Where the Gorton regime failed in the New York Rangers rebuild

1 of 5

As the New York Rangers enjoy their two week vacation, we can enjoy the fact that this has been a season more successful than anyone could have predicted, but also face the fact that the issues facing the team have become pronounced. Anyone who follows the team knows that the problem is.

Five-on-five scoring has been abysmal primarily because the team has absolutely no depth on their forward lines. The team is winning based on superior goaltending, a solid defense and special teams. The Blueshirts are a two line team and because the bottom players are making no contributions, the top two lines are unable to make hay 5v5.

It’s a big problem when the opposition nullifies the effectiveness of the Zibanejad and Strome lines because they doesn’t have to worry about the third or fourth lines. The win over Florida was a perfect example. All ten points for the Rangers came from the top two lines. Those lines were unstoppable and that’s why the Rangers won (along with Shesterkin in goal).

So, how on earth did the Rangers end up in such a predicament? It’s been the great failure of a rebuild that has, for the most part, done exceedingly well. Jeff Gorton has gotten kudos for his work on the rebuild, but he made some awful choices in 2017 and 2018 and they have put the Rangers in this predicament.

When it comes to the rebuild, there’s no denying that Gorton did good job. But he was very, very lucky. He lucked out when Artemi Panarin decided to take less money to play for the Rangers. He lucked out when Adam Fox was able to control his own destiny and made it clear that there was only one team that he wanted to play for. He lucked out when the Rangers won the draft lottery two years in a row. He lucked out when he traded for Ryan Strome who has played better than anyone expected.

His trade for Jacob Trouba has begun to live up to its promise and his long term signing of Chris Kreider is looking brilliant. But if Gorton had not made some bad decisions at the start of the rebuild, the Rangers would be much closer to being a Stanley Cup contender than they already are. It all started in 2017.

CHICAGO, IL – JUNE 23: Lias Andersson poses for photos after being selected seventh overall by the New York Rangers during the 2017 NHL Draft at the United Center on June 23, 2017 in Chicago, Illinois. (Photo by Bruce Bennett/Getty Images) /

Mistake #1: 2017 draft

It’s been over four years since the 2017 draft and players picked in that draft are now really having an impact in the NHL. Gorton did the right thing when he traded Derek Stepan and his big contract along with a back-up goalie in Antti Raanta for a top ten pick. Then they totally screwed it up by going off the board and drafting Lias Andersson. We don’t have to get into the details of how bad a pick that was, but the simple fact is the Rangers should have a productive player in their lineup from that pick.

Instead, they have Will Cuylle, a highly regarded winger currently in the OHL who may be ready for the NHL next seaon. Now we can sit back and look at the draft as a whole and see what the Rangers missed when picked Andersson. Get a load of these players and their best season so far:

Martin Necas (#12) 14 goals, 41 points for Carolina last season
Nick Suzuki (#13) 15 goals, 41 points for Montreal last season
Josh Norris (#19) 17 goals, 35 points for Ottawa last season
Jason Robertson (#39) 16 goals, 40 points for Dallas this season
Drake Batherson (#121) 13 goals, 34 points for Ottawa this season
Casey Mittelstadt (#8) 10 goals, 22 points for Buffalo last season
Robert Thomas (#20) 5 goals, 32 points for St. Louis this season
Max Comtois (#50) 16 goals, 33 points for Anaheim last season
Alexandre Texier (#45) 11 goals, 20 points for Columbus this season

We’re not even mentioning youngsters like right winger Owen Tippett (#10 overall) who we saw playing for Florida this week or Eeli Tolvanen who is playing regularly for Nashville.

Of course, the Rangers got tons of kudos for drafting Filip Chytil with the 21st overall pick, but after a hot start to his career, he had eight goals and 22 points last season and only four goals and 11 points this season. He’s been surpassed by at least four players who were picked after him.

Despite having two first round picks, the Rangers have come out of it with only one player who is contributing this season in Chytil, but so far has been a disappointment.

In February 2018, the Rangers sent out “The Letter” and the rebuild became official.

