Post-Game Talk: 8 Years, $92 Million

[Filip Chytil]

I see Carrick is looking like Gretzky these days

 

[will1066]

The way we've played defense since AV came in during the Lundqvist era is what set up Igor's bag. A years-long philosophy of relying on elite goaltending to cheat on offense. Full stop.

 

[The Crypto Guy]

Imagine expecting the guy who demanded he be the highest paid player on the team to play out of his mind. Or even to just clear the extremely lowered bar of “average”.

Jumbo, pls.

Imagine thinking McDavid, Matthews, and MacKinnon need to go out and score a hat trick every game because they are the highest paid players in the league. Guess what, they have average games too. Sometimes even...a BAD game

Johnny boy you're better than that.

 

[Machinehead]

Imagine thinking McDavid, Matthews, and MacKinnon need to go out and score a hat trick every game because they are the highest paid players in the league.

Johnny boy you're better than that.

Igor isn't performing at the level of those guys.

He's nowhere near the best goalie in the league. Hellebuyck has been better for years.

If Igor has 7 or 8 more years of the last 2 or 3, he's not a Hall of Famer.

We all just told ourselves he's the standalone best goalie in the league based on one season and vibes. It really is Carey Price all over again.

 

[UnSandvich]

They had a chance to get Eichel. They should have emptied the cupboard. There's nothing we've developed that I wouldn't move for Eichel. In retrospect, I would have given up all of Lafreniere, Kakko, Cuylle, Othmann, Chytil, Miller, and Schneider. Who cares? It all amounts to spare parts.

You can build around Eichel. It takes more to win the Cup, but you need a franchise center to sit at the table.

You can say in retrospect that we should've done that, but the real decision was always Eichel vs. Zibanejad + the assets it'd take to get Eichel. And at the time Eichel was trying to have a surgery never performed on an NHLer before. In hindsight i would've done more to get him, but i can understand why we didn't at that time.

 

[The Crypto Guy]

Igor isn't performing at the level of those guys.

He's nowhere near the best goalie in the league. Hellebuyck has been better for years.

If Igor has 7 or 8 more years of the last 2 or 3, he's not a Hall of Famer.

We all just told ourselves he's the standalone best goalie in the league based on one season and vibes. It really is Carey Price all over again.

I'll be very happy with the 2025 version of Carey Price.

And i think most of us consider him the best goalie because of his playoff stats, which are #1 in the league over the last 3 years. That's when you want your goalie to shine.

 

[Machinehead]

I'll be very happy with the 2025 version of Carey Price.

That makes one of us.

 

[The Crypto Guy]

That makes one of us.

Probably the overwhelming majority. Imagine NOT wanting one of the best goalies of the last decade and HoF lock. Mind blowing.

 

[Machinehead]

You can say in retrospect that we should've done that, but the real decision was always Eichel vs. Zibanejad + the assets it'd take to get Eichel. And at the time Eichel was trying to have a surgery never performed on an NHLer before. In hindsight i would've done more to get him, but i can understand why we didn't at that time.

You can call hindisght on that particular example, sure, but there are very few trades where the future assets aren't significantly overrated.

As I've said before, there's a volume element to the draft and you can't just get rid of all your picks, but there's a better than not chance that any single pick/prospect is nothing.

Every singular pick and prospect that isn't already a player is overvalued.

The next time a 25 year old legit 1C is available, I really hope he ends up on the Rangers.

 

[GoAwayPanarin]

That sounds like a Rangers problem, not an Eichel problem.

It’s both.

I won’t argue against exposing the loopholes.

 

[Machinehead]

Probably the overwhelming majority. Imagine NOT wanting one of the best goalies of the last decade and HoF lock. Mind blowing.

I don't know where you're getting HoF lock from. He's had one good season.

Hank presented the philosophical question of whether goaltending itself is worth that much and if he was the right way to build a team, but he was everything he was advertised to be.

Igor just isn't that good.

Hellebuyck is what unwashed Rangers fans think Igor is.

 

[Boris Zubov]

Would be an interesting experiment to see how far over the cap the last 5 Cup winners were. Significantly over i would assume. That's a variable no one ever talks about when looking back.

I actually brought this up in the GDT last night. It's not a coincidence that the quality of play league wide has taken a nose dive.

 

[duhmetreE]

Imagine if we could hit the net

 

[Machinehead]

Over the last three seasons, Igor is 5th in GSAA and 3rd in GSAx. In both categories he's about a million and half goals behind Hellebuyck.

Is he an elite goalie? Yeah.

He's not a 'lap the field' goalie. He's not a generational goalie. He's not a lock for the HoF which is notoriously stingy with goalies. He's none of those things.

He's paid like he is. "Reset the market."

 

[DanielBrassard]

Made this post in an unrelated main boards thread.



That is absolutely dire. It's not fun to think about, but if you squint at hockey long enough, you kind of see that it's a one-position sport.

