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My Rangers trade deadline recap and view on how Gorton/JD did

February 25, 2020, 7:14 AM ET [462 Comments]
Jan Levine
New York Rangers Blogger • RSSArchiveCONTACT
The Rangers completed an event day in which they announced their #1 starting goalie and first line right winger were injured in a car crash Sunday night, first line left winger re-signed for seven years, Face of the Franchise for the past 14 years somewhat laid his cards on the table and first-pair right defenseman was moved at the deadline for a first round pick, creating future cap room. Overall, quite a day in Rangers land, during which the fanbase's emotion were likely like they were in a blender. What we know, as Larry Brooks pointed out, is that the team is now clearly pointed in the direction of contending with the "letter" in the rear view mirror.

Monday morning broke with the news of an 11:30 press conference with speculation rampant as to the cause. Would it be the announcement of signing Kreider to a long-term extension and possibly the captaincy? Is Lundqvist announcing his retirement of has he been traded? A random tweet stated that Igor Shesterkin and Pavel Buchnevich were injured in a car accident, but no other source the news.




When JD took the podium, two of the three speculated topics were true. Shesterkin and Buchnevich were injured in a car accident. Igor has a non-displaced broken rib and will be evaluated in two weeks. His injury returns the focus between the pipes to Alexandar Georgiev, who will start against the Islanders, and Lundqvist more on him later.




In addition, Kreider was signed for seven years at a $6.5 million AAV. Full details of the deal have yet to be revealed, but CK20's contract has a limited no movement clause, meaning he must be protected in the expansion draft, is front-loaded and at least half of the $45 million deal will be paid in signing bonuses. Kreider got his seven years while New York saved a little cash on the deal. Happy the deal doesn't have a full NMC and by front-loading the contract, the Rangers would have an easier time of moving him down the road if that proved necessary.




JD showed that winning outweighed all. You can most certainly argue that the term, years and likely dollars, is high for a player who has yet to score 30 goals. But New York is expecting future growth and continued leadership from an asset that looks to still be on an upward trend. This is what JD said in his press conference, but if a deal couldn't have been reached. the Rangers would have dealt him, which would have changed the tenor for the remainder of the day.

“it’s obvious on the ice what he brings on and off the ice. When you look at what he is doing, his emergence. We think he is still getting better and his size, skating, scoring ability, combo he has with Mika, his PP ability. When you add it all up it’s a player we have had in our organization for a long time and we’ve watched the strides he’s been making. When you weigh all the options it became more evident that we wanted to keep him.”


I was all in on re-signing Kreider. Like most, if not all, I would have preferred that the deal was six years. But keeping the deal under seven million and not awarding a full NMC is key, seeing how those types of deals have hamstrung the organization. Now it's up to Kreider to show he is worth the contract, both on-and off-the-ice.

Lundqvist was self-reflective Monday. His comments are indicative of a star player who sees the end is near and is dissatisfied, at least to a certain extent, of how he has been treated and the lack of communication. The latter relates to coach David Quinn's recent declaration that Igor was the #1 netminder, a statement that took both Georgiev and Lundqvist by surprise.

Some will see the team owes Hank nothing. That is true to an extent, as Lundqvist didn't give the organization any true hometown discount when he signed his seven-year, $59.5 million extension that includes a full NMC. But he and continues to represent the team with class and dignity, and until at least 2015-16 or maybe 2016-17, was an elite goalie. But his GAA has risen steadily since 2014-15 and his save percentage has declined, as Lundqvist, who has one more year at $8.5 million left in his deal. is no longer able to continually placed a team with a weak defense on his back. He can do so occasionally but not repeat that action each and every game.

“I’ve been very open with management over the two years I’ve been through this process, that if there comes a day when they feel like I’m not a good solution, let’s talk about it, let’s be open about it,”

“I know we’re going to sit down after this season,” Lundqvist said. “But right now and over the last few weeks, my focus has just been to work hard and be ready. That’s what I think I should be doing. There will be a time here, obviously, when we look at where we are and my position as a player to the organization.”

“My situation, after the season, obviously have some things to talk about, your role and if you fit in this role or something else,” Lundqvist said. “Right now, my focus is just to work hard and be ready.”


