Ranger Lothbrok

I still can't believe it happened. For some reason, I insisted on being in front of the TV for the lottery this year. Just had a feeling. Even though it's never us, I kept thinking our luck has to change, and I could literally see the ball come up in my mind. I had a dream the night we got eliminated that we won the lottery. I even saw Gorton's reaction in the dream (he flew out of his chair and did a fist pump), though it was much more emphatic than his weird smirk. Got home from work at like 6:10, didn't even take the puppy outside to do his peepee, I just let him go on the floor. Totally worth it. It normally takes me an hour and 15 minutes to get home. Thanks to COVID, I did it in 45. Never watched a lottery before. Just truly, truly odd that it actually happened. For what it's worth, even though Edmonton and Pittsburgh were involved, I was convinced it would be Minnesota. Still trying to sort out just how lucky we got though. Like, I know we got obscenely lucky. But did we get 1st overall in a year where it kind of doesn't matter? By all accounts, he's not a generational talent. Then again, people have Byfield penciled in as a Malkin-esque #1 center, and everyone keeps talking about how good this draft is. But then they also talk about what a large dropoff there is from Lafreniere to everyone else. So if Byfield is a #1 center in the making in what is supposedly a phenomenal draft, and Lafreniere is the clear choice over him, what does that say for Lafreniere? And what does it say that Byfield was invisible at the World Juniors (didn't even play a single shift in the final against Russia), and Lafreniere made the tournament his bitch despite a seemingly nasty injury? Lafreniere returned and got a goal and an assist in his first game back after the injury. Clearly not McDavid, Ovechkin or Crosby. Hell, stupid Pierre McGuire doesn't even think he's MacKinnon level, though that might be non-center bias and I don't trust Pierre's opinion on anything. Are we looking at Taylor Hall without the attitude issues? Something better? Perennial all-star? Superstar? Just elite level? All of this being said (and asked), watch us take Yaroslav Askarov because, as Glen Sather once famously put it: "you can never have too many goalies."

Uh. Wow. Am I alone in saying I never thought I would see this in my lifetime? I screamed so loud when I saw the corner of the ball all three of my dogs hid in the bathroom lol.

That's what I did for Kakko/Hughes lottery. I had a text convo going with three people from work, two Rangers fans and one Devils fan. I was halfway home from the office when my phone started blowing up. Eventually I had to call one of them to find out what the hell was happening because I was driving. It was very exciting. I listened to them announce the top 3 over the phone.

We all know it is DEFINITELY going to be Edmonton or Pitt. You have to wonder though, these are the best odds we've had of picking first overall in like...ever. At some point our luck has to change...right? We all know it's not going to though. These fucking lotteries always go to Edmonton or Pitt.

We had better not lose BROADWAY BRETT. He's become my default $5 to score bet on DraftKings because the odds are fantastic. Suffice to say he loses me a lot of money.

Here's hoping that the COVID pause has made the NHL so desperate for buzz and revenue that they rig it for us to pick first overall for the first time in the modern era.

Probably too soon for rose colored glasses, but I thought I might float some positivity out there. Before this season started, we all thought we were going nowhere. With a roster full of players that have never seen postseason action, we got to play meaningful hockey in August. We got to see the heir apparent to the throne continue his dominant play at the world's highest level, and it's a sign of things to come. We watched Kakko struggle, then return and look like the player we always thought he would be at only 19 years old. We inked one of our top veteran forwards for several more years. Ryan Lindgren and Adam Fox were revelations, with Lundkvist and Miller on the way. We watched our shiny new free agent acquisition have an MVP season. We had the luxury of a true #1 center for the first time in I don't know how long. Nobody thought we'd even sniff the playoffs, and we were one of the hottest teams in the league going in to the pause. The future is bright people. This experience was invaluable, and this team will only get better. And if we get the #1 overall pick? I'm prepared to call this an unmitigated success. What do you like most about the team? How optimistic are you for the future? What was your favorite moment this season?

Agree with this. Classic Rangers is going out with a serious whimper. Even if they win, teams that have gone down 2-0 in a best of five have lost 55/56 series. Yikes.

