Vatanen is the guy I want.
Yes x10000. Obviously the guy I'd really want is Trouba. But there's a lot of smoke with us and the Ducks right now, lots of scouts at each other's games, and if we're talking to them Vatanen has the be the guy. Fowler would make no sense. If you guys thought Yandle was bad defensively Fowler will get run out of the state. He makes Yandle look like Shea Weber.
Two more reasons why it is probably Vatanen (if we're being smart): First, Fowler is a LD which is the last thing we need. Vatanen is RD, which is the clear need. We're so backlogged on the left and short on the right we're playing freaking Nick Holden on the right. Second, a theme with the Ranger has always been that, eventually, we get our guy. They were after Nash for two years. They were after Yandle for "awhile." E. Staal was on the radar for two years. If you remember back to the 2014 deadline, Boomer (who is rarely wrong) reported us in big time on a deal for Vatanen centered around Girardi. Obviously we decided to resign G instead, and traded Cally for MSL. The merits of not making that deal are beside the point. The point is that Vatanen has been on our radar. I trust Gorton to be smart here and not trade for Fowler which doesnt help us at all.
The Ducks are in a very bad place. They have about 400k in cap space which would be bad enough, but their best defenseman in Lindholm is still unsigned as an RFA because they havent cleared the space to sign him. They have no leverage with anybody right now. I dont want to trade McIlrath but it's becoming obvious AV has no use for him, meaning he'll walk as a UFA after this year for not playing enough games. McIlrath, Lindberg and if we have to the OTT 2nd round pick we got for Brassard. Then they throw in a 4th or so to balance it out.
McDonagh-Vatanen
Staal-Clendening
Skjei-Klein
Three very balanced pairs.