The New York Rangers have always been eager to go after top tier talent, and that's exactly what they did when they signed Kevin Shattenkirk to a four-year, $26.6 million deal in July of 2017. This date is relevant, because months later in February of 2018 the organization would go on to release the Letter 1.0.
The Rangers had always been interested in bringing Shattenkirk home, as the No. 14 overall pick of the 2007 draft was a New York native who grew up in New Rochelle. His tenure in New York was short, and it being best and worst week, I wanted to highlight one of the worst forms of luck the team and player had. There's also a bit of a twist, in which the worst of times for Shattenkirk, and the Rangers, would become the best of times for him in unexpected fashion.
Shattenkirk was set to join a roster looking to rebound
The 2016-17 Rangers were eliminated in the second round of the playoffs at the hands of the Ottawa Senators, and this was one year after losing in the first round against the Pittsburgh Penguins, and two years after losing in the Eastern Conference Final against Tampa Bay.
Defense was an area in which the Rangers needed some help, as the depth chart took a serious dip beyond Ryan McDonagh and Brady Skjei. Shattenkirk was coming off a season in which he had a career high 56 points in 80 games between the St. Louis Blues and Washington Capitals, and there was confidence that the team was adding a playmaking presence.
Shattenkirk got hurt and never recovered
Much like J.T. Miller last year, Shattenkirk suffered an injury during the beginning of training camp. Being that Shattenkirk had signed a new contract and was looked at as an important piece, he played through the pain as long as he could with the help of injections to get by as best as he could. Shattenkirk never found his rhythm, and in January of 2018 he had surgery to repair a torn meniscus in his left knee.
Shattenkirk ended his first year on New York with a line of 5-18-23 in just 46 games while skating 20:16 per night. His injury and shutdown predated the letter, and it is something he reflected on later on with the late great Larry Brooks.
“The cards that were dealt you certainly couldn’t predict. Going into the season, we had a pretty good team if you look at that roster. And the way that it all unfolded on a personal level and on a team level was certainly unpredictable, and you know, frankly, it stunk. Even when the letter [presaging the tear-down and rebuild] went out, we were only three points out of the playoffs at the time. Certainly we weren’t playing great hockey at the time, but I thought we had enough leadership and enough players who’d been through it before that we could have maybe tried to right the ship."
Rangers plans changing caused a quick and painful exit
Despite the Rangers making a big initial investment in Shattenkirk, the Letter changed everything. Shattenkirk's surgery in January meant he needed to have time to heal, and he was unable to do his normal offseason prep to get his game up to speed. That resulted in a 2018-19 season in which he was moved down the depth chart and finished with a line of 2-26-28 while skating just 18:56 per night.
A youth movement was underway as the team would ultimately acquire Jacob Trouba from Winnipeg, Adam Fox from Carolina, and they already had Tony DeAngelo as part of the Derek Stepan draft day trade for the pick that became Lias Andersson.
Shattenkirk was bought out of the final two years of his deal, and it was something he didn't see coming.
It all worked out for Shattenkirk
Things didn't work out on Broadway for Shattenkirk, and after becoming a free agent he signed a one-year deal with the Tampa Bay Lightning, joining McDonagh who'd been trade there during the initial wave of Letter 1.0 transactions.
Shattenkirk had an amazing bounce back with a line of 8-26-34 playing 18:54 a night, and he stepped up big time in the playoffs posting a line of 3-10-13 in 25 games skating 19:30 a night to help Tampa win a Stanley Cup.
It was bittersweet to see Shattenkirk lift the Cup for Rangers fans, but deep down you can't help but be happy for the hometown kid who gave it his all. The timing of the injury was brutal, the timing of the franchise going in a new direction was unfortunate, and overall it was just a situation at the time in which no one was a winner. That is, except for Shattenkirk the very next year.
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