'The Letter' Was Five Years Ago; How Have We Done?

[Cash or Czech]

The letter to the fans about beginning a rebuild was five years ago yesterday. How have we done in the five years since then?

 

2017-18: Missed playoffs

2018-19: Missed playoffs

2019-20: COVID, lost in play-in

2020-21: Missed playoffs

2021-22: 110 points, Lost in ECF

2022-23: 66 points in 51 games, pacing 106 points and 3rd place in Metropolitan division

 

Rough roster in 2018-19 (reflective of roster, not line combos)

Kreider-Zibanejad-Buchnevich

Zuccarello-Hayes-Nash

Vesey-Strome-JT Miller

Desharnais-Carey-Fast

 

McDonagh-Shattenkirk

Skjei-DeAngelo

Staal-Pionk

 

Lundqvist

Georgiev

 

Trades:

• Ryan McDonagh and JT Miller traded to TBL for Namestnikov, Howden, Hajek, 1st (Lundkvist), 2nd (Henriksson)
• Rick Nash traded to BOS for Lindgren, Beleskey, Spooner, 1st, 7th
  • BOS 1st traded to Ottawa to move up for K'Andre Miller
  • Ryan Spooner traded to EDM for Ryan Strome
• Kevin Hayes to Winnipeg for Brendan Lemieux, 1st Round Pick, 4th Round Pick
  • Neal Pionk and above 1st rounder traded to Winnipeg for Jacob Trouba
• Mats Zuccarello traded to Dallas Stars for 2nd round pick (Matthew Robertson)
• Brady Skjei traded to CAR for 1st round pick
  • CAR 1st traded to WAS to draft Braden Schneider
• Pavel Buchnevich traded to STL for Sammy Blais and 2nd
• Adam Fox acquired from CAR for two conditional 2nds
• Alexandar Georgiev traded to COL for 3rd (McConnell-Barker) and 5th (Barbashev)

Key Free Agents:

• Artemi Panarin
• Vincent Trocheck

Key Draft Picks:

• Igor Shesterkin
• Filip Chytil
• Kaapo Kakko
• Alexis Lafreniere
• K'Andre Miller
• Braden Schneider
• Chris Kreider
• Vitali Kravtsov

Edited February 9, 2023 by Cash or Czech

[siddious]

It’s impressive how quickly they got competitive again WHILE stocking up on prospects. It’s been a bumpy ride with some stupid decisions but never the less I still think the re-tool or whatever we are calling it we the right move. 

[Bugg]

The Mcdonagh trade was really awful when you consider NYR wound up signing Shattenkirk summer after that trade. That's before you even look at Miller as a throw in, all  for a bag of leftovers left in someone's back seat over night in August. 

 

Nash trade, on the other hand, has more than worked out. 

 

Nature of the business; some things work out wonderfully, others, not so much. 

[Morphinity 2.0]

Probably about as good as you could ask. They never truly hit rock bottom and got a competitive team within 2 seasons of writing the letter. That's the proverbial "rebuild on the fly" most teams claim they want, but rarely can accomplish.

 

Signing Panarin and trading for Fox were clearly the best moves, but they were also pretty much slam dunks on a child's basketball hoop - both players basically only wanted to play for the Rangers. 

 

Some significant mistakes were made - letting Fast walk and the Buchnevich trade are probably the biggest issues.

 

But you can't argue with the success so far. Is it enough to win a Cup? I guess we'll see, but more definitely needs to be done.

[Phil]

11 minutes ago, Morphinity 2.0 said:

Probably about as good as you could ask. They never truly hit rock bottom and got a competitive team within 2 seasons of writing the letter. That's the proverbial "rebuild on the fly" most teams claim they want, but rarely can accomplish.

 

Signing Panarin and trading for Fox were clearly the best moves, but they were also pretty much slam dunks on a child's basketball hoop - both players basically only wanted to play for the Rangers. 

 

Some significant mistakes were made - letting Fast walk and the Buchnevich trade are probably the biggest issues.

 

But you can't argue with the success so far. Is it enough to win a Cup? I guess we'll see, but more definitely needs to be done.

 

This feels like a really pessimistic view, honestly. The answer is "phenomenally well." The stated purpose was to completely restock the team for future contention. They've done that, arguably faster than anyone thought they would, and we're basically going day-to-day now wondering how they're going to be able to afford all these young players because of how well they're doing.

 

That's the greatest sign that your rebuild efforts are a success as there can be.

[Morphinity 2.0]

  

9 minutes ago, Phil said:

 

This feels like a really pessimistic view, honestly. The answer is "phenomenally well." The stated purpose was to completely restock the team for future contention. They've done that, arguably faster than anyone thought they would, and we're basically going day-to-day now wondering how they're going to be able to afford all these young players because of how well they're doing.

 

That's the greatest sign that your rebuild efforts are a success as there can be.

 

 

I mean, I said it went "about as good as you could ask" and "you can't argue with the success." I don't know what more you want LOL

 

You can't sit here and tell me this team has enough to win a Cup though. Obviously that's a different question altogether, but it's definitely the next step in grading the rebuild. If we go 10 years down the road and there's still no Cup, we can't say it was a rousing success. It fell just short. 

[Cash or Czech]

I think the biggest red flag is the lack of success drafting after the first round. The only player on the roster drafted outside of round one is Shesterkin (4th round), with Will Cuylle (2nd round) getting a cup of coffee.

 

Successful first rounders since 2017: Chytil, Miller, Kakko, Lafreniere, Schneider

Failed first rounders since 2017: Lias Andersson, Nils Lundkvist

Jury's out: Othmann, Kravtsov

 

We've been fortunate to fill the holes with free agents and trades, especially Panarin and Fox as mentioned above. 

[4EverRangerFrank]

Without the letter...we would all be on suicide watch now as the team was spiraling downward like the Chinese balloon. The trajectory upwards toward competitive hockey was rapid and I might add a 'bit too successful' with last year's ECF appearance? Not complaining but one expects these things to take a season or two longer -- however there we were. It also created a higher expectation for this year's campaign and that's what us fans do - want the Cup every year.

 

The 'problem' of having too many young players needing to get paid is a strong indication of just how successful the rebuild has been. I'll take that. The next trick for Drury is to pull 1-2 rabbits from the trade deadline (March 3) hat.

Edited February 9, 2023 by 4EverRangerFrank

[Phil]

34 minutes ago, Morphinity 2.0 said:

  

 

 

I mean, I said it went "about as good as you could ask" and "you can't argue with the success." I don't know what more you want LOL

 

You can't sit here and tell me this team has enough to win a Cup though. Obviously that's a different question altogether, but it's definitely the next step in grading the rebuild. If we go 10 years down the road and there's still no Cup, we can't say it was a rousing success. It fell just short. 

 

I get that, but if "Cup or bust" is the measurement, then 99% of rebuilds fail.

 

My bar is lower than that. It more directly tracks against being "highly competitive" both on the ice and around the league. How well you attract free agents, is also directly correlated to how well you're built as an organization. The Rangers have some natural, built-in desirable traits, but being a winning team, which they are again, is also incredibly helpful.

[jsm7302]

Being a playoff team should always be the goal because it all starts over in April. Any of the 16 can win a Cup. There is no formula because if the best team won every year then there would be no purpose to the post season. Id say it's a glaring success, hands down, especially with the surge of Chytil, Kakko and maybe Laf this year. Braden Schneider, KAndre Miller, Adam Fox and Shesterkin.

 

This team absolutely has the ability to win a Cup. They aren't perfect but the pieces are in place.

[Cash or Czech]

I guess I should amend the OP to have Buchnevich turn into Tarasenko...

