From the desk of: RAISE GRESCH WITH THE GREATS
CONSTRUCTION ZONE: BEWARE OF FALLING BLUESHIRTS
New York Rangers: Does Jeff Gorton really have this much autonomy, or is this just another day at the office for Darth Sather?
The last time these Rangers offered any glimmer of hope for being a playoff contender came back on New Year's day. They have achieved just four regulation time victories since then.
(As of Tuesday morning they've won two more).
And so, Glen Sather and Jeff Gorton released a
statement earlier this week saying,
"We will be focused on adding young, competitive players that combine speed, skill, and character. This may mean we lose some familiar faces ...." - blah, blah, blah -
"commitment" - blah -
"building the foundation for our next Stanley Cup contender."
Blah, blah, blah ...
We heard similar things the day they hired Alain Vigneault.
That being said, are we being led to believe this was
Jeff Gorton's idea, and that Glen Sather signed off on it?
I would like to think so. I would like to believe Jeff Gorton has autonomy.
But I doubt it.
Glen Sather has been part of the Rangers decision making process since 2000, where as Jeff Gorton has been general manager for only 32 months (under Glen Sather). Meanwhile, Jim Dolan makes it crystal clear that Sather is here for as long as he chooses to be.
Now put all John Tortorella's antics aside for a moment and let's objectively consider his impact on the team during his four seasons as head coach.
Do the Rangers retain a majority of the club's young, upcoming talent, then actually exercise the required level of patience needed for developing a core group from which to build around had it not been for the influence I strongly believe John Tortorella exerted over Glen Sather? I think not. I believe John Tortorella indeed convinced Sather into suspending his otherwise nonsensical wheeling and dealing, and made him finally commit to a grassroots rebuild.
And they did - Tortorella and Sather; Sather and Tortorella.
And Tortorella gave this otherwise unknown group of youngsters a sorely needed identity. They not only became one of the league's elite defensive teams, physically speaking, they quite literally threw down the gauntlet. In the absence of an elite scorer at his disposal, that's all Torts had to work with.
Marian Gaborik wasn't willing to play in the grittier portions of the ice. After which, Sather was never able to piece that situation together as Brad Richards and a few others resulted in epic fails.
Even Rick Nash was perhaps acquired one year too late. I admit that I wanted him badly. At the time, I thought Nash was the exact kind of player this team needed. Unfortunately, he failed to provide Tortorella with playoff pop during their only post-season together - which not incidentally has remained Nash's Achilles heel throughout his years playing off-Broadway. In 73 playoff games with the Rangers, Nash has produced just 14 goals and 24 assists for 38 points.
Moving forward, Alain Vigneault merely advanced what was essentially John Tortorella's team into the Stanley Cup finals. To be fair, playing the L.A. Kings that season was like running into a buzz saw. The Kings were that good; very talented. They were big, physical, tough!
Just ask the Devils.
Which brings me to my next point.
Sandwiched around John Tortorella's tenure are former coach Tom Renny and present head coach Alain Vigneault. With each coach, the conversation invariably turns to speed and skill. Sather, Renney, and Vigneault, clearly seem to have have more in common with each other, than either of them have with Torts. And that's why I believe Tortorella in fact influenced Sather to the extent I do.
When I think Tom Renny, I think back to a Season Lost and the NHL Lockout. I think about the institution of a salary cap and how that forced Glen Sather away from his usual wanton spending on aging, fractured, dysfunctional players of former renown, and made him focus more on actual player development, team building, and overall management.
One can not talk about Tom Renny and Glen Sather in the same sentence, though, without including Don Maloney, the former Rangers VP of player personnel from 1996 through 2007, whom served for seven seasons under Glen Sather. And when I think back on Don Maloney, I can't help but recall Smurfish players such as Petr Prucha.
Yeah, I went there.
In 2007, Don Maloney moved on to became general manager of the Phoenix Coyotes. Sather replaced him with Jeff Gorton.
Name me the beefcake drafted by either Don Maloney or Jeff Gorton.
I'll wait ...
BRB ...
And so I ask what makes the combination of Maloney, Renny, and Prucha, any different from Gorton, Alain Vigneault, and Mats Zuccarello, all these years later? And, no, I'm not comparing Prucha to MatsZucs. That would be silly. But like I've said many times, when MatsZucs is your leading scorer four out of the last five seasons - with this roster of players - you have a major problem on your hands.
But my overall point here revolves around Glen Sather.
