BrooksBurner

Huh? How is anything I said one size fits all? It wholly depends on situation, but gifting does happen. Your comment was one size fits all:

Either I'm not following what you're saying or it comes off as contradictory: "he should be in the A cause he needs to develop, but he's not being gifted a NHL roster spot"

I thought I read reports that said Pittsburgh was offering 3 years. Hard to see anyone else topping that term. If he were open to a 1 year deal, I'd want the Rangers to sign him for whatever the max they can give him, which is probably close to 7-7.5M if they cut enough corners.

You started with saying nobody is gifted ice time, and expanded it to nobody is gifted anything. If a player is in need of more developing in a lower league, but doesn't get sent down, I would consider that being gifted a roster spot. If a player in that kind of situation is still getting 13-14 minutes a night on the 2nd or 3rd line, they are pretty much being gifted ice time on top of it. I think Lafreniere would have dominated the AHL and it would have done wonders for his confidence. I think Kakko would struggle to produce, just like he has at the NHL level.

Not saying the same can be said about Dylan Strome, but I can pull up a million posts on this forum over the last 2-3 seasons about how Kakko and Lafreniere should be sent to Hartford because they were not playing NHL quality hockey. Especially during Kakko’s first year. Whether we call it being gifted a roster spot, ice time, a longer leash without earning it, whatever it may be, these are pretty prime examples of it. I think it’s actually quite prevalent, but not always without merit. The optics of sending a top pick down can be bad for everyone.

So about Nemeth…I thought the deadline for waiving him for a buyout was today, but maybe it’s tomorrow?

Yeah, for sure. I really don’t get it when I see Trouba talk or interview. I don’t really get “captain leadership” vibes. Yet by all accounts he is apparently looked up to in that kind of fashion, whether by teammates and/or management, which could definitely mean their view on keeping him or not is a lot different. If they did slap the C on him, I would be inclined to agree that Lindgren is out. Until then, though, it doesn’t seem like the right path for managing the cap to me.

I get the concern, but prime Staal and prime Girardi were worth that number. The problem is when the Rangers signed them, there wasn’t enough prime years left for either of them. Staal was 28, Girardi was 30, and the Rangers gave them 6 year contracts taking them to ages 34 and 36. Girardi in particular was already showing signs of being out of his prime and they paid it anyway. Lindgren will be 26 when he needs a contract. A 6 year contract takes him to 32. Truth be told, he probably starts breaking down around 30, so if you can get him down from 6 years, even better, but the bulk of the contract will be affordable prime years. And if anyone thinks Lindgren will break down, what about Trouba? He’s 28 now and plays a heavy game too. In 2 years he will be 30 and probably starting the downhill trajectory. 26 year old Lindgren or 30 year old Trouba?

Well if Nemeth is bought out or traded, I would assume Hajek is the expected 6/7 defenseman. His QO is only a little more than $900K I believe. And if not, they can just waive him down to Hartford. If he’s claimed, then he’s claimed. No harm, no foul.

Schneider/Lindgren needing new contracts and /Trouba NMC downgrading to limited-NTC all happen summer 2024. That’s when the decision needs to be made. I don’t see how paying Miller affects Lindgren more than the 2RD decision which has a major impact on cap. Even if Schneider isn’t ready for 2RD at that stage, there will still be an argument that they are better off trading Trouba (-8M), giving Lindgren 5M, and using the cap to find a short term 2RD as Schneider develops, rather than completely sacking the left side. But a lot can change in 2 years. Maybe a Robertson makes Lindgren expendable. Who knows. Right now I would value Lindgren at 5M more than Trouba at 8M.

Did someone say cougars?

Well, we don’t know the numbers. Hypothetically, if the Rangers won’t give him $5.5, but offer his brother 4.5, that seems like a slap in the face to basically say Ryan isn’t worth the extra mill after what he’s given to the team the last few years. “It’s not personal. It’s just business.”, until it’s not.

I’m guessing you meant Dylan, and you beat me to it!

I don’t see Dylan signing here after the Rangers moved on from his brother. But in before the Rangers trade a couple of kids and sign both of the Strome brothers

I don’t think there is any chance that Trouba gets bought out next year. They would have a 2+M cap hit through 2029. Not happening whatsoever. A trade in summer 2024 on the other hand….

Maybe he meant sons

That’s just the most recent one I remembered off the top of my head. You are not baiting me into digging up more. No sir. But you can watch just about any game the last couple months of the season to see plenty of it.

I get all that. He hasn’t proven enough. But none of the kids have, so that leads me back to my point in this thread about trading for Kane rather than a top 6 C rental like Miller. There are other proven Cs around Chytil, and they don’t have that at RW. Right now it’s looking like Laf/Kakko/Krav/maybe Blais. I don’t mind a couple kids on the right in the top 9, but there needs to be at least one proven commodity next year. They had to stick two trade deadline guys there this year. I’m more comfortable hoping for one guy (Chytil) elevating his play than at least two of those guys on the right. Just sign a mid-range $3-4M C like Stastny for extra depth and see what happens.

But tell me how you really feel about Chytil If we are really sticking to point totals, and in partial seasons, then Lafreniere and Kakko aren’t top 6 players either. The Rangers might as well just trade them too, yeah? Btw I’ll drive Chytil to the airport in a PLD trade.

Took 30 seconds on nhl.com there. Is there a generational gap between us? I can do a webex meeting to show ya how to navigate the interwebs

https://www.nhl.com/video/chytils-beautiful-backhand-goal/t-334122546/c-11835474

If you've been saying it for 3 seasons, the error lies in your expectations. This past season was the first season he did not meet expectations, and the last 3 months of it (playoffs included) was a good step up.

There's a lot of missing context in this though. He's been here four seasons, yeah, but not for four seasons worth of games. And, no, he hasn't eclipsed 23 points, but when he's had 3 seasons in a row of 60 something or 40 something games played, total points isn't looking at the whole picture (injury issues are another valid talking point). Projected totals over 82 games matter more when there aren't full season samples to look at, and when you look at those he's really been about a 10-15 goal, 30-35 point center on 13-14 minutes a night, with negligible PP time. It's not that much of a stretch thinking Chytil is a 15-20 goal, 35-40 point guy by moving up in TOI and with more consistent line mates, all of which would still be at ES because he's not cracking PP1. That's comparable to Ryan Strome at ES, as he had 15 goals and 24 assists for 39 points in 74 games. Harder matchups of course, but also more TOI and playing with Panarin and then 2 months of Copp instead of a revolving door between Lafreniere, Gauthier, and Goodrow.

Love it

I would have a high degree of confidence in a Goodrow-Stastny-Kakko defensive line. But also what @LindG1000 said. I don’t think you escape most of what you said this season. There’s going to be holes and “hopes” filling a couple key parts of the lineup no matter what.