The last thing the Rangers should do and the last thing the Rangers intend to do is to leap head-first into the free-agent pool and dole out the kinds of long-term, big-money contracts to players on the wrong side of 26 years of age that have handcuffed this franchise the past two seasons.
The temptation and the cap space in the wake of Derek Stepan’s departure to the desert are both there, all right, for general manager Jeff Gorton to outbid the world and grant defenseman Kevin Shattenkirk and center Alexander Radulov lengthy deals for $40 million plus.
But that would be all wrong for this franchise, which is kind of mystery meat at the moment. This is the time for Gorton to take a deep breath and etch a plan for the future through which the Blueshirts retain maximum maneuverability and are not caught with guys who can be expected to naturally regress three or four years into their respective contracts.
The Rangers just escaped cap hell in a painful process in which they essentially were forced to shed Stepan and Dan Girardi, franchise bedrocks who became contract anvils. They are not going to take the immediate plunge back into it by signing Shattenkirk, whom they have had repeated opportunities to acquire over the past 15 months, or Radulov.
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Gorton tried to get a top defenseman for Stepan. He talked and talked and talked. But the market never developed for this estimable veteran who was at the heart of the team’s considerable success over the past six seasons. The combination of the center’s $6.5 million cap hit for another four seasons plus the no-trade clause that would have kicked in July 1 created a buzz-saw effect that left Gorton with what became no choice other than to take the lone legitimate offer that came his way, even if it also cost Antti Raanta.
The core took the Rangers as far as it could. There were good times, too. The past six years, which featured three trips to the conference finals, one trip to the Stanley Cup final and one Presidents’ Trophy, might look like nirvana measured against what could be ahead. But it was time and everyone knows it and everyone in the room knew it on breakup day following the dispiriting Round 2 loss to the Senators.
Lias Andersson, the Swedish center the club snatched Friday with the seventh-overall pick in the draft — and whose dad, Niklas, was a teammate of Henrik Lundqvist’s with Frolunda — could compete for a job, but surely won’t fill the role as 1A/1B that Stepan did. And Anthony DeAngelo, the 21-year-old skill defenseman who also came in the deal, will be in the mix for a spot, but surely won’t be a top-pair guy.
We have talked about the Rangers’ vanilla flavor that might have become a detriment. Well, DeAngelo is the antithesis of that. Already on his third organization in three pro seasons after going 19th overall to Tampa Bay in 2014, the New Jersey native was suspended for three games for abuse of an official last year as a Coyote, as he was once in junior league.
But that’s a mere footnote compared to his two suspensions in 2014 for violating the OHL policy “to keep homophobic, racist and sexist language out of the game,” for, we’re told by an individual familiar with the cases, using race-based language.
His Twitter feed is filled with tweets supporting Donald Trump and his agenda and, during the campaign, attacking Hillary Clinton.
Management did its due diligence, but who knows what we’re getting here? Probably not milk and cookies, though.
The Blueshirts have approximately $20 million in cap space that will increase to nearly $23 million once Kevin Klein is off the roster by hook or crook. The Rangers still have to sign impending Group II free agents Mika Zibanejad and Jesper Fast, and they are talking with impending unrestricted free-agent defenseman Brendan Smith. There are holes all over the place.
But that doesn’t mean they have to or should go down the rabbit hole again on long-term deals for guys whose best days are behind them. In fact, they can’t. And it says here that they won’t.