What the Rangers did at the deadline that they’ve failed at before

Trade deadline acquisitions are a roll of the dice.  A general manager makes a trade in the hopes that the newly acquired player will be a catalyst for his team. Think Butch Goring for the Islanders,  Ron Francis for the Penguins, Rob Blake for the Avalanche and even Stephane Matteau for the Rangers.  But since the 2004-05 lockout,  the New York Rangers have not had a great track record when it comes to deadline acquisitions. Is this the year that they reverse the trend?

First off, none of the players picked up since 2005 by New York led them to a Stanley Cup championship so we are going to look regular season performance, the final 20 or so games when these trade pick-ups made their debuts on the bright lights of Broadway.  On examination, it looks like Chris Drury has not just done well, but he’s struck gold with two players he acquired, Andrew Copp and Frank Vatrano.

What they’ve done

Andrew Copp has played 13 games since coming over from Winnipeg for Morgan Barron and several draft picks. In those games he has meshed perfectly on the second line with Artemi Panarin and Ryan Strome.  He has five goals and 13 points in those games including two game winners and one short handed goal. He’s won 50% of his draws, but even so, it is usually Strome taking faceoffs.

Frank Vatrano has played 16 games since his trade from Florida and he has scored seven goals and added four assists for 11 points. He’s been a shot in the arm for the Blueshirts’ even strength scoring with all seven goals coming that way. He’s already seventh in goals among Ranger forwards in just under four weeks.

How does Copp’s scoring line of 5-8-13 and Vatrano’s 7-4-11 compare to other late season acquisitions?

We’ll start by looking at a couple pretty good defensemen.

The good

Ranger fans may not believe it, but there have been some decent late season performances, but not as many as you would like.

The best late regular season performance before this season belongs to Derick Brassard. Acquired at the deadline in 2013 in a big trade wth Columbus for Marian Gaborik, the center scored five goals and 11 points in 13 games.  None of the goals were game winners and Brassard would make his name as a big time playoff performer for the Rangers.

No deadline acquisition has scored more than center Nik Antropov, traded by Toronto to the Rangers for a second round draft pick in 2009.  The big (6’6″) Russian scored seven goals and added six assists for 13 points, but it took him 18 games to do it.  Two of his goals were game winners.  He did just okay in the Ranger first round playoff loss to Washington.

2013 wasn’t a bad year for deadline pickups as, besides Brassard,  the Rangers also got Ryan Clowe from the San Jose Sharks for 2nd, 3rd and 5th round picks.   Clowe got off to a hot start with two goals and an assist in his first game.  He ended up playing 12 games with three goals and eight points, but got injured late in the season and was ineffective in the playoffs.

Now, a look at the ones that really didn’t work out.

The bad

There were some lemons though in one case the regular season gave way to a fabulous playoffs.

When it comes to trade deadline busts, Eric Staal is the best example.  In 2016, the Rangers sent two second round picks and a prospect to Carolina for the marquee forward of that deadline class. A six-time All-Star and Stanley Cup champion, uniting Eric with his brother Marc seemed like the perfect move.

It was a disaster.  He never fit in on the lineup and in 20 games, he scored three goals and totaled six points. Even worse, he was scoreless in the five game loss to Pittsburgh in the first round of the playoffs. Awful. He signed the next season with Minnesota and had scored 92 goals over the next three years. Inexplicable.

While Eric Staal was a big name, the Rangers snared the biggest trade deadline name in 2014 when they sent team captain Ryan Callahan and two first round picks to the Tampa Bay Lightning for Martin St. Louis and a second round pick.  While St. Louis was 38 years old, the Tampa captain had led the league in scoring the previous season and was a legitimate NHL superstar.  He was a second team All-Star, Lady Byng Trophy winner and Art Ross winner in 2012-13.

At the time of the trade, St. Louis had 29 goals and 61 points, good for eighth overall in the NHL.  His acquisition made the Rangers the favorite to win their division. So what happened?  St. Louis played 19 games for the Rangers that season and scored just one goal.  He added seven assists, but only eight points.

Okay, he did come through in the playoffs, leading the Rangers to the Stanley Cup Final, the spiritual leader of the team following the death of his mother.  His dramatic return to the team helped them overcome a 3-1 series deficit to the Penguins, capped by his emotional Mother’s Day goal.

So, how do Copp and Vatrano compare?

How do Copp and Vatrano compare?

With six games left, Andrew Copp has already scored more points since coming to the Rangers than any other forward acquired at the deadline in the salary cap era. Nik Antropov also totaled 13 points, but he did it in five more games than Copp.   Copp needs one more point to top Sandis Ozolinsh’s 14 points.  Again, it took Ozolinsh, a defenseman, six more games than Copp has played so far.

As for goals, Copp has five, equaling the number scored by Derick Brassard and two off Antropov’s total.

Frank Vatrano’s 11 points are also pretty good,  with only Ozolinsh and Antropov with more points (along with Copp).  But Vatrano’s specialty is scoring goals and with seven already, he has tied Nik Antropov’s total and he has six games left to add to it.

So, there you have it. Andrew Copp is going to be the most productive trade deadline acquisition made by the Rangers post lockout.  Frank Vatrano is the most prolific goal scorer deadline pick up in the salary cap era.

Kudos to Chris Drury for being astute enough to go out and get these players. The fact that he got two players is pretty amazing. Of course, getting to play with the likes for Mika Zibanejad, Chris Kreider and Artemi Panarin has helped Copp and Vatrano, but they still have had to produce, something we didn’t see from a number of other deadline acquisitions.

The final verdict

We’ll reserve the final verdict for post-Stanley Cup playoffs. If Copp and Vatrano can keep up their excellent play and the Rangers can accomplish the unthinkable, it will make this the most successful trade deadline in team history.

Unless that happens, we’ll have to give that honor to Neil Smith in 1994 and Stephane Matteau, Brian Noonan, Craig MacTavish and Glenn Anderson.  But since the institution of the salary cap, Copp and Vatrano look to be at the top of their class.