of centering Panarin. Does that make him worthy a massive contract? If it doesn’t, want do you get for him in a trade that improves your team immediately?

The same thing goes with Tony DeAngelo–do you pay a third-pairing right-handed defenseman big money when you committed a lot to Jacob Trouba to be your presumptive number-one defenseman? If you say no, who does DeAngelo fetch in a trade that helps the Rangers win in 2021?

Furthermore, Nils Lundkvist may have just become the Rangers’ biggest trading chip. Because if you’re now set on taking advantage of two elite players’–Panarin and Zibanejad–prime; getting the most out of the Chris Kreider contract; and winning while you still have some young, affordable talent, then the Rangers have to win by 2022 the latest, and some prospects won’t make their NHL debut on Broadway unless they’re on the opposing team. So those 10 draft picks we have this year just turned into a lot of trade capital (except probably the higher of the first-round picks).

The Rangers are now in the stage where they must put together a team that can win the Cup sooner rather than later. Let’s hope Jeff Gorton is a good tinkerer.