Redrafting the New York Rangers part 2: Paying for a contender
Redrafting the New York Rangers, year by year
This is the second of a three part series looking at the New York Rangers NHL Entry Draft selections from 2003 to 2019. Did the Blueshirts make the right selection or would they do it differently? In our second installment, we’ll look at 2009-13 when the team began spending its way into Stanley Cup contention. No price was too high.
If you missed part one of this series you can find it – here.
The phrase, “If you can make it here, you can make it anywhere” exists for a legitimate reason. It’s not solely for the everyman and everywoman hoping to find stardom under the bright lights of Broadway. It’s for its athletes too.
The New York Yankees, the Knicks, the Jets, the Giants – our Rangers; New York athletes are held to a higher standard. If you perform, fans will love you, remember you, place you on a pedestal, but… if you falter, if you fail to meet (or surpass) expectations, you will be ostracized even condemned for it.
The higher you’re drafted, the chances for an even greater fall…
And the same standards apply for their front offices – Win or you’re out. In New York, making the playoffs doesn’t qualify as winning; not even close. It’s not enough to win a round or two of postseason play. In order for the New York Rangers to be deemed successful, they need to win the Stanley Cup. That is the only measurement for the franchise’s success.
Historical Context
We’re picking up where we left off in the year 2009.
Coach Tom Renney is out. Under his leadership the New York Rangers made strides to becoming a threat in the NHL once again. He led the franchise to four consecutive playoff appearances, however, as stated above, that wasn’t enough. Renney’s efforts peaked with appearances in the conference semifinals and after a slow start to a 2008-09 season, with there being a real risk of the Rangers falling short of the playoffs, Renney has been replaced by TSN analyst and the former head coach of the Tampa Bay Lightning, John Tortorella.
In addition, between the 2007-08 and 2008-09 off-season, in an attempt to overcome the hurdle and make it into the second round, the New York Rangers have signed free agents Wade Redden, Markus Naslund, Chris Drury and Scott Gomez. Then they would go on to sign Marian Gaborik in 2009 and Brad Richards in 2011. Spend, spend, spend…
At this point, the New York Rangers’ mistakes have only been in dealing out finances, not potential picks and assets… we’ll get there later.
But for now, here’s a reexamination of who the team drafted and could have drafted.