Official off-season thread 2024

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And shortly after my post Pinto finally signed in OTT. So scratch that one. But the basic idea of shoring up 3C while using Chytil on the wing is 100% worth pursuing.
 
No surprise on Pinto, as I said no way they'd let him go, young and cheap for a quality player with good upside.

Big picture, as we discussed above, right now I'd say Chytil as # 1 RW, Kakko moved for a legit # 3 C, and somehow try and move Lindgren or Trouba and add a bigger physical dman to pair with Fox. If Drury can pull it off, hopefully I'll have to eat my words in a few days/weeks, there is still time.

As an aside - I do find it interesting Tarasenko is still not signed, second straight season he has had trouble finding a home and was unsigned after July 1st.

Double aside - Buch signed a new six year $48M deal with the Blues. Also, NTC years 1-4, 20 team NTC year 5, 15 team NTC year 6. Every big signing comes with a NMC or NTC these days. $8M per season seems like a big AAV for Buch.
 
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kreidertime said:
I would scratch Trouba every game until he accepted a trade. If he wants to fuck the team over, embarrass him.
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I agree with you 10000000000000000%. Your wife has a job in NY, and you just had a kid, I get it and respect you wanting to stay in NY due to that, but you signed a contract that gives the Rangers the right to trade you to a team not on your 15 team NT list or waive you starting July 1, 2024. Like it or not that is what you agreed to Jacob, and you did so in order to get $56M. I still don't understand the Brooks comment that he may not accept a trade to a team not on his list, again is he going to retire or refuse to report? Man, up and accept the reality YOU agreed to.

I'll standby what I wrote earlier, I fully expect Trouba to be a good leader and teammate as always if he is still here this coming season, but if Drury had the balls, he would move Trouba before the season and rip that band-aid off. At this point it's the right thing to do.


According to recent reports, New York Rangers captain Jacob Trouba has added the Detroit Red͏ Wings to͏ his no-͏trade list, effectively shutting ͏down speculation of͏ a ͏potential move. This development comes despite earlier optimism among fans that Trouba might ͏join the͏ Red Wings. ͏
 
Trouba was never the problem, Drury's ham handed off season negotiating tactics have been amateur hour stuff. Dumping a 10 year guy like Barkley without giving him any forewarning and then letting Trouba know through the local press idiot that he's being shopped around was beyond stupid. Once Jacob's on his way to another 100 hit/100 block season the fans will forgive him, I think the Rangers crowd will be much tougher on Mika if he doesn't start shooting more. With Laf deciding to wait on his contract negotiations until next year there was no urgency to clear cap space, all Drury has done so far is made the postseason team worse and muddied the waters of what should be an optimistic outlook for '24-'25. They played Florida very closely with Fox (contract through '29-'30 still no NTC yet) and Trouba both hurt.
 
Completely agree on Drury, the guy is terrible at his job and in over his head, and the Rangers are clearly worse now than they were when they lost to Florida. But I think two things can be true, Drury didn't handle it well at all, but Trouba acting as if he can block trades and not go if the Rangers trade him to a team not on his no trade list, or if the Rangers waive him is also ridiculous. Once again, Trouba signed a contract that allows the Rangers to trade/waive him starting July 1st, 2024, to the teams not on his list, regardless of his wife's job or his kid, that's the business. That's the reality of the situation. It's almost as if Trouba is so shocked the Rangers may want to move on, or even though he agreed to a deal that allowed the Rangers to move him this year, he wants to say no sorry I will not go even though I signed a contract.

I see it differently than most I guess, Goodrow got a ton of money (good for him), and Trouba got a ton of money (good for him), but they both signed contracts that allow the Rangers to do what they are trying to do (and did do in the case of Goodrow). That is what good organizations do, try and improve the team. Drury handling it like an unprofessional in over his head buffoon does not change the fact that Barclay and Jacob agreed to these terms, and they have to deal with the results of that agreement, and also get all their agreed to money.

Drury handling it poorly is not a reason to have Goodrow and Trouba act as if they are hurt because Drury worked under their agreed to contracts. They need to man up, and Drury needs to be better at his job, and handle things in a much more professional manner, even though at the end of the day he can do what he wants moving them per their contracts.

One of Mercogliano’s sources added that “it will require ‘a major cleanup’ to mend fences if the captain sticks around.”