Yeah, I'll happily eat crow on this one. I'm sure I could find it in the thread where the Panarin to NY rumors first started, but I was opposed to signing him. I thought the move reeked of desperation and a desire to jump the gun back into contention when we weren't quite ready. Additionally, he didn't meet my somewhat arbitrary standard of being a "too big to fail" type player. The theory is that unless they're so damn good it's impossible to suck, like legendary elite-style players, coming to NY is a death sentence. I also thought his Calder Trophy season was inflated by playing with Kane. Messier, Jagr, Bure, Lindros (albeit to a lesser extent), etc. fell in the "too big to fail" category. Guys like Nash, Drury, Gomez, Richards, etc. fell into the latter category of great players headed for disappointment. I was way, way, WAYYYY off. This guy is sensational. Forget the goals for a second. I think you see everything you need to on his pass to Zibanejad in OT against the Caps for Zib's 5th goal of the game. It almost looks lazy, but he's just that good. You see the briefest of glances over his shoulder, then he calmly drifts to the puck and, without looking, slings it effortlessly on to Zib's stick across the entire neutral zone for a clear breakaway. The guy is just so damn good. He makes it look easy, and he doesn't seem to make mistakes. Very, very happy to have him and can earnestly say he's worth every penny of that contract.

Punishment doesn't fit the crime IMO. He would've only missed two regular season games. Why is he missing two playoff games?

I think Quinn was asked directly if there was any danger of Buch missing the tournament and he said he didn't think we were at that point, or something to that effect. Trying to find a link, but he made it sound like it was precautionary and not serious.

So this was actually the impetus for the thread. The question isn't so much whether you want a 1st overall pick or a Cup. If you told me I would be GUARANTEED a Stanley Cup in exchange for forfeiting all first round picks for the next decade and having an average roster age of 35, I'd do it in a heartbeat. The Cup is the end that justifies all means. This being said, likelihood and probability must be factored into the calculus. This is why I was so opposed to the MSL/Yandle/Staal trades. The "one last piece" myth can really screw you up if you're not as close as you think you are. And we all know losing on purpose isn't really an option here. It's not like the Rangers can choose to mail it in and pray for the draft lottery to go their way. But this is uncharted territory. It's the Wild West of playoffs. There's no raucous Garden crowd, just as there are no blaring airhorns (still convinced that's piped in by the arena, by the way) followed by "Let's go Caps!" There is no home ice advantage, no momentum, and hell, you could even argue that experience is out the window too. Sure, Zdeno Chara knows what it takes to win more than Kakko does. Does that matter as much when literally nothing is the same as it normally is for playoff purposes? The players will be counting on each other to get up for each match. They will feed their own momentum, not the crowd. This is why I don't necessarily agree with the assertion that if we get past Carolina (which is a big "if") we're dead in the water. There's nothing more dangerous than a team that believes in its own magic, and these playoffs were tailor-made for a Cinderella story. In my opinion, younger rosters have the edge here as it won't take them as long to get up to speed. We were one of the hottest teams in the whole league going into the pause. It's not so much a matter of being better than the Bruins as it is a simple question of whether you believe, regardless of opponent, we are capable of winning 19 out of 33 possible games (57.58%). And for a team that I think went on a 16-6 run (I believe) after Shesterkin took over, anything is possible. I think our chances are better now than they will be in even three years when the defense looks drastically different. The question is though, knowing that beating Carolina effectively eliminates the possibility of drafting another franchise player, do you think our chances of winning it all are greater than 12.5%? Shockingly, for me, who has always been a "glass half empty" kind of guy, the answer is yes.

I was thinking the same thing. Jagr had a true MVP season that year. Anyone who transformed a perennial bottom feeder, whose two next best players on offense were Martin Straka and Michael Nylander, into a playoff contender singlehandedly, while shattering a decades old franchise record in the process, deserved the Hart. That said, for some reason the Hart is the one that gets all the buzz and I think carries a tad more prestige, even if it (allegedly) doesn't mean as much to the players.