The Rangers were terribly weak at center then; the Rangers are no less weak at center today. They were getting pushed off the puck after the lockout; theyret still getting pushed off the puck just as easily today.
Their forwards never could score that one clutch goal for Henrik Lundqvist before; they haven't been able to score that one key goal for Henrik Lundqvist ever.
And therein lie the Rangers two constants since 2005: Henrik Lundqvist and Glen Sather.
Who do you suppose I hold more responsible for the Rangers inability to hoist the Stanley Cup?
Therefore, say what you will about John Tortorella. He certainly earned his dismissal. But, for a short time he was able to leash Glen Sather long enough to allow the Rangers to grow into a young competitive team. Moreover, Torts demanded his team protect Henrik Lundqvist at all costs. The Rangers have since devolved under Glen Sather minions Jeff Gorton and Alain Vigneault, whom criminally allows Henrik Lundqvist, and his team to be beaten, battered, and bruised.
I want to know whether the front office is actually tearing this down to the ground and starting over from scratch, or, if they're simply blowing smoke up our posteriors. Are they retooling on the fly, or are they merely aiming to alleviate themselves of three or four players in exchange for a clutch of younger, unproven, less costlier speed guys? Because nowhere in the Rangers press release did I read the word rebuilding. Towards that end, anything less would be a colossal mistake.
I'm already on record saying, gut it.
I'd be agreeable with retaining Mika Zibanejad, Pavel Buchnevich, Brady Skjei, and maybe .. maybe, J.T. Miller. Everyone else can and should be moved out with haste. And I do mean everyone.
Personally, I am not interested in recouping bodies, per se. Top rated prospects are one thing, but I want draft picks. And perhaps the only Rangers player capable of securing a worth while number one pick is obviously Henrik Lundqvist. Otherwise, the market among interested teams will set the price for players like Ryan McDonagh, Rick Nash, Marc Staal, Michael Grabner, Mats Zuccarello, et al.
But what the Rangers need most are draft picks; many draft picks. Between 2013 and 2016, the Rangers did not own a number one draft pick because they were all traded away. And then the front office wonders why they find themselves in last place of the Metropolitan Division.
If Gorton and Sather are really committed to rebuilding, then the Rangers need to completely hit rock bottom. That's something this organization has never been willing to do. In order to maximize the odds of selecting premier talent in the draft an organization must be smart, yes, but also willing to pay the ultimate price in the standings first. In my lifetime, the Rangers have only ever fallen below a .400 winning percentage once, and only twice since the 1965-66 season - a year before I was born.
Look around the league. Teams which draft elite franchise players do so only after first suffering through years of gut-wrenching futility. And by that I mean losing 65% of regular season games. That's what happened with Pittsburgh whom wound up drafting Sidney Crosby and Ivgeni Malkin. That's how Washington was able to draft Alex Ovechkin, and how Chicago was able to draft Jonathan Toews and Patrick Kane.
The Islanders and John Tavares ... the list goes on.
Even after decades of mismanagement, the Toronto Maple Leafs have passed by the Rangers under the stewardship of Lou Lamoriello and Mike Babcock.
Speaking of old Lou, look no further than the New Jersey Devils. The team that defeated Tortorella's Rangers in the 2010-2011 conference finals has since committed to rebuilding, stripped it down, and have now passed by the Rangers as well. The Devils have earned 62-points as of this post, and are in seventh place in the Eastern Conference standings with less than thirty games to play.
However, they're in this position because they paid their dues in the standings first, then followed up with effective drafting. Last year New Jersey won the draft lottery, and with the first overall pick of the 2017 entry draft, selected center Nico Hischier. He presently has nine goals and 22-assists for 31-points. That's more points than any Rangers center not named J.T. Miller.
The Rangers, meanwhile, presently reside in last place of the Metropolitan Division, and eleventh place in the conference. Their (then) 57-points are the tenth least in the NHL. Said another way, they are a bottom third team.
They have only won five division titles over the last fifty years. That means they qualify for the post-season as a mid to lower seed more often than not. That sort of consistent mediocrity, again, no doubt hampers their drafting, as they're usually stuck with mid to low round selections in any given year.
So, how low are the Rangers willing to go with this?
If I had my way, I'd be spending the next two weeks ensuring the Rangers become the worst team in North America. Then right after the trade deadline, kindly show Alain Vigneault the door.
Then again, why wait?
*Updated, Tuesday morning.