This is exactly the reason I (and it’s nothing more than an obvious statement) said a week ago that the rangers should be doing everything they possibly can to acquire an elite #1 center. Having a #1 center is certainly not a guarantee, but it is a pre-requisite to winning. It’s really simple.

 

[haohmaru]

I see Carrick is looking like Gretzky these days

Brent maybe

 

[The Crypto Guy]

I don't know where you're getting HoF lock from. He's had one good season.

Hank presented the philosophical question of whether goaltending itself is worth that much and if he was the right way to build a team, but he was everything he was advertised to be.

Igor just isn't that good.

Hellebuyck is what unwashed Rangers fans think Igor is.

Dude, what? lol Carey Price is a lock for the hall of fame, are you serious right now?

This is why it's hard to take your criticism toward Igor very serious.

 

[TGWL]

We've been losing quite a few games lately based on goaltending.

 

[Boris Zubov]

Probably the overwhelming majority. Imagine NOT wanting one of the best goalies of the last decade and HoF lock. Mind blowing.

He's one of the best goalies in the game currently, but he's not close to a lock for the HOF. Frankly at his current pace, I don't see him getting in at all.

 

[will1066]

The way we've played defense since AV came in during the Lundqvist era is what set up Igor's bag. A years-long philosophy of relying on elite goaltending to cheat on offense. Full stop.

The stage was also set years ago when people began whispering that there was a guy in Russia waiting in the wings who might be even better than Lundqvist. Without having played a game in North America.

 

[Machinehead]

This is exactly the reason I (and it’s nothing more than an obvious statement) said a week ago that the rangers should be doing everything they possibly can to acquire an elite #1 center. Having a #1 center is certainly not a guarantee, but it is a pre-requisite to winning. It’s really simple.

As a matter of fact, I would venture that in the last 20ish years, more mediocre quarterbacks have won the Superbowl than mediocre #1 centers have won the Cup.

 

[The Crypto Guy]

He's one of the best goalies in the game currently, but he's not close to a lock for the HOF. Frankly at his current pace, I don't see him getting in at all.

Not close to a lock for a 1st Ballot HOFer, but he is getting in, 100%.

 

[Machinehead]

Dude, what? lol Carey Price is a lock for the hall of fame, are you serious right now?

This is why it's hard to take your criticism toward Igor very serious.

Carey Price is going to be a vibes Hall of Famer.

A good old Canadian boy that the Canadian media anointed for no reason.

In the years spanning his career, three goalies saved more goals above average, five goalies saved more goals above expected, and eight goalies had a better save percentage. He's barely a top-5 goalie during the years he played.

Rangers fans the MSG propaganda machine just anointed Igor.

 

[Gordon Bombay]

I really couldn't give a toss.

My problem is he's not that good at offense.

I don't think it's necessarily an offense/defense thing. None of the forwards on this team play defense and tbh we might be served to get that on the menu actually.

The problem, I think, and @LokiDog has touched on this, is that our team culture is very much that you're either in the band or you're one of the roadies. And when young players finally get put in the band, they play like roadies because they did it for 3, 4 years.

The top half of the lineup plays grabass offense, and the bottom half of the lineup plays basically right but they don't play offense at all.

The perfect microcosm of how we operate is Filip Chytil. I love the way he plays and I think he pretty much does everything right. He's never been in the band. He's 25 years old and he's still a roadie. I don't wanna hear about the injuries. When he plays, it's on the 3rd line. There's no excuse. He's a good player, but at the end of the day, he's probably around a 35-point guy. He was never given a chance to let his offense shine. Like silverfish always said, if you try to make a bottom sixer, you're going to get one.

And again, it's not a defense-first thing. It's a confidence thing. Berard came up with a much needed jolt of confidence. He's willing to grab the puck and use his shot. What did he get for it? He barely played. How do you think he's going to react to that? He's going to stop playing with balls offensively.

People gave Torts shit for being too tough, but Carl Hagelin added a jolt to this team and Torts immediately gave him almost 16 a game. And that poor bastard couldn't play defense if he had a loaded gun.

We need to marry skill and direct play and have three lines that can do both. Not a top six that's useless at one and a bottom six that's useless at the other.

It's been multiple coaches now. It's become a culture and they need to take active steps to remove it.

You’re killing it today. I’ve gone into @GingerPapa mode

 

[Boris Zubov]

Not close to a lock for a 1st Ballot HOFer, but he is getting in, 100%.

If Price gets in, its solely on reputation & a very biased Canadian press. He only has 360 career wins & won 30 games or more only 5 times. The guy was a great goalie in his prime, but the HOF should be about the best of the best...meaning could you tell the story of the sport without excluding him from the dialogue. Price doesn't fit that criteria, IMO, but I won't be shocked when he gets in on the first ballot, because reasons.

I would venture to say Igor needs 400 wins to get in. That's 250 more over the next 10 years; doable, but given his history of groin injuries, it's certainly questionable. If he wins a Conn Smythe on a cup winner along the way, that would certainly change my opinion.