MuddyInTheMiddle

I think you have to if you are looking at Eberle or Tarasenko, probably Vatrano too. I don't buy the whole "window will close in 25-26 so we will have to rebuild then" narrative. Right now the pipeline is basically empty once Othman graduates and we will need to start restocking(especially on defense), so I genuinely hope that we don't part with our first this year. Would love to see Othman in NY come playoff time if he is ready as a potential RW solution. Then again this is NY, and Drury works for Jim Dolan so expect him to push all of his chips into the center of the table.

I would take Fox because he is younger.

Me neither; but it would have to be a top 15 pick, not a late 1st rounder.

Maybe I am misreading your post, but is there anything wrong with him turning into 3rd-4th liner who is really good in the corners and on the fore check that makes 1.5-2 million per year who puts up 20-30+ points per season? I get the disappointment in that they didn't draft him with the 2nd overall pick to be a "grit guy"; but that is what he is right now. In reality we should have drafted a Bowen Byram, Trevor Zegras, Dylan Cozens, Mathew Boldy or even Kirby Dach who like Kakko was pretty much the consensus pick where he went and has under performed vs. his draft placement(just not as badly). Personally, I'm over it and if after 5 seasons Kakko magically becomes Patrick Laine, I'll consider it finding money in the street. Otherwise why do we need to part company with a pick, if they fit a role and are cost contained, even though it's not the role we drafted them for?

Never heard that rumor, but I just vomitted thinking about the 6 years of buyout penalty on Girardi's contract.

Also literally right across the street from Bridgestone Arena on Broadway, is Assembly Food Hall(address below) where they have literally anything that you want to eat or drink. I would be doing my pre-gaming there for the best most convenient food & drink options. The honky-tonks are great for live music, but the food & beverage can be a little spotty. I would save those for post game. Assembly Food Hall 5055 Broadway Nashville, TN 37203 https://www.google.com/maps/place/Assembly+Food+Hall/@36.1600331,-86.7794499,3a,75y,90t/data=!3m8!1e2!3m6!1sAF1QipNP3JW2TfwWyxBRzvCN6hogziXot7fuBYrP_hiI!2e10!3e12!6shttps:%2F%2Flh5.googleusercontent.com%2Fp%2FAF1QipNP3JW2TfwWyxBRzvCN6hogziXot7fuBYrP_hiI%3Dw129-h86-k-no!7i6000!8i4000!4m7!3m6!1s0x8864670de1c120af:0xa6965a099b0b3aed!8m2!3d36.1605491!4d-86.779799!10e5!16s%2Fg%2F11n5slgtk9?authuser=0&entry=ttu

Does anyone remember the logic of trading a 2 time 30 goal scorer for a 3rd and 4th liner? I know Messier was the shadow GM and him & Keenan thought some guys were "too soft" for the playoffs, but geez!

Just looked up both of their numbers; Vatrano has 14 goals in 23 games!

Agree completely; I LOVED Tikkanen as a Ranger both tours here, but trading him for Weight was probably a much bigger detriment than the Amonte trade. Whatever the case, they totally paid for today with tomorrow to get that Cup.

Playing devils advocate here, what did he ever do besides go on to be a top contributor on some stacked Blackhawks teams that never went past the 2nd round of the playoffs. Putting the Matteau Cup run aside for a moment, I am not sure of he is the difference between another Cup if he doesn't get traded. Guess you could make an argument for 1996-97 run, but I ma not sure anyone was getting past the Legion of Doom in their prime and that Wings team that actually won it that year.

I don't know about that. He has carved out a role as a 4th line center on a Stanley Cup winning team. If we looked at him like that from the beginning, instead of having these 2nd line Center fantasies, we might have actually been able to yield value from that part of the trade.

Hey! We got Nils Lunqvist & Brett Howden to show for that JT Miller throw in.

Yeah that Panarin guy is a bum.

Exactly. The return I think is what everyone should get caught up on. They really needed to get Sergachev back(even if that involved taking less assets back) or not make the trade in the first place. I know that it was a fire sale at the time and but with still a year on his contract left, they had time to look for a much better deal than that.

I did not have an issue with the McDonaugh side of that trade. He was a dininishing asset that you were going to have to overpay for what he had done, instead of what he was going to do for the next 6 years. Tampa happily paid him for that diminishing production during their Cup window, and then had no issue exerting their control over him by getting him to waive his NMC as soon as they had someone in place who could do what he did for much less money.

I thought that Zuccarello was going to fall off given age and size, but he seems to have only gotten better. Besides the obvious ones listed above I would add him with the asterisk that hindsight is 20/20. Can't say that about Buchnevich and Miller. I was pissed on Day 1 of the Buch trade(still kind of am), but with Miller even if kept being what he was with us and Tampa is there a need to go out and sign Trocheck?

Think that we are just going to need to agree to disagree on that if you really think there is going to be any tolerance for "sucking for a couple of seasons".

Think we are saying the same thing, but Drury has to know that there is no appetite whatsoever for "reset buttons". Having been here for the last rebuild that got his predecessors fired after less than 3 seasons of a rebuild, he has to understand that rebuilding on the fly is going to be the only acceptable option. He will still potentially have a Fox, Miller, Schneider, Chytil, and Lafrenaire to build around with an improved Othman, Cullyle, Perreault and any other 2021-23 draft picks that develop. If he learned nothing else from Gorton is that you need lots and lots of draft picks to rebuild on the fly.

The part underlined above is sort of where the rubber meets the road on this discussion, which is why that would have involved better planning from Drury. It's not like they have been trading for RW's the last 3 seasons. See the Buchnevich thread for the root of that problem. Tarasenko on a 4 year deal last Summer is exactly what you are looking at if you trade again and resign him. He is not signing another 1 year deal with the cap going up this Summer. I do agree he is absolutely worth the 1st rounder and you go all in, if they look this good around the trade deadline. Drury however does need to reconcile with the fact that the window starts to close after the 25-26 season. The pipeline is embarrassingly thin once you get past Othman/Perreault and maybe Garand/Berard. The next best defenseman prospect after Zac Jones is Matthew Robertson. I would start planning now for 3 years from now, because Winter is coming to Rangerland.

Maybe they can put him on a line with Brassard and Zucarello and then Edmonton can give a 5 million X 5 year contract as a UFA? Kidding aside, I see alot of similarities too.

My issue with bringing Taransenko back is not how perfectly he will fit in and help contribute to long playoff drive; he absolutely will if last season was any indication. It's much more centered around the medium/long term strategy here. He will be coming off a 5 million one year placeholder contract where his agent read the market ridiculously bad. Rumor was he was looking for 6-7 million X 5 years. Last year we got him at market value in a package for really what amounted to him for a 1st and a 4th if you rationalize that the Mikola rental was for Sammy Blais and a D level prospect. 1st and a 4th are probably going to be around the going rate this year too. Not sure how you rationalize giving up two 1st rounders and two 4th rounders(over 2 seasons) if you are not planning on locking him in the next 2-3 seasons which is where our window will start to close. If you are indeed looking at locking him in, not sure how you make the 15 million in available cap space work, when you need to resign some combination of Lindgren, Kaako, a back-up goalie, a 3D, plus 3-4 minimum salary forward contracts. To me the real play would have been to plan a little better, and get him signed this past Summer when he would have been open to taking a discount as the market collapsed beneath him in the opening week of free agency. Love the idea of having him back, not crazy about long term ramifications.

To me the the term is almost more important than the cap hit. Defenseman who play his type of game tend to breakdown around 28-30 years old badly(see Girardi and Staal) and lose that step that makes them great. Would much rather see a 6 million X 4 years as an overpay, than a 6 years X 4 million or a 5 years X 5 million.

It just killed me that they flipped him during the fire sale when they were trotting the likes of Steve Kampfer, Rob O' Gara and Ryan Sproul every night when they had an AHL All Star in Hartford. Would it have killed them to give Graves a 10 game audition?

Yes and no. I mean that someone needs to be the 12th and 13th forwards on the roster. Assuming Cuylle or Othman don't make the roster out of camp; those two plus Tyler Pitlick are the prime candidates.

You mean in the AHL?