Davidson in his press conference portrayed a different view on communication:
I also think that this is something we will sit down and talk about, for sure, because it’s only fair to Hank and his family and it’s fair to us. There isn’t much more to say about it. We will chat, we will talk. We’ve had many conversations with Hank through all this. Everyone is on the up and up and where everyone sits. I’m very confident we will find a good resolution wherever we go, very confident our group with Jeff and Hank, the communication has been very strong and he has been very professional. Very professional.”


Everything ends, some more positively than others. Lundqvist has been compared recently to Eli Manning, who opted to retire, though he was a free agent. New York could buy out the final year of his contract, which would carry $5.5 million of dead cap space next season — so a savings of $3 million — and another $1.5 million of dead space in 2021-22. Seeing Hank in another uniform would be like how Joe Namath, Johnny Unitas and Michael Jordan ended their careers. Igor and Georgiev are the short- and long-term future. All three goalies might be able to co-exist with Lundqvist on the short-end of the stick. The big question is would he be willing to ride the pine or be in the press box and would the team be able to find a place for him to land or deal Georgiev?

Once that decision was reached it impacted the approach the rest of the way. Hypothetically if they didn’t reach an agreement they would’ve had to trade him. As for Fast, they just felt he was more valuable on the team the rest of the way."

Skjei was never able to recapture the form he showed as a rookie in 2016-17. Brooks put it well, "Skjei just never was able to replicate the form he displayed in making the NHL all-rookie team in 2016-17, never could regain the confidence and swagger he displayed as a freshman that complemented his skating and decision-making." The club’s first-round pick (No. 28 overall) in 2012, Skjei was give a chance to play alongside his long-time friend, Jacob Trouba, but never quite turned into the definitive first-pair defenseman the Rangers had always wanted. With the need to free up some cap space, especially after the Kreider signing, and a deep pipeline of LHD, Skjei was expendable to a certain extent.

I still think he can be a very effective blueliner. That likely will be the case in Carolina, where he initially slots in on the third pair but could move up to a top-four spot. With four years remaining at $5.25 million AAV, Skjei was signed to a long-term deal with the hopes that the contract would prove to be a bargain and he would play as he did as a rookie. Neither happened in New York, as he overthought on the ice and didn't allow his skills just to shine though. In addition, he was miscast in Quinn's and Lindy Ruff's system. The team decided that it was easier to replace Skjei on the top pairing rather than Kreider in the top-six, and once CK20 was locked up needed Skjei's cap space.





With Skjei gone, JD said, short-term, Smitty has played pretty well on D when we’ve put him there. I’ll talk to Quinny tonight, let everyone settle in, and talk about what is next. We are pretty comfortable with our depth in the organization, we’ve seen Libor come up and play pretty well. Short-term it’s probably going to be Smitty. I think Tony DeAngelo moves up to play with Trouba, Ryan Lindgren stays with Adam Fox and Smith pairs with Marc Staal, who stayed for now but could be an off-season move target. But don't be shocked if Smith is paired with Trouba initially. In terms of left-side depth, the club has Libor Hajek and Yegor Rykov at AHL Hartford, with K’Andre Miller in college at Wisconsin and Matthew Robertson in juniors at WHL Edmonton.

Moving Skjei for a first rounder adds to the team's quantity and quality of picks. Carolina will have the option of deciding which of their own or Toronto’s they give New York before the draft. So they will keep the higher of the two. But as JD noted, acquiring the first rounder gives New York nine high picks this year and next, three in the first, one in the second, four in the third and 19 picks overall in the next two drafts.

Craig Custance's viewon how well New York did on trade deadline day:

New York Rangers: B

It was always the preference for both the Rangers and Chris Kreider to get a long-term deal done and there appeared to be some give on both sides to make it happen. It’s longer than you want for a player who turns 29 in April. History suggests those last couple of years won’t be pretty. But the AAV isn’t bad for someone with Kreider’s ability.

“I like Kreider,” said an Eastern Conference executive. “That’s what he’s going to get in the market. I know they didn’t want to go to the seventh year. They probably thought it was important to their development.”

The signing made another move necessary. Raises are coming for Ryan Strome and Tony DeAngelo, and the Rangers like their organizational defensive depth on the left side. Trading Brady Skjei was a tough decision but the payoff is multiple first-round picks for the third draft in four years.


Scott Burnside:
A banner trade deadline for Rangers GM Jeff Gorton who kept the top rental player available on the market by re-signing Chris Kreider to a seven-year deal with an average cap hit of $6.5 million and then turned Brady Skjei into a first-round pick. Have to think that a year from now the Rangers will be firmly in the buyers aisle at the trade deadline. The Kreider cap hit is more than manageable and important for the Rangers given the pieces they have to get under contract, including restricted free agent Anthony DeAngelo. Losing Skjei, 25, and his $5.25 million cap hit through 2023-24 is an acceptable expenditure for a first-round pick given the young defenders coming through the system. Add in the fact that the first-round pick (Carolina has both its own and Toronto’s first-round pick; the lesser of the two goes to New York) is not lottery protected and it looks even better for the Rangers given that neither Carolina nor Toronto are locks to make the playoffs. The fact the Kreider extension was announced at the same time the team revealed details of a car accident that will sideline top young netminder Igor Shesterkin for the foreseeable future will put a damper on the Rangers’ outside playoff hopes, but keeping Kreider was a pleasant surprise when it looked like he would be headed out the door.


CBS Sports:

Winner: New York Rangers
The Rangers might not be thrilled with having to go seven years on Chris Kreider'sextension, which will carry him through his age 35 season, but the AAV isn't bad at $6.5 million. The package that Kreider might've commanded in this market was probably tempting for a Rangers team still retooling for the future but, at the end of the day, they get to keep a talented player and pillar veteran at a decent price for that future. The Rangers don't seem to be that far off, as they're remaining competitive in an ultra-tough Metro division this year. Keeping Kreider also means they don't have to throw in the towel on this season, which is nice because they're only four points off a playoff spot.

They also did well to turn a somewhat expendable Brady Skjei into a first-round pick by taking advantage of Carolina's desperation to reinforce a depleted blue line. The Rangers will still have some work to do with their roster moving forward and I don't think they're ready to be considered serious contenders yet, but they found a way to have a successful deadline for both their short- and long-term outlooks.


The Rangers attempted to balance the short- and long-term Monday. Other veterans could have been traded, especially Jesper Fast, who is a UFA, to bring back additional draft picks. Davidson and Gorton made the decision to keep Fast, which might have been influenced by both the potential return and the desire to keep certain voices in the room to help guide the kiddie corps in a potential playoff run. At a minimum, the neophytes get to see what stretch run hockey with key games is all about.

Signing Kreider, who will make $1.875 million next year in his contract, kept a player who wanted to be in New York and who the Rangers prioritized as a possible keeper. After the purged of the past two seasons, including Kevin Hayes and Mats Zuccarello, the Rangers keeping Kreider signifies a change and direction and philosophy, moving from the future to the now. The deal most certainly could backfire but the front loading helps and I believe all of us feel that CK20 should provide at least four good years and maybe even more.

Strome, ADA and Georgiev all are in line for raises. In addition, Fast could be brought back if the deal is reasonable, as we have discussed. Dealing Skjei creates cap room, which likely will go largely to DeAngelo and partially to Strome, though he might be dealt this offseason. The Rangers will be up against the cap, especially with the Kevin Shattenkirk buyout creating less cap flexibility, but they will have a ton of space the following summer when Shattenkirk, Lundqvist, Smith and Staal come off the books. Gorton will have to find a way to massage the cap for one more season, but keep in mind that in two years, Shesterkin, Kakko and Fox all will be RFAs and looking for pay raises.

As the NY Post noted, Gorton assigned Brett Howden and Julien Gauthier to Hartford on Monday so that they will be eligible to play in the AHL playoffs, as will all the players on the Wolf Pack roster at 3 p.m. But by doing so, and then recalling both players, the Rangers have just two non-emergency recalls the rest of the season. So that might keep Hajek in Hartford for a while, and the Rangers likely want to save one in the event Vitali Kravtsov deserves a promotion.

Overall, I give Gorton a B+. He found a way to keep Kreider, bending on the years but not on the dollars while also not giving a full NMC. Gorton moves Skjei for a first round pick, but as we I mentioned, don’t be shocked if he excels elsewhere. Moving Skjei frees up $ and also a space in the top-four for ADA, despite the need to shift DeAngelo to his off side. Rather than trade other veterans, Gorton likely stuck to his perceived value for each and wouldn’t budge unless that price was met. We have no idea if NY might have looked to acquire a fourth liner if Igor and Buch hadn’t been injured in the car accident. Kaako now needs to step up and produce, as he should het a golden chance with Buch sidelined.

The Rangers’ train is headed full steam ahead. The letter and rebuild is in the past. Contending now is the mantra.

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