Here is my take - this is a trade that had to be done. Even Kane now is still great, maybe not a dominant stud, but still great - 92 points in 78 games last season. And when he says I want to be a NYR and you can get him for a few picks, you have to make the deal if you are Drury.
With that said, the East is loaded. You can legitimately say outside of Colorado the top 6 or 7 teams are in the East. That's just the way it is. BOS/TOR/TB will be a coin flip in the Atlantic. Canes/NJ/NYR will be pretty much a coin flip in the Met (although I do struggle to see the Devs beating both even with Meier). Then the ECF will be a coin flip between the teams that survive to get there.
The Rangers also lack the sandpaper I think you need to win in the playoffs as they progress, and it concerns me for sure. They will try to overcome with skill. Truth is until the Kid line is the 2nd line that will always be the case. When you have a skill 3rd line it takes away some of the opportunity to have that extra sandpaper.
But with the cap in the NHL, especially not going up much for one more year, Drury had to go in here. The cap is so rigid the Rangers will start to lose good players soon that they cannot afford. They need to pick the right guys to re-sign - Miller, Laf, Chytil, and we'll see on Kakko, but they will lose guys with this hard cap. So you have to go for it when you have the chance. But even with doing so, given how difficult the East is, and how tough the NHL playoffs are in general, the Rangers could lose to NJ in round 1 and it wouldn't be a major upset or shocker to a lot of folks.
Welcome to the NHL playoffs.
