The ones that got away
Inevitably, trades are fodder for second guessing and regrets. This spring, two players who are having strong postseasons are providing that for Ranger fans.
While in the long run, Jacob Trouba will be a cornerstone of the Rangers defense, Neal Pionk has been absolutely excellent this postseason. The Jets are up 3-0 on the Oilers and that is in no small part because of the job that Pionk has done on Connor McDavid in the series. McDavid has three assists in the three games and Paul Maurice has been using Pionk as much as he can to counter McDavid’s speed.
The merits of the trade for Trouba will be debated for years, especially if Ville Heinola, whom the Jets selected with the first rounder they got in that trade, turns out to be a bona fide NHL defender. At the time, everyone in the NHL thought the Rangers won that deal, though Ranger fans were more aware of Pionk’s ability.
The one that really got away who has been is Colorado’s Ryan Graves. The Rangers never gave him a chance despite a solid apprenticeship in Hartford, swapping him for Chris Bigras who was last seen playing in the wilds of central Pennsylvania.
Meanwhile, Graves has been paired with Samuel Girard and he has been outstanding. Graves has an incredible plus/minus of +55 over the last two seasons to lead the NHL. He hasn’t stopped in the playoffs and was an NHL leading +9 after the Avalanche’s four game sweep of the St. Louis Blues.
Graves was traded 18 days after the Glen Sather/Jeff Gorton rebuild letter, when he was about to turn 23 and had played three seasons in Hartford. The 6’5″, 220 pound blueliner played in the AHL All-Star game in 2016 and possesses one of the hardest shots in the NHL. Despite trading Ryan McDonagh and Nick Holden at the deadline that year, the Rangers chose to give up on Graves and promote Pionk and John Gilmour and use Rob O’Gara and Ryan Sproul.
Graves has acknowledged that he made tremendous progress under the coaching in the Colorado organization that resulted in him making the NHL for good the following season where not only has he had an outstanding plus/minus, but has also been one of the top NHL defensemen in defensive point shares.
Note that Graves was discarded before the Rangers drafted K’Andre Miller, Nils Lundkvist, Braden Schneider, Zac Jones or Matthew Robertson and before they traded for Adam Fox. He would have made an already impressive blueline corps even better. This has to go down as one of the great misjudgments of Jeff Gorton’s tenure.
Good-bye Tom Wilson
If there is anything that Ranger fans should be happy about, it’s the way the Boston Bruins dispatched the Washington Capitals in five games. Tom Wilson was relatively ineffective in the series with one goal and one assist in the five games, sporting a minus three rating as well.
While most of believe that a suspension was warranted, the next best thing for the Blueshirts faithful was an early exit from the playoffs and we all got our wish. Good riddance.