Mistake #2: 2018 trade deadline

At the deadline the Rangers made good on their promise to the fans and dealt some longtime favorites in exchange for prospects and draft picks. While they got two first round and one second round pick they also filled a need by acquiring three young defense prospects in Ryan Lindgren, Libor Hajek and Yegor Rykov. For offense they got a former first round pick in center Brett Howden.

The deal with the Bruin has been a winner with the Rangers getting Ryan Lindgren, a draft pick that turned into K’Andre Miller and Ryan Spooner who was traded for Ryan Strome. As for the rest, not so good. Yegor Rykov, traded for Michael Grabner, never came over and is no longer a Rangers prospect.

But it is the deal with Tampa that hurts. The Rangers got a first round pick, but they were sold a bill of good when they got Libor Hajek and Brett Howden. At the time, we were led to believe that those two prospects were the crown jewels of the Lightning organization. Vlad Namestnikov had become a 20 goal scorer playing on a line with Steven Stamkos and Nikita Kucherov.

Was Gorton fleeced by Steve Yzerman? Four years later, Hajek is a seventh defenseman and Howden plays for the Golden Knights. Namestnikov scored 13 goals in 99 games and was practically given away. The Lightning have won two Stanley Cups.

Now, when it comes to the much maligned Howden, his departure may be one the Rangers will live to regret. This season with the Golden Knights, in 33 games he has scored seven goals and 16 points and his faceoff percentage is 48.4%. Let’s just say that as a fourth liner in Vegas, Howden has scored more goals and points than Kaapo Kakko, Filip Chytil, Kevin Rooney, Greg McKegg and Dryden Hunt.

Vitali Kravtsov posesafter being selected ninth overall by the New York Rangers (Photo by Bruce Bennett/Getty Images) /

Mistake #3: The 2018 Draft

By the the time the 2018 draft rolled around, Jeff Gorton and the Rangers must have believed that the rebuild was going great. On offense, they had first round picks Lias Andersson, Filip Chytil and Brett Howden. The defense included Ryan Lindgren, Libor Hajek, Yegor Rykov along with Tony DeAngelo. In the draft the Rangers had stockpiled six picks in the first three rounds including three in the first round.

The Rangers thought they did well in this draft, again going off the board to pick right winger Vitali Kravtsov with the ninth overall pick. With their other two first round picks, they drafted K’Andre Miller (22nd overall) and Nils Lundkvist (28th overall). With their second round pick, they selected Swedish goalie Olof Lindbom (39th overall) and in the third round they took defenseman Jacob Ragnarsson (70th overall) and defenseman Joey Keane (88th overall).

It was in this draft that the Rangers built up a prospect pool of defensemen that was the envy of the rest of the NHL, but Gorton knew that the Rangers needed offense and they used their top pick on Kravtsov, a top offensive threat.

Now, three and half years later, players picked in that draft are beginning to make their name in the NHL. K’Andre Miller is already one of the stars of that draft and Nils Lundkvist made the move to the NHL this season.

But when it comes to their top pick, the situation has been nothing but a disaster. There’s no need to go into detail about the Kravtsov situation except to say that he may never play for New York and the question is whether the Rangers will get fair value for him when he is traded.

In the meantime, forwards picked after Kravtsov who are starting to have an impact include Joel Farabee (#14), Oliver Wahlstrom (#11), Isac Lundestrom (#23), Yegor Sharangovich (#141) and Philipp Kurashev (#120). 23 players drafted in 2018 after Kravtsov have played in more games in the NHL than Kravtsov’s 20 games.

The DeAngelo disaster

Jeff Gorton looked like a genius when he got Tony DeAngelo in the deal with Arizona. It took the defenseman a couple years, but in 2019-20 he became one of the top offensive blueliners in the NHL. Even with the disastrous first round pick, if DeAngelo was still a productive player for the Rangers the deal wouldn’t be so bad. But we all know how that worked out. This wasn’t a mistake made at the time, but ultimately Gorton was turned a a smart move into a total waste.