[Long live the King]

1 hour ago, Cash or Czech said:

I think the biggest red flag is the lack of success drafting after the first round. The only player on the roster drafted outside of round one is Shesterkin (4th round), with Will Cuylle (2nd round) getting a cup of coffee.

 

Successful first rounders since 2017: Chytil, Miller, Kakko, Lafreniere, Schneider

Failed first rounders since 2017: Lias Andersson, Nils Lundkvist

Jury's out: Othmann, Kravtsov

 

We've been fortunate to fill the holes with free agents and trades, especially Panarin and Fox as mentioned above. 

 

How is Lundkvist a fail?  They trade him for a 1st round pick.

 

It's too early to judge any of mid round picks.

[LindG1000]

4 hours ago, Cash or Czech said:

I think the biggest red flag is the lack of success drafting after the first round. The only player on the roster drafted outside of round one is Shesterkin (4th round), with Will Cuylle (2nd round) getting a cup of coffee.

 

Successful first rounders since 2017: Chytil, Miller, Kakko, Lafreniere, Schneider

Failed first rounders since 2017: Lias Andersson, Nils Lundkvist

Jury's out: Othmann, Kravtsov

 

We've been fortunate to fill the holes with free agents and trades, especially Panarin and Fox as mentioned above. 

 

This is both a fair and unfair criticism at the same time.

 

It's fair because it's true. It's unfair because players picked outside of the 1st round are usually on 3-5 year timelines, so we should really be seeing the first of them...right about now? And we are - Cuylle just broke in, Robertson is on the cusp, Berard looks like he's got an NHL future, Jones got a cup of coffee, Korczak looks promising, Garand is doing well for a 20 year old goalie, and Sykora has runway to be legitimately good. 

 

The jury is very much out on the late-round drafting right now.

[siddious]

Also I wouldn’t classify nils as a failure I still think there’s a ton of upside there. Just unfortunately not for us. 

Edited February 9, 2023 by siddious

[Cash or Czech]

1 hour ago, LindG1000 said:

 

This is both a fair and unfair criticism at the same time.

 

It's fair because it's true. It's unfair because players picked outside of the 1st round are usually on 3-5 year timelines, so we should really be seeing the first of them...right about now? And we are - Cuylle just broke in, Robertson is on the cusp, Berard looks like he's got an NHL future, Jones got a cup of coffee, Korczak looks promising, Garand is doing well for a 20 year old goalie, and Sykora has runway to be legitimately good. 

 

The jury is very much out on the late-round drafting right now.

I mean, from 2014 to 2016 our draft picks excluding Igor totaled 32 NHL games. That’s across 19 different draft picks outside round one. There’s promise for some of the recent ones, but it’s not a new issue. 

[RangersIn7]

They’re doing fine.

 

In the subsequent 5 years, they’ve become a Cup contender 

[RangersIn7]

1 hour ago, siddious said:

Also I wouldn’t classify nils as a failure I still think there’s a ton of upside there. Just unfortunately not for us. 

He just wasn’t playing here.

 

I think he’ll be a fine NHL player. 
 

It just was never happening here

 

Really… because of Fox.

 

Trouba and Schneider too.

 

But the role he would fill is the role Fox plays.

And he’s not going to be better than him.

Edited February 10, 2023 by RangersIn7

[fletch]

Incomplete?  1940, 1994, 20xx.  When do we add the next title?  I loved the 1994 team.  Full stop.  I really want a 5 year window where we have a chance to win multiple cups.  That means younger players like Kakko, Laf, Chytil, Miller have to continue to develop and play key roles, meshing with the established vets.  If you look at the teams that have won twice in 5 years it’s a combination of roster construction, coaching, organizational philosophy, on-ice structure, player talent, execution, and luck.  It helps to have a Crosby or Ovie or MacKinnon.  But ask MacDavid and Draisaitl why they haven’t racked up the titles (yet) like Crosby and Malkin.