I'm sure this has been debated in drips and drabs elsewhere, but I wanted to take the temperature of the room. Which would you rather? And before you say that our luck stinks, we never pick first overall, and the chances are too low to justify it, I ask you to consider if our chances of winning a Cup are any better. Do you honestly think we have greater than a 10% chance? I'm aware that the value of playoff experience isn't limited to victory alone, especially for a young roster. But this is not conventional "playoff experience." No sea of 20,000 rabid fans for either team waving white towels, no pressure cooker type atmosphere, etc. For all intents and purposes, these playoffs are not even as stressful as a regular season game. It's basically exhibition or scrimmage, in my opinion. Sure, the intensity will be there on the ice. But we all know whoever captures Lord Stanley's Cup will forever have an asterisk next to their name for the 2019-20 season. Especially if a play-in team wins it all somehow, fans everywhere will cry that the team didn't even technically make the playoffs. Everyone knows my feelings about drafting and building. I always lean toward prospects and picks. This being said, we're not giving up any assets. This isn't a trade for an aging vet, it's a trade of a gamble of something that may or may not, more than likely not, come to pass. Looking at the Blues last year, a bottom feeder for the first half that rode chemistry and a hot rookie goalie to a championship, I would rather we go for it. Believe it or not, I think our chances are better now than they will be when guys like Lundkvist and Miller are on the blueline. The teams that got shafted the worst by the season pause are the hot teams with veteran experience. Boston, out of everyone, is the most disadvantaged by this setup IMO. Their momentum was interrupted, and I think it's going to take older players longer to find their legs. Literally anything can happen. Despite what odds-makers and pundits might say, I think any team has as good of a shot as any other. Everyone has us as a dark horse/sleeper pick. When you look at our roster, the components are there. The weakest spot is the defense, but a hot goalie can cover a lot of that. In that sense, it's good Igor and Buch had a chance to heal. Kreider is back healthy too. We benefited A LOT from the pause, including the chance to only need three more wins to make the playoffs. That would not have been the case in the regular season. If Zib stays hot, if Breadman continues to elevate the whole team, if Igor catches fire, if Kakko gets out of his own head, etc. we could catch a lot of teams off guard. Igor was routinely giving up 3 goals during his crazy run of wins, and we still won. We proved we can outscore almost anybody, and did it against quality teams. Factor in that home ice advantage isn't really a thing this year, and watch out. This being said, my pick to win it all is actually Winnipeg. Side note: did the NHL botch the lottery or what? There's a legit chance of an already great team picking first overall, when a team like Ottawa or Detroit really, really needed it.

Gotta be Draisaitl, right?

Wait in what world is Trotts greater than Renney? (This is a joke obviously, not actually looking to debate the topic lol)

Stupid. Just stupid, especially with the playoff hopes essentially dashed with Igor out.

I was leaning toward keeping him based on his recent production and the push for the playoffs, but I've done a complete 180 on that. First, the prices this year for rentals are ridiculous...it's finally a seller's market. We could likely get a 1st, top prospect, and top 9 roster player. It's just a tremendous missed opportunity for what would likely not be that great of a benefit. I don't think, with our defense, anyone sees us going deep in the playoffs even if we make it. And frankly, "anything could happen" or "you have to go for it every year" are both inadequate to justify the missed opportunity and are the very same lines of thinking that necessitated a full reset in the first place. The Blues are not a model for winning the Stanley Cup, they're an aberration. We cannot justify slim hopes based on, essentially, a team hitting the lottery. They're the exception, not the norm, and our decision-making shouldn't be based on "that could be us this year." Second, we're still in cap crunch mode. Hank and Staal are killing us. If we sign Kreider, it's going to be that much more difficult to keep Zibanejad in two years. I mean, it's going to suck losing one of ADA or Strome as it is. Zib's going to be getting a substantial raise and it would be foolish to jeopardize keeping our #1 center (first one we've had in a long time). Kreider's going to get minimum 5 years. Thanks to the smart drafting and trades, we're going to be in a position to have to pay A LOT of young talent to keep around over the next few years. That's to say nothing of the likely diminishing returns. We'll be looking at that contract in 4 years and saying, "why did we do this again? Did we learn nothing from Staal/Girardi?" We just handed a huge contract to Panarin, which is actually looking like it worked out for once. We also gave a huge contract to Trouba. But we don't have the luxury of continuing to hand out that type of money going forward. Third, and perhaps most importantly, it would effectively signal the end of the rebuild. This would be our first implicit acknowledgment that it's time to start going for it every year again. That premature and impatient thinking is what got us in to this mess. Unless we want another poignant letter to the fanbase after we fall just short of a Cup again, we have to stay the course for now. I will acknowledge that what he brings is NOT easy to replace, if it even is replaceable. I don't know of another player we'd have access to during our upcoming "Cup window" that has his skillset. He's also an elder statesmen in a room of fresh faces and is a leader on this team. That shouldn't be underestimated, but it's not a justification for keeping him; rather, it's a justification for making sure the return in a trade is worth it. The fact of the matter is that we are not witnessing him "finally putting it all together." He's a player with a history that's rife with inconsistency and he's in a contract year. It's just simply not worth it with the opportunity to strike while the iron's hot. I have long been a vocal proponent of selling off aging assets to replenish the farm and manage your cap, instead of paying through the nose to keep them. Much as I hate to lose him (and believe me, I do, he's currently the only active Rangers player's jersey I have), I'm not about to become a hypocrite and abandon the philosophy I've been proselytizing to all and sundry for years over sentiment and pipe-dreaming.

