Which is the best value?
I’m not going to cheap out and I will give my definitive opinion, but all of these trades were really good value at the time. There’s a chance some of these deals will blow up awfully in the face of the New York Rangers, but as of the time of writing, there’s not a lot to be unhappy about with how Chris Drury and the Rangers front office approached the trade deadline. They got everything on the shopping list.
For me, the best value here has to be the Chicago trade. To get Patrick Kane for the price of a packet of Doritos and a Best Buy coupon like that is some fine work from the Rangers and their front office. This deal will also rear the most issues for the Blueshirts moving forward due to the cap issues that the Blueshirts are currently experiencing due to the cap hit Patrick Kane has with even 75% retained.
I do think there needs to be a mention here of the Motte deal. Seeing as Tyler Motte has almost outproduced Julien Gauthier’s entire season in New York in less than 20 games despite missing multiple games with injuries. Motte’s been an incredible addition to this roster and the price they got him for is almost nothing. He’s not going to decide games, but he could be a big part of a series.
Tarasenko and Mikkola was an incredible deal itself. We’ve seen both look like they’ve been missing pieces the Rangers were so desperate for at the start of the year, and Mikkola has shown that he can even play capably up the lineup in a post-season atmosphere if he is asked to which makes that back end so much stronger. This in general was a really strong deadline for the Blueshirts.