The New York Rangers have entered the ‘Tinkering’ stage

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.