During the mayhem of a Rangers gameday, something went under the radar regarding the New York Rangers, which applies to their recent rumors regarding the Ottawa Senators. We know that the Rangers have long admired Senators captain Brady Tkachuk. New Ottawa Senators owner Michael Andlauer has voiced his displeasure with the "soft-tampering" of the Blueshirts. The Senator's captain has been linked with a move away, and Andlauer refers to the organization using the media to get the news to the player.
The National Hockey League is trying to crack down on the amount of tampering across the league concerning players moving from organization to organization. This usually applies to free agency when we know where players go before the window opens. It's becoming a problem, and NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman and Deputy Commissioner Bill Daly want to stop that from happening. New York has done this in a slightly different way with Tkachuk.
Traditionally, you get a message to a player by going through the agent, assuming that the agent also represents a client you can talk to, or you can have the players communicate since there's something like only two degrees of separation in the NHL. New York didn't do that. What Andlauer is accusing the Rangers of is using the media as the messenger instead. That's different, and the Rangers' stance uniquely gets around the rules.
Imagine the Rangers' brain trust assembled in the war room, which we've seen them do a lot recently. They could target someone like Tkachuk if they're looking at young players they want for a rebuild. There's nothing wrong with this. If the organization likes a player, it'll get out. It's New York, it's a sports-crazed city. When the New York Post said the Rangers appreciate Tkachuk and may try to acquire him, Andlauer was annoyed.
Andlauer hasn't requested formal charges for tampering, and there's a portion of spite in Andlauer's motives. Shortly after Andlauer bought the Senators, the organization was deducted a first-round pick for the Evgeni Dadonov situation. The Rangers organization responded to this with a statement: "This is an irresponsible accusation, and we defer to the Commissioner's office."