Move the goalposts all you want, it doesn't change the F A C T that I am right. The Rangers didn't feel that Beargloves would be an NHL defenseman. I am assuming they watched him a lot more than you have. If they thought he could play in the NHL and contribute next year they would not terminate his contract.
Regarding your post.... no no sir. That is incorrect. They didn't send him to the minors because they realized he sucks and isn't worth the contract. They sent him to the minors to condition and motivate. Smith is an NHL defenseman. He wasn't in the shape of an NHL defenseman. You know why he was successful for us in the playoffs? A. He was in game shape. B. and arguably even more important, AV let Smith play the game Smith wanted to play. When Smith was able to play to his strengths, he was a good defenseman.
Fast forward to this season, Smith comes into camp out of shape and then AV is attempting to use Smith in the wrong way. The result is what we saw.
To your last point, what defense did Gorton dismantle? One where Girardi was playing 20+ minutes a night? Should he have signed Keith Yandle to a fat contract instead of letting him walk? McDonagh is on the decline. He didn't dismantle the defense. He is dismantling the team, the team that Sather built. That is what happens when you REBUILD.
If you're going to respond to my post, then respond to the content. If you try to move the goalposts again because you don't like my response and realize I am right, just realize I won't respond to whatever it is you say next.
Why so hostile?
You are the one who moved the goalposts. The discussion was about our team's defensive depth for next season, and you responded with what the Rangers did. It adds nothing, I know the decision they made. That wasn't the initial topic, nor do I think, as I said in my last response, it particularly should matter towards our opinions. But when you don't have an opinion yourself, I guess its easy to just cite the decision of the team, and trust their decision as many are doing here, and then citing very little evidence as enough evidence. If possible, I'd rather draw my own conclusions. My own conclusion is that we haven't seen enough to decide whether the team made the right or wrong decision. Given our lack of defensive depth though, I think it would've been smart to give the kid a chance, but thats only my opinion.
You can frame the Smith situation anyway you like, he sucked this season, and most who had watched him previously said he wasn't as good as Ranger fans and management seemed to think. Its possible he out of shape. I think he is an NHL defensemen, but that doesn't mean the team didn't make a mistake in giving him that contract, and then admit it a few months later. If they were convinced that Smith was just in bad shape this season and he'll be great next season, I don't think they send him to the minors. I think they realize they miscalculated his abilities.
As for the defense, we were told by so many that Gorton had rebuilt the defense after last offseason. I think there were some saying that we had one of the best defenses in the NHL going into this season. Was that rebuilding to sign two late 20's players to big contracts or did he have the same opinion as those people and miscalculated how the defense on paper would play out in games? I have not been impressed by his defensive decisions on many fronts. Smith was a huge failure of a signing in my opinion. DeAngelo looks like a very underwhelming piece to the Stepan trade. I'm not sure he's even an NHL'er. He put dead money on the cap by buying out Girardi, and now Girardi's top 4 for one of the best teams in the league. I'm not sure it makes sense to add Shattenkirk's big contract to a rebuilding team.
Bereglazov was signed and then released pretty much like that without playing any games, yet Sproul, Kampfer and O'Gara played a combined 60 games. I didn't think it made sense to trade Graves, I think he's better than most of the guys who got long tryouts at the end of the season. I've just not been impressed with Gorton's work in building the defense. What do we have to show for it? Skjei? Excellent, but thats one player, and he's not exactly Drew Doughty. Maybe Pionk? He's been GM for years now, and our defense has only went backwards. Clearly the team is now rebuilding and we'll wait to see how well the defense becomes, but right now, I'm not exactly convinced he knows how to build a defense. And on Yandle, I'll cut him a break there. I still think it was dumb not to trade him, so I would knock the overall asset management, but I wasn't in favor of signing him to a long-term contract, so I can give Gorton a pass in the defense construction department.