The Rangers are in a strange place approaching Saturday’s noon bell that signals the opening of the free-agent market. They are no longer just one or two pieces away from being a legitimate Stanley Cup team as they’d entered each summer since 2011. But they have enough good players— and enough good, young players — to render the prospect of a dive to the bottom of the tank utterly unrealistic.
Welcome to Middletown.
Our Heroes exited 2016-17 needing personnel upgrades at first-pair right defense and at center. They enter July with the same void at right D and an even bigger one in the middle following first-line center Derek Stepan’s trade to Arizona for futures. Plus, they now need a backup goaltender.
The Blueshirts are attempting a retool on the fly in a league where strength down the middle and big-four depth on the blue line have become necessary ingredients to create a champion. Teams that own those attributes are hoarding them, as general manager Jeff Gorton ruefully learned the last six weeks.
It has played out a little like that scene from “Goodfellas:” You want a top center? SCREW YOU. PAY ME. You want a top right D? SCREW YOU. PAY ME. The Rangers didn’t have the assets that enabled them to pay. At least nobody burned down the Garden.
This brings us in a direct line to free agency, with the Rangers in another strange place of having money to spend — let’s say around a real $12 million anticipating the retirement of Kevin Klein and the signings of restricted free agents Mika Zibanejad and Jesper Fast — but no obvious solution to their problems on whom to invest it.
Let’s get this out of the way: The Rangers are not going to sign Kevin Shattenkirk, the 28-year-old righty who has been (incorrectly) linked to Broadway since the 2016 trade deadline. Management is not diving in with anything remotely in line with the long-term contract the New Rochelle native is going to command. Indeed, several league sources believe that Shattenkirk has a $49 million offer coming his way. It won’t be from Gorton.
This is a free-agent class offering imperfect solutions to the Blueshirts’ problems. Somewhat improbably, the organization seems to be targeting a pair of hockey octogenarians from Silicon Valley to act as a bridge from here to there.
Perhaps there is some rationale to signing both center Joe Thornton (38 tomorrow) and left wing Patrick Marleau (38 in September) to lucrative, one-year, bonus-rich over-35 deals and teaming them with Rick Nash on The Last Hurrah Line in a quixotic attempt to somehow catch lightning flies in a bottle.
If the Rangers could persuade Butch and Sundance to make the journey from San Jose to Manhattan as a matched pair, that would allow the club to pack the next three lines with unusual depth while relieving some of the pressure on still-developing prodigies J.T. Miller, Chris Kreider, Pavel Buchnevich, Jimmy Vesey and Kevin Hayes. It would allow Zibanejad and Hayes to slot in two-three down the middle.
There is, however, no indication that either Thornton, a Shark since early 2005-06 who is coming off knee surgery, or Marleau, who has played his entire 19-season career in San Jose, has any desire to uproot for a one-year fling. So would the Rangers stretch it two years at a neighborhood price of $5 million-5.5 million per? Probably, but that would eat up just about all their space.
Three years, which is probably what the athletes are pushing for? That’s pushing it beyond reason.
It seems as if management will pursue Marleau as a stand-alone even if unable to sign Thornton. The plan would be for Marleau to move from the wing back into the middle, where he began his career in 1997, but hasn’t played on a regular basis in years. There is this, too: After 19 seasons in one place, is Marleau going to be able to make the adjustment to another team on the other side of the county while his wife and family attempt to do the same? When does that work?
Nick Bonino is an alternative in the middle, but he is seeking at least four years and probably five. That probably rules him out. The Blueshirts are likely to be in on Mikhail Grigorenko, the young Russian center whose play has never come close to his skill level, but not as a top-six option.
Or the Rangers, who like offensive upside throughout the lineup, could take a flyer on David Desharnais to center the fourth line.
Options are slim on defense. Matt Hunwick, coming off two years in Toronto following a successful one-year run on Broadway in 2014-15 and whom the Blueshirts wanted to keep, could be a consideration to provide depth. Of course it is not so much depth the Rangers lack on the blue line, but quality at the top of the right side. July 1 isn’t going to address that issue. Neither will July 2nd, 3rd or 4th.
Targets
Patrick Marleau: The Rangers seem smitten with the veteran’s speed and offensive upside, both intact at the age of 37, even if he would be an oblong peg hammered into a round hole in the middle of a top-six unit.
Joe Thornton: Laconic Joe enjoys his anonymity with or without the all-time beard. He’d have no trouble fitting in among the masses of Manhattan though it is certainly fair to question whether he’d be able to keep up with coach Alain Vigneault’s preferred up-tempo game. If healthy, a great, great setup guy off whom his wingers should feast.
Anders Nilsson: The 27-year-old, 6-6 Swedish netminder who began his career with the Islanders and posted strong numbers last season for Buffalo could well become goaltending coach Benoit Allaire’s next project.
Ondrej Pavelec: The 29-year-old split time between the Jets and AHL last season, only starting eight games in January and February amid Winnipeg’s season-long struggle in net.
Ilya Kovalchuk: Not technically free, but if New Jersey GM Ray Shero would consider a sign-and-trade at a reasonable cost, the Rangers would have the game-breaker they so desperately lack.