What We Learned: The New York Rangers at a crossroads
Doesn't matter if you're rebuilding or trying to compete for something meaningful. One place you never want to find yourself as an organization is feeling like every game is a referendum.
And that's where the New York Rangers are right now.
Friday's loss to Philadelphia, their fifth straight game without a win, was a disaster. Proof that their willingness to trade long-tenured leaders didn't work to motivate them. A sign that they're just circling the drain.
But Saturday's win over the Canadiens? They brought back a lot of the positives we've associated with the team for the last few years, and evidence that Jacob Trouba wasn't as checked-out as he seemed in the previous day's game. Did you see he did Leadership and got in a fight? And Kaapo Kakko finally scored! Left unsaid is that the Canadiens stink and the Rangers beat them by one goal and didn't outshoot, out-possess, or even out-chance them.
I thought we knew they didn't have a problem with bad teams, even as the struggles persisted, but you gotta take the wins where you can get them.
The point remains that the Rangers are at a crossroads and there are no easy answers. And this shouldn't come as a surprise. After the Rangers tried unsuccessfully to trade Trouba this summer, there was talk that this was a kind of last hurrah for this core and now it seems that potentiality has forced its way to becoming a reality much earlier than everyone thought. But as I said in the preseason, the idea that there's something the Rangers could fix in the near future, even by trading every single guy Chris Drury has been frowning at for the last couple weeks, is out of step with reality.
At this point, it is hard to imagine the Rangers could do much to get Trouba off the books without taking a major loss in the trade. Maybe they're fine with that, and it feels like they would kind of have to be. But they'd still need to find a willing trade partner to take on a huge amount of salary midseason for an asset that probably couldn't be more devalued relative to what he was considered even last season.
The same is now true of Chris Kreider, who seems to have slowed a little from last season to this one, as often happens as guys progress into their mid-30s (these stats are borne out by the NHL Edge numbers, which show his top speed and big speed bursts markedly lower than last year's rates). And if you want to say that a Kreider who's a half-step slower has considerably less to contribute, it would be hard to argue given the results so far. But he is on pace for 35ish goals again this year even as his shooting pace has dropped by about 1 per 60 minutes at 5-on-5; his shooting percentage is high (16.7 percent) but not insanely out of step with his career average (15.2 percent). The real problem is that when he's on the ice at 5-on-5, every Ranger who's not him is shooting 5.2 percent. Which explains why he has a whopping zero assists on the season. Kreider is a depreciating asset, no doubt, but he's not necessarily the problem in the Rangers' attack and more pointedly they would be selling him at what is basically a career low in terms of his value. I don't think that's how investing is supposed to work, but getting out from under a distressed asset, even at a loss, can be advisable.
But Trouba and Kreider are in the same boat as far as being overpaid for what they bring to the table — not that the Rangers can't retain money, because they aren't using any of those slots right now — and also having 15-team no-trade clauses. There are teams that could use these guys, for sure, but are they teams those guys want to play for? We're seeing a lot of Kreider-to-the-Bruins wishcasting, I think mostly as a function of Kreider being from suburban Boston and playing his college hockey at Boston College, but I'm not sure the answer to Don Sweeney's problems comes in trading for an underperforming 33-year-old who has three years left on his deal. Trouba, for the record, already shot down a trade to his hometown team and has two years left. And that's the problem for Drury. All the guys he seemingly wants to trade are too expensive and signed beyond this season. Except for Kakko, who at age 23 might have more value and is an RFA after this season, but when it's making the headlines that your 23-year-old semi-recent No. 2 pick scored a goal, how much help are you bringing in for him, realistically? That thing about GMs not wanting to help out other teams when they're struggling may also be a little more pointed when it comes to the Rangers because of how the Igor Shesterkin stuff has played out.
Like I said in September, the Rangers' roster is mostly set not just for this season, but also the next few. Artemi Panarin comes off the books after 2025-26. Shesterkin, Reilly Smith and K'Andre Miller this summer. And that's it for highly paid guys, at least whose availability might be worthy of discussion for rival GMs. If someone wanted Vincent Trocheck or Mika Zibanejad, for example, they'd be taking on contracts that stretch to at least 2029. And the Rangers won't be trading Adam Fox — nor should they — but even if they were listening, that's another half-decade commitment. (Not that most GMs wouldn't love to have Fox for another four years beyond this one at $9.5 million against the cap, but doing it midseason wouldn't be easy.)
Again, you mostly just don't want to be in a situation where every loss feels like a sign of doom and every win a huge relief that lets you delay a major decision that could significantly shake up the organisation. That's where the Penguins are, for example, and while the Rangers are obviously more competitive than them, neither team has particularly good Stanley Cup odds these days, and everyone is looking for someone other than themselves to blame.
