Tortorella, Zibanejad, team awards and more

The signing of Ryan Lindgren by the New York Rangers on breakup day came as a surprise and that means anything could happen in the coming weeks so it’s time to get caught up on what is going on in Rangersland.

Tortorella 3?

Yes, it would officially be the third tour of duty for John Tortorella if he found himself behind the Rangers’ bench next season.  He coached four games in 2000, then spent over four seasons coaching the team to the Eastern Conference Finals.   Now, he has parted ways with the Columbus Blue Jackets and is available.

Tortorella is one of the more volatile coaches in the NHL and a two time Jack Adams Trophy winner as coach of the year.   There’s no doubt he is one of the best behind an NHL bench, but his relationship with players can be destructive.  Witness the Pierre-Luc Dubois fiasco this season and no one can forget his banishing Marian Gaborik when he coached he Rangers.  While he has mellowed since his days in New York, he is still a controversial character.

Do the Rangers even want to make a coaching change?  The common thinking is that David Quinn’s future will be greatly influenced by the exit interviews conducted by Chris Drury this week.  If Quinn has the guys in the room behind him, he may well be back since Drury was part of the team that originally hired him.  Drury is a B.U. guy and was instrumental in bringing Quinn aboard so smart money has Quinn coming back.   How long they will keep him twisting in the wind will be interesting to watch, but  it is smart of Drury to see what shakes out in the coaching ranks after the season.

Don’t forget, the Rangers hired Quinn on May 23, 2018.  The question has to be if the Rangers had known that Stanley Cup winner Barry Trotz was going to be available, would they have waited to make that coaching decision?  The Islanders hired him a month after Quinn got the job after Trotz parted ways with the Capitals after winning the Cup.

There’s no reason to rush the coaching decision as it will be the most important call of Drury’s brief tenure.   Rick Tocchet and John Tortorella are just two of the names that recently became available.

Mika owns up on COVID

On break-up day, Mika Zibanejad admitted that his bout with COVID-19 was much worse than he let on during the season.   This is what he said on break up day.

“It was a unique situation, obviously, having COVID, and having one practice before the season really started.  I think I tried to tell myself that it wasn’t, that I was feeling good, and I was feeling fine. But it wasn’t easy. I didn’t really feel up to speed after that, and it took me a while to kind of get back just physically and mentally.   And I didn’t want to have anything to, to kind of have an excuse or whatever.  I didn’t want to tell myself that and kind of just give myself an excuse.
That was the reason I didn’t talk about it as much as people asked me about it.”

While there had been much speculation about his slow start including some rumors that his off-season workout regimen had a role, we now know that it was the virus that affected him.

One question has to be whether he rushed back and that delayed his recovery.  Would he have been better off not playing at all until he was ready for full time action?   Unfortunately, we will never know.

Zibanejad now goes into the final year of his contract with the question of whether he will get a new deal.   He has indicated that he wants to stay and based on his performance since St. Patrick’s Day, he is the player he was at the end of 2019-20.   If the Rangers decide that they want to extend him it could have a major effect on whether they jump into the Jack Eichel sweepstakes.

NHL Entry Draft

When the Dallas Stars lost to the Blackhawks on Sunday, it locked the Rangers into their position in the NHL Entry Draft.  They finished with the best record of any team not making the playoffs, tied in points with the Stars, but with more regulation and overtime wins.  The Rangers will pick 15th overall.  Normally it would be the 16th pick since Seattle is in the draft, but Arizona forfeited their first round pick due to recruiting violations.

According to Tankathon.com, that gives the Rangers a 0.5% chance at getting the top pick and a 1.1% chance of getting the second  overall pick in the lottery.

The Rangers have their first pick, no second round pick (traded in the Marc Staal deal), two third round picks (including the pick that belonged to Buffalo from the Jimmy Vesey trade) and three fourth round picks (all belonging to non-playoff teams).  They have six picks among the top 111 selections.

That means that their two top picks with be 15th and 64th overall.  That is of course, if they don’t win the lottery.  The question is whether the McDonald family will give Chris Drury Steven McDonald’s NYPD shield as a good luck charm again.

The draft will be held on July 23-24.