Trade deadline

[Stepupstepan]

Soucy to the isles. Let’s what the return is. Why did Drury the bozo probably get for him? 5th round pick? Wasted a third rounder last year on him and now trading him for even less. What a moron

 

[JTM]

Panarin has made it clear that he wants a contract extension agreed to before he waives his clause and approves any trade, according to TSN and NHL insider Chris Johnston. If that condition is not met, he could remain with New York through the end of the season and enter free agency on July 1.

Seems like Panarin may make this a bit complicated for the Rangers, and very much limit the market.

 

[Ranger71]

I saw something today that SJ might be down with it.

 

[Stepupstepan]

Shows that he is a fucking bitch and does not care about winning. The guy has always been about padding his stats in the regular season. Good free agent signing for a regular season to get you into the playoffs and that’s about it.

 

[JTM]

Another great night, the Rangers now sit alone with the 2nd worst points % in the league. At the Pens and Carolina at MSG are their final two games before the Olympic freeze, those should both be L's, I think. Keep on losing.

I forgot the Rangers already have two 1st round picks, their own and the better pick between the Stars/Canes via the K. Miller trade. The Stars/Canes pick will most like be in the 26-30 range, but at least it's an extra 1st round pick (they also have two 3rd round picks now).

Assuming they can trade for at least one more 1st round pick, and they should be able to via the Panarin trade and maybe even get a fourth 1st round pick if they trade Trocheck, they maybe could get a good package together to move all the way up if need be. Hopefully that won't be necessary though and worst case they'll pick 2nd or 3rd, or they'll win the draft lottery with the 2nd or 3rd best odds and move to # 1 overall.

I'd love to see the Rangers have four 1st round picks this draft, it is possible, and at least three should be a lock. Seems like McKenna from Penn State is the # 1 prospect this year.

 

[kreidertime]

No the kid from Sweden is now number 1. McKenna hasn't been all that impressive in college.

 

[JTM]

Yeah, it looks close. Looks like about 75% have McKenna # 1, most of the rest have Stenberg from Sweden # 1, it's fluid and Stenberg seems to be gaining. I do like the competition he is playing against in Sweden better than McKenna at Penn State. Stenberg seems to be more of a playmaker, while McKenna seems to be more of a pure scorer.

With time left before the draft, I would guess it could be either one of those guys going # 1. It does appear though, unfortunately, there is no # 1 generational stud this year, and neither of the guys mentioned are C's, they are both L shots who play wing. It does seem to be a deep draft though, which is good for the Rangers who should have at least three 1st round picks.

 

[Stepupstepan]

Drury is not going to go with the Swedish kid. He wants to build pretty much North American team which is fine by me. Just draft kids with an elite talent and speed that the rangers have lacked for years.

 

[kreidertime]

He will absolutely draft the Swedish kid.

 

[JTM]

We'll see how this ultimately plays out, but I always felt Panarin was going to want a big number on his next contract, no discounts or "understanding" that at his age 4 years at huge money may be a bit much. He wants his money for 4 years minimum it appears, and I'm not surprised:

Most importantly, Friedman reported that Panarin not only wants a contract extension in place with an acquiring team before waiving his no-move clause, but has a very definite, round number in mind for that extension.

Fifty million dollars.

“If you’re going to get Panarin, he is going to try and hit a contract home run even though he’s 34 years old. And the number I was hearing, and a few teams backed me on this, was 50 million,” Friedman stated Friday on his 32 Thoughts podcast. “That’s the number Panarin hopes to get to, and the teams could break it down as much as they did. Do you want to make it 4 x 12.5, do you want to make it 5 x 10?

“Obviously, that doesn’t mean it’s going to happen. Maybe there’s some situations that he likes that say we can’t go there and this is what we can do. But I think that’s the target … and we’ll see if he gets there.”

 

[kreidertime]

Drury will take back a 5 million contract that isn't great for a couple years to off-set Panarin's money and keep the return value higher.

 

[kreidertime]

Honestly, it would be wise to spread the draft picks over this year, next year and the year after. With no lottery protection in hopes one of the teams suffers a ton of bad luck and the pick could be high. This is not the strongest draft for centers which is what we need so if Drury is truly a moron as we think, he won't get center prospects back. One wing prospect I would want back is Protas in the AHL from the Capitals. If Panarin goes there.

 

[JTM]

Good night for the Rangers as a few teams around them in the standings won. As of this morning, the Rangers sit all alone as the 2nd worst team in the NHL based on points %. If you look at the standings, barring an unforeseen hot streak, the Rangers should finish no "better" than the 6th worst team in the NHL.

At this point, anything better than a bottom 3 or 4 finish into the draft lottery would be a bit disappointing, then we hope the ping pong balls bounce our way.

 

[JTM]

I agree, it would be smart to try and get an extra 1st or 2nd round pick in the 27 draft as well.

I'm sure the Rangers will retain 50% of Panarin's cap hit for the remainder of this season, hopefully that will allow Drury to still get a top return and not take back a contract that is terrible moving forward. I expect they'll have to take back some contract, hopefully it's not too bad - maybe $3M or $4M tops for the next year or two tops.

Cap space should be plentiful for the Rangers this summer, the issue is all the top UFA's have re-signed. The potential UFA group this summer is at best whatever, and you could say it's bad. That's what happens when the cap increases a good amount so quickly, teams have money to re-sign their own players.

My best guess is we'll see a big trade (or trades) this summer for a very good player (or players) using some of the draft capital we obtain in the trades we make over the next month. Like it or not, this will not be some years long rebuild, Drury said that straight out, and we are not going into the season with a bunch of unused cap space. I believe a big trade or two bringing in some good players with our open cap space is what we'll see happen this summer/around the draft.

 

[JTM]

I'm starting to get the feeling Schneider will be traded. They have Fox, Borgen, Morrow, and they just claimed another R shot dman from SJ, Vincent Iorio, who's a big guy, 6'4" 220 lbs., and projects to be a decent 3rd pair RD.

It appears to me Schneider will be the odd man out. He'll have decent value in a trade, which makes moving him seem likely to me, especially since he'll be an RFA with arbitration rights this summer.

I'll stand by my Schneider and Trocheck will go before the trade DL mindset, in addition to the obvious Panarin and Soucy (already gone). The wildcard to me is Lafreniere, I could see that one going either way, but right now today I think he stays unless Drury can get a big return for him, which seems doubtful at the moment.

 

[Ranger71]

I think Carrick will go too, not that it brings back more than a 3rd at best.