Trouba’s settling in Manhattan could present a hurdle to the Rangers’ brass when attempting to move him elsewhere as he doesn’t want to leave New York.

“(Trouba’s) wife, Kelly, has a medical career in New York and their first child, Axel, arrived in January,” Mercogliano reported. “The belief is that [Rangers general manager Chris] Drury wants to rip the band-aid off, which may leave Trouba resigned to accept his fate. Regardless of how it turns out, the state of the locker room is a concern.”
 
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What is amateur hour is the moronic philosophy of GM's here for years giving out dumbass NMC and NTC's for an organization that is known to treat their players better than first class. There is no reason to need those clauses to lure players here. If you won't play here without one, then get the fuck out. Trade them and get a top return. There should be no reason to ever give those clauses out. Earn your contract and the organization will keep you. I've said for years Dolan actually should step in and make it an organization rule. No more NTC or NMC's. Because of those clauses, the organization has gone from treating players better than first class to having to use nasty tactics to get rid of them. The clauses are the problem. Stop fucking using them.
 
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I agree in theory, but the Rangers will not sign or keep top players then, just be ready for that. Go look at every good team, they are loaded with players who have NMC's and NTC's. Go look at the deals signed by the big free agents this week, loaded with NMC's and NTC's. All of the final 4 teams this past season have at least 6 players on their team with NMC's or NTC's. It's the reality of the situation in hockey, get on board or don't sign/keep top players unfortunately.

Unless the NHL owners and GM's as a whole get on board with a new approach, which may be collusion, it will not change.

And as for Trouba, he seems to be upset about going anywhere period, regardless of his 15 team no trade list, no clause would prevent that if true.
 
PorterPanzer said:
Trouba was never the problem, Drury's ham handed off season negotiating tactics have been amateur hour stuff. Dumping a 10 year guy like Barkley without giving him any forewarning and then letting Trouba know through the local press idiot that he's being shopped around was beyond stupid. Once Jacob's on his way to another 100 hit/100 block season the fans will forgive him, I think the Rangers crowd will be much tougher on Mika if he doesn't start shooting more. With Laf deciding to wait on his contract negotiations until next year there was no urgency to clear cap space, all Drury has done so far is made the postseason team worse and muddied the waters of what should be an optimistic outlook for '24-'25. They played Florida very closely with Fox (contract through '29-'30 still no NTC yet) and Trouba both hurt.
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I like Trouba as a player. He filled a need when he was acquired and brings a unique edge that much of the team lacks. But Trouba is absolutely a problem right now. 100 hit/100 block season for $8 million? You know who else had a 100 hit/100 block season, and did it with more points? Neal Pionk. Among many others who are making way less than $8 million. Trouba brings many positives but his play right now is not worthy of $8m. He has been passed on the RD depth chart by Schneider.

Trouba demanded $8 million even though he was traded to his preferred destination. In exchange he got limited trade protection. If reports are accurate that he is actively thwarting the ability to trade him, it is a problem and reflects very poorly on him. If he wanted certainty, he could have left money on the table and asked for a full a no-move.

Drury's negotiation tactics are a separate issue. I did not see it reported that Drury let Trouba know through the local press he was being shopped. Who leaked this is also going to be a matter of speculation. The issue we can all agree on is that Drury seems to have no backup plan to improve the back-end. Same pairs with Jones subbed for Gus gets us nowhere.

There is plenty of blame to go around here. Both Drury and Trouba included.
 
We feel the same way on this Prod, I agree 100%. A contract is agreed to by both sides and goes two ways. Two things can be true, neither guy has handled it well as I wrote.
 
Players union has too much power these days. I get it players want some kind of safety in their careers nowdays because they all marry in their mid twenties or earlier and have kids.
 
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Stepupstepan said:
Players union has too much power these days. I get it players want some kind of safety in their careers nowadays because they all marry in their mid twenties or earlier and have kids.
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too much power? they have a fucking salary cap that went up for the first time in a couple of years...and that amount was 4 million....
 
With Tarasenko, Detroit has a very formidable team now, but their goaltending is a ?
 
Tarasenko hasn’t been good in years. He’s one of the most overrated NHL players now.
 
Tarasenko isn't the same player, agreed, but he was solid here playing with Kreider and Zibanejad, and has a reasonable $4.75M cap hit for two years. Not going to make it sound as if Tarasenko is a stud still, or would elevate us many levels, and I won't flip out about it, but he would have made the team better.

Look, we are now 3 days down in free agency and Drury has basically done nothing, all we have done is lose players since the end of the season. At what point are folks going to start calling like it is with Drury, he is a disaster in his role, and in over his head.
 
I will say this, I have got to believe there is some kind of trade coming. Drury has done so little, and talked about everything is on the table to improve, it doesn't add up. There has to be some big deal brewing behind the scenes, it is the only thing that makes sense.
 
NYR_94 said:
At what point are folks going to start calling like it is with Drury, he is a disaster in his role, and in over his head.
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You've been saying it virtually non-stop for a while now...isn't that enough?
 
There are way worse gms in hockey than Drury. In his first three years the team has made ECF twice. Not many gms in hockey can state that on their resume. He has done a decent enough job so far. Gotta give the guy at least another couple of years.
 
Stanley cup winning teams aren’t built through free agency. By signing players through free agency is a hit or miss in most cases. Panarin and Trochek signings are the only ones that have worked out that I can recall recently.
 
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Terrific post


If you don’t have 45 seconds to take this in don’t bother, scroll on by, and no need to bust my balls.

With all the outrage and acrimony of the Rangers not making a big splash in free agent frenzy, the scuttle-butt Jacob Trouba situation and looking into the future…I offer the following analysis, facts, and plausible explanations. Not getting something you wanted isn’t the end of the world, don’t wish too hard you might get what you wished for, and getting what you wanted rarely results in winning a Cup.

1. On the Captain. One thing we know is Chris Drury is as tight-lipped as any GM in the history of the NHL. The only one who knows what he’s thinking is himself. He doesn’t negotiate through the media, and certainly wouldn’t tip his hand at a card game. Larry Brooks has been ragging on Trouba since the Florida series, then a set of articles about why Trouba should be moved, and then puts the Detroit thing out there…the other writers cited Brooks and fire set…and then he goes into a series of articles about who the Rangers should go after. We know full well this is clickbait season…writers bank on 4 weeks of articles to make their numbers. While we know Drury is very tight-lipped and never shares what he’s thinking, we all know full well that Brooks is a self-serving dick. Brooks has already walked his original claim back to the station.

2. Free Agency - looking at the last 10 years of the frenzy…a review of the big free agent signings…of the top 30 free agent signings in each of the last 10 years how many of them helped their new team lift the Cup may surprise you.

2013 none
2014 none
2015 none
2016 none
2017 none
2018 only Tyler Bozak changed teams won a Cup (St.Louis in 2019)
2019 only Sergei Bobrovsky changed teams won a Cup (Florida in 2024)
2020 only Alex Pietrangelo changes teams won a Cup (Vegas in 2023)
2022 none
2023 only Evan Rodrigues and Niko Mikkola won a Cup (Florida in 2024)

3. What’s ahead…Rangers didn’t have a lot of cap space going into the offseason…$12.8M after waiving Goodrow…(who happened to score twice as many goals in the playoffs as Zibanejad and 1 more than Panarin). With only 18 players signed…Jones replaces Gus, the 4th line has Rempe and Edstrom, it is going to cost $7M to keep Lindgren and Schneider per Evolving Hockey (BTW, a good source of insight). That leaves $5.8M and to get to 23 players under contract a couple of guys may make the team (Othmann and or Berard)…leaves $3.8M…they swung a deal for Reilly Smith and while it isn’t a big name he’s a plug and play injury free winger with a career 55% Corsi. The money and term handed out this week was blatantly absurd and with Lafreniere and Shesterkin extensions on the horizon, there wasn’t much Drury could do. We wil be fine…again the last 10 years of free agency tells us a lot…most big swings don’t pan out. The solution usually lays within…the best way to go is develop your own draft picks.

My dark horse is Brett Berard…gritty high motor energy guy who is a pest with good hands…a poor man’s Marchand. I also wouldn’t be surprised if Goodrow slides back over at the deadline. Hang tight Rangers fans.
 
Interesting...my ip was banned right after I copied and pasted from Facebook...I guess the cruise ship wifi I was using is banned?
 
I think that article makes a lot of good points. Big picture though, the Rangers are worse now than after they lost to Florida, and the team isn't good enough to get anywhere near a Cup. But the points made are legit and have merit, won't argue with that.