The New York Rangers salute the fans (Photo by Elsa/Getty Images) /

The outlook going into 2018-19

If the Rangers braintrust sat back and assessed the rebuild over the summer of 2018, the outlook was rosy. Here’s the lineup that they believed would be contending by 2021-22 with their ages in 2018 in parentheses.

Centers: Mika Zibanejad (25), Kevin Hayes (26), Lias Andersson (19), Filip Chytil (19), Brett Howden (20)
Left Wingers: Chris Kreider (27), Jimmy Vesey (25), Vlad Namestnikov (26), Brendan Lemieux (22)
Right Wingers: Pavel Buchnevich (23), Vitali Kravtsov (19), Jesper Fast (27)
Defense: Brady Skjei (24), Neal Pionk (23), Tony DeAngelo (23) , Ryan Lindgren (20), Libor Hajek (20), K’Andre Miller (18), Nils Lundkvist (18), Yegor Rykov (21), Joey Keane (19)
Goal: Igor Shesterkin (23), Alexandar Georgiev (22), Olof Lindbom (18)

Yes, by 2021-22 this team would be ready to contend. The veterans would be in their prime and the prospects would be starting to make a difference. It all looked better by the summer of 2019, the Rangers added Artemi Panarin, Jacob Trouba and Adam Fox while subtracting Kevin Hayes and Neal Pionk. Add in the second overall pick in the NHL draft in Kaapo Kakko.

Well, we all know how that turned out. Of the top 13 prospects in the organization in the summer of 2018, only Igor Shesterkin, Ryan Lindgren and K’Andre Miller have made an impact. Chytil, Lundkvist and Hajek contribute, but the team has already given up on Howden, Andersson, Rykov, and DeAngelo while trading Keane for Julien Gauthier. Goalie Olof Lindbom looks to be a wasted second round pick.

Where we are

Gorton moves since the summer of 2018 have contributed to the Ranger’s current success. While there will always be critics, it’s hard to argue with the signing of Artemi Panarin and the trade for Jacob Trouba. The Adam Fox deal was a no-brainer. While we can be disappointed with the production from Kaapo Kakko and Alexis Lafrenière, there was no way that Jeff Gorton was not going to make those two lottery picks.

The salary cap has hampered the Rangers and has forced them to unload players who could ostensibly still be contributing including Jimmy Vesey, Brady Skjei, Jesper Fast and most notably, Pavel Buchnevich.

Diehard Ranger fans haven’t given up on Vitali Kravtsov and are hopeful looking at his six goals and 13 points in 19 KHL games. We may still see him in a Ranger uniform this season. But if we don’t and the Rangers end up flipping him for a short term rental or a draft pick, they will have wasted four years of development time.

With the benefit of hindsight, it’s easy to take potshots at prior decisions. But no matter how you look at it, Jeff Gorton and the Rangers made some strategic decisions in 2017 and 2018 that have had a dire effect on the current Rangers roster.

Imagine if the Rangers had been able to pry Anthony Cirelli from the Lightning instead of Brett Howden. How formidable would the Rangers be if they could field a lineup that included Lafrenière, Kakko and Chytil along with Anthony Cirelli, Martin Necas and Joel Farabee instead of Greg McKegg, Dryden Hunt and Julien Gauthier?

For all of the accolades that Gorton has drawn for the Rangers success this season, if you look at the moves he made at the start of the rebuild, how many of those players are having a significant impact on the 2021-22 Rangers? Three. Ryan Strome, Ryan Lindgren and K’Andre Miller. And of the two top ten picks? Nothing.

Rebuilding a hockey franchise isn’t easy. This is not meant as a Jeff Gorton bashing session. He relied on Gordie Clark and his scouts to assess talent and that a big reason that we ended up with Andersson, Kravtsov, Hajek and Howden instead of Cirelli, Necas and Farabee.

When we compain about the lack of depth at forward, it’s worth taking a look back at the beginning of the rebuild to see what went wrong. The bottom line is Jeff Gorton knew what the team needed and he went for it, but was a victim of bad choices and lousy talent evaluation.

Related Story. Panarin's top 5 goals. light

Home / Analysis