I hope that Zuccarello is traded from the Rangers to a top team despite loving to see him play for Rangers. Rangers is going through a rebuild and won't be fighting for the Stanley Cup for at least 3-4 years.
Zuccarello only has a few years left in NHL. Maybe he doesn't care about fighting for the Cup and would prefer to help rebuilding Rangers. Then kudos to him for that. However, I hope to see Zuccarello again at least once in the play-off for a top team.
Several of his Rangers buddies have been traded and got a chance for the Cup. Hagelin, Brassard, McDonagh etc. I hope Zuccarello would get the same chance before his time in NHL is over. He has already served Rangers well for quite a few years.
Vegas Golden Knights or Nashville Predators could be interesting teams for Zuccarello in his remaining NHL years. Maybe even Pittsburg Penguins.
I also think Henrik Lundqvist should think about the same. He only has a few more years left and will never win anything with the Rangers. He has been the Rangers backbone for years and deserves a final shot at the Cup. Unfortunately that is not likely to happen for him. He's already in a decline and might not be as attractive for other teams as he was.
We can only hope the Rangers new young players and some luck with their picks will help making Rangers a Cup winning team again in the not so distant future. The play-offs aren't the same without the Rangers as one of the teams.
This is the thing that the people that rip on the fans that want him here hoped happened at least two seasons ago. A lot of Norwegian fans have been fans of the NYR way before Zucc arrived, to have our only NHL player play for "our" club, and have a prominent role on the team is a fandom dream come true. That is why a lot of the Norwegian fans don't want him traded. He's our guy and he's playing for our club. To have that questioned as we're some kind of idiots straight up sucks, and is a big reason why I just stopped coming here the second half of the season, the forums have become toxic in a lot of discussions.
EU fans don't have the same relationship to "trade him while his value is high" as American fans. Contract limits and term lengths isn't a part of our sports culture, we celebrate players who choose to remain with their clubs throughout their careers. Rarely does anyone want anyone to be sold, even if they can get a banks worth of money for him.
With that in mind, the fact that we want Zucc to remain with the club, and not be traded to a team that has actual superstars and way better players than the NYR has, something which is sure to boost his production by a fair margin, should be an indicator that we care about the club just as much as the fans on the other side of the pond do. We just view player longevity differently.
What I don't quite get around is the use and toss mentality of players. When they are here, the players are loved and hated every other minute. But when the moment comes that he likely to be traded, it doesn't matter that he's sent to a team so bad it physically hurts to watch the team play (Derek Stepan). It's simply "Thank you for all the effort you put in, now f*** off to a shit team and enjoy your misery. Thanks for the return". The fact that no one seems to feel just a little bad about sending our players off to teams that are plain bad, will always puzzle me.
It's just how I feel about it, I get that US/CA fans will view this on the entire polar opposite.
Henrik was given the option from Dolan/Gorton to be traded before the letter was published, as a thank you for services and sportsmanship rendered. They gave him an out for a shot at the cup. Henrik chose team loyalty and family stability over a maybe shot at the Stanley Trophy.