I'm strongly leaning toward keeping Strome. It became apparent in the first few days of this season that losing Hayes left a void. Howden won't be anything more than a third line center in his prime, Lias is toast, and Chytil had been in Hartford and likely still is not ready for full time second line duty. Put simply, our center depth isn't quite what we wanted. Meanwhile, Strome plays up and down the lineup in all situations and does it well. He may be playing himself out of a contract, but if he can be locked down for four years at $5 mil or less, you'd be hard-pressed to find a cheaper utility 2C. It would be nice to be in the lottery again and maybe draft that future 1C, but it doesn't seem to be in the cards this year. As long as Panarin is around though, Strome has value and can produce.

Luis "The Guillotine" Guillorme.

I dislike the "show me" bridge deals in today's NHL. In general, when you're talking about signing younger players, you're just opening yourself up for much higher exposure in two years if the player becomes, ideally, what you want them to be. It virtually guarantees that you'll have to pay the guy market value just when they're hitting their stride. I get why it makes sense here, but I'm still opposed to the concept. I would've preferred 4-5 years to be honest. That being said, is anyone else interested in seeing what this kid can do on a line with Panarin and Zibanejad?

I certainly hope that's not true-ba.

For me, they're the Gardens best kept secret. We kind of insisted on it with the season ticket rep (actually took quite a bit of hassling because at first there were "none available" and then when we freaked out at them about the non-refundable deposit they caved). Have to use the bathroom? Just hop out your seat. Want food/booze? Turn around. Leg room? Check. Elbow room? Check. A place to put your food and booze that's NOT delicately balancing it on your lap? Check. We actually got the seats after the lottery but before the draft. We were expecting to see Kakko but never thought we'd see Panarin and Trouba's first games too.

I'm happy to announce that for the first time since my father passed away in 2012 our family owns season tickets. My brother and I got barstool seats with the counter in front of them for food/booze on the East Balcony, the side the Rangers shoot on twice, to keep the tradition alive in our family. I will definitely be at every preseason game and the home opener. Home opener should be a hell of a night. A lot of guys will be introduced to the Garden faithful for the first time in their careers. Looking forward to welcoming the new faces and the new era.

Sticking with Lias Andersson. I'll acknowledge that it may be my own wishful thinking; I want VERY badly for him to avoid being the next Brendl/Jessiman/McIlrath. Seventh overall is awfully high to take a guy who waffles between the AHL and an NHL fourth line, which is what current performance would dictate. But our European scouting has been sensational in recent years, particularly in the Scandinavian area. The biggest problem for me, at least, is his skating and, in today's league, that's downright fatal. That said, when watching him I see what they were thinking. The potential is there for a complete player. He'll never sniff 80 points, or even 70, but he has the potential to be a way more valuable Stepan. I can't help but feel that with a coach like Quinn and literally every spotlight that was on him now being on Kakko and Krav, he's going to excel. There are no expectations anymore, just a nebulous hope that his career justifies his cost. He's a good kid, a born leader and a hard worker, and I know it's killing him that his career is headed toward being another Rangers draft punchline. I just have this sneaking suspicion that they put Kakko with him to start the season to ease Kakko in on the 3rd or 4th line and then magic strikes. And when I say magic, I don't mean 90 points. I mean 40-50, with 15-20 goals and every indication that there's room for more.