One thing I will add is, I think we all know you are not building a SC winner through free agency. You can/need to supplement your team with some good signings, but you are not winning a Cup based on solely signings. In the NHL you need to have good young players, and I would also say make some smart trades. I hold out hope we will see a trade (or trades) that will improve this team.

Happy 4th everyone!!!
 
Some 'insider' on Twitter is saying they've offered Kakko, Trouba, Robertson and picks for Zegras. Vatrano is mentioned as a possibility too.
 
BigDaddyAl1973 said:
Terrific post


If you don’t have 45 seconds to take this in don’t bother, scroll on by, and no need to bust my balls.

With all the outrage and acrimony of the Rangers not making a big splash in free agent frenzy, the scuttle-butt Jacob Trouba situation and looking into the future…I offer the following analysis, facts, and plausible explanations. Not getting something you wanted isn’t the end of the world, don’t wish too hard you might get what you wished for, and getting what you wanted rarely results in winning a Cup.

1. On the Captain. One thing we know is Chris Drury is as tight-lipped as any GM in the history of the NHL. The only one who knows what he’s thinking is himself. He doesn’t negotiate through the media, and certainly wouldn’t tip his hand at a card game. Larry Brooks has been ragging on Trouba since the Florida series, then a set of articles about why Trouba should be moved, and then puts the Detroit thing out there…the other writers cited Brooks and fire set…and then he goes into a series of articles about who the Rangers should go after. We know full well this is clickbait season…writers bank on 4 weeks of articles to make their numbers. While we know Drury is very tight-lipped and never shares what he’s thinking, we all know full well that Brooks is a self-serving dick. Brooks has already walked his original claim back to the station.

2. Free Agency - looking at the last 10 years of the frenzy…a review of the big free agent signings…of the top 30 free agent signings in each of the last 10 years how many of them helped their new team lift the Cup may surprise you.

2013 none
2014 none
2015 none
2016 none
2017 none
2018 only Tyler Bozak changed teams won a Cup (St.Louis in 2019)
2019 only Sergei Bobrovsky changed teams won a Cup (Florida in 2024)
2020 only Alex Pietrangelo changes teams won a Cup (Vegas in 2023)
2022 none
2023 only Evan Rodrigues and Niko Mikkola won a Cup (Florida in 2024)

3. What’s ahead…Rangers didn’t have a lot of cap space going into the offseason…$12.8M after waiving Goodrow…(who happened to score twice as many goals in the playoffs as Zibanejad and 1 more than Panarin). With only 18 players signed…Jones replaces Gus, the 4th line has Rempe and Edstrom, it is going to cost $7M to keep Lindgren and Schneider per Evolving Hockey (BTW, a good source of insight). That leaves $5.8M and to get to 23 players under contract a couple of guys may make the team (Othmann and or Berard)…leaves $3.8M…they swung a deal for Reilly Smith and while it isn’t a big name he’s a plug and play injury free winger with a career 55% Corsi. The money and term handed out this week was blatantly absurd and with Lafreniere and Shesterkin extensions on the horizon, there wasn’t much Drury could do. We wil be fine…again the last 10 years of free agency tells us a lot…most big swings don’t pan out. The solution usually lays within…the best way to go is develop your own draft picks.

My dark horse is Brett Berard…gritty high motor energy guy who is a pest with good hands…a poor man’s Marchand. I also wouldn’t be surprised if Goodrow slides back over at the deadline. Hang tight Rangers fans.
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lol Goodrow is not coming back at the deadline.
 
Roslovic signed with the Canes, one year $2.8M. Not moving the needle, but pretty low risk deal for the Canes.

Who knows if that specific Ducks rumor is true, but in general I do think the Ducks could be a good trade partner for us given where they are at in their process (Verbeek being very difficult to deal with notwithstanding). I assume the Ducks are not on Trouba's list, but if he got traded there, he would flip out considering he didn't want to be in Detroit due to his family. Anaheim is a little further away than Detroit...:).
 
Zegras is a risk. He blows in the faceoff dot. His defensive game is non existent. He's also the third center there now. However, the Ducks are a losing organization and have been for a while.
 
I think they should target Vatrano alone. Anaheim is going nowhere this year.
 
Buffalo just gave Savoie away for a freaking role-player. Where the hell was Drury?
 
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