What's interesting is that these guys have always struggled at 5-on-5, even in their Presidents' Trophy season. Every expected-goals percentage hovers a little too far into the high 40s to believe this was a truly elite team, rather than a team with a ton of elite talent. The latter was proven by the fact that their special teams numbers were always quite good. If you wanted to argue that the drop from a 25-ish per cent power play to 23-ish per cent, combined with even leakier 5-on-5 defence, is what’s thinning out the results? I wouldn’t argue with you. But this is the team they committed to incredibly hard over the last few years, and now they don’t like where they’ve ended up, with two wins over current playoff teams more than a quarter of the way through the season.
The fact that they can't trade their way out of their problems at this point should not come as a surprise.
What We Learned
Anaheim Ducks: Congrats to 'em.
Boston Bruins: You know it's bad when they're letting the owner's son talk.
Buffalo Sabres: Hate to see people fall for The Sabres Doing Well In November, but at least the effects aren't as long-lasting these days.
Calgary Flames: Yeah, the magic seems to be fading here, too. Four straight losses, gave up 17 goals, etc. Not really a surprise.
Carolina Hurricanes: The headline on this one feels like an understatement, if anything.
Chicago: Feels like you just don't see teams losing 13 of 14 to franchises like Minnesota too often, but here we are.
Colorado Avalanche: Ah, finally, another Avalanche player gets a long-term injury. Feels like it had been a couple weeks since that happened. Brutal.
Columbus Blue Jackets: Don't want to be in a situation where you trade a 21-year-old for a veteran and three draft picks and everyone's like, "Ya goofed it."
Dallas Stars: At some point, these guys have to kick it into a higher gear, don't they?
Detroit Red Wings: Hey, if you say so.
Edmonton Oilers: Chris Drury reading this headline and going, "Ohh, I know a guy."
Florida Panthers: They just keep making it happen with these prospects. That's why they won the Cup, I think.
Los Angeles Kings: They're certainly playing above my expectations for them going into the season. Hats off. Who on earth had them second in the division at the start of December?
Minnesota Wild: Best team in the league through 20 or so games and they just won a trade for a guy who's probably gonna play for them for a decade plus? Not a bad time to be a Wild fan.
Montreal Canadiens: Okay but is this just damning him with faint praise?
Nashville Predators: This is officially the second-worst start in Predators history. Six regulation wins from 25 games. It's finger-pointing time, baby!
New Jersey Devils: This is one of those things where, if they knew the answer, they'd just fix the problem and no one could write the article. Way she goes.
New York Islanders: Starting to think the team where the coach keeps talking about how bad the roster is might not have it.
New York Rangers: I love this, man. "The thing that'll fix us? That's right, a guy who used to play here!" Awesome.
Ottawa Senators: The Senators are in the same position as the Rangers, without all the recent postseason success. "Hey, we suck. Want these guys we think are the big problem?" Oh, I guess I don't. Thanks for asking though.
Philadelphia Flyers: Make that three OT winners in the month of November. I love this guy.
Pittsburgh Penguins: It's all fixed!!!
San Jose Sharks: This is what Chicago has been shooting for the last two years. Hate to see yourself get scooped like that.
Seattle Kraken: We're talking a lot about teams that need a shakeup lately. What about Seattle? I know they just changed the coach, but how many more years can they stink like this?
St. Louis Blues: When you're in their position, you take all the points you can get. No regulation losses since the coaching change!
Tampa Bay Lightning: Victor Hedman is closing in on 600 career assists and is now the Lightning's all-time leader. That's wild.
Toronto Maple Leafs: It rocks that the Leafs have to sign someone to a huge contract every year. Awesome way to align your organization's cap.
Utah [fill in the blank later]: It's rare that the answer to 20 different questions is the exact same thing, but you really can apply, "They're still just the Coyotes," as liberally as you like.
Vancouver Canucks: Great news, Uce.
Vegas Golden Knights: I mean it's only seven years or whatever. It's not that big of a deal. Even if it's not, like, good.
Washington Capitals: Just saying: This kind of article often precedes a six-game losing streak.
Winnipeg Jets: Oh, yeah, that's the problem lately for sure.
Play of the Weekend
Had a good laugh at this one.
https://x.com/Sportsnet/status/1863063934338494521
Gold Star Award
Congrats to Jaxson Stauber: First start with Utah was also his first NHL shutout, and it was in Vegas. Pretty impressive.
Minus of the Weekend
Phiilip Grubauer you can't be giving up seven goals to the Sharks, bud. That's nasty to do!
Perfect HFBoards Trade Proposal of the Week
User "Agent Zuuuub" has the haters' heads spinning:
