Speculation: Free Agent Frenzy Part VI: Someone Get Gorton A Vesey Button.

[NYR]

Every veteran chasing a cup towards the tail end of their careers have the deepest and darkest desire to play for a rebuilding team.

He has no contract but McLeod is a better option when you can sign Hartnell for the same price?
Give me a break..

 

[NYR]

Not to mention the cost differential between Cole and Claesson, and the fact that even with our D line up Cole would be third pair.

Cole is better defensively than anyone on this roster outside of Skjei.
He's the type of dman that Shattenkirk NEEDS in order for him to not fall flat on his face in the D-Zone..

 

[Thirty One]

He has no contract but McLeod is a better option when you can sign Hartnell for the same price?
Give me a break..

Where did you read that the Rangers could sign Hartnell for the same price?

 

[NYR]

Where did you read that the Rangers could sign Hartnell for the same price?

He signed a 1 year/1M contract last year so you tell me, how much would it take to sign another 1 year deal?
You would rather have McLeod??

 

[Thirty One]

He signed a 1 year/1M contract last year so you tell me, how much would it take to sign another 1 year deal?
You would rather have McLeod??

He signed for so cheap because he picked the destination that he thought was most desirable, not the one bidding the most. In your mind, would the Rangers be the most desirable destination for him?

 

[Avery16]

Cole is better defensively than anyone on this roster outside of Skjei.
He's the type of dman that Shattenkirk NEEDS in order for him to not fall flat on his face in the D-Zone..

Cole is seriously over-valued on this thread. You forget that Cole and Shattenkirk were on the same team for five seasons, and they were NEVER paired together. Why? Because Cole was a third pair or #7 D, and Shattenkirk is, well... Shattenkirk. Staal plays over Cole on this team, and that’s with Torts, AV, Ruff and Quinn.

 

[NYR]

He signed for so cheap because he picked the destination that he thought was most desirable, not the one bidding the most. In your mind, would the Rangers be the most desirable destination for him?

He has NO contract

 

[NYR]

Cole is seriously over-valued on this thread. You forget that Cole and Shattenkirk were on the same team for five seasons, and they were NEVER paired together. Why? Because Cole was a third pair or #7 D, and Shattenkirk is, well... Shattenkirk. Staal plays over Cole on this team, and that’s with Torts, AV, Ruff and Quinn.

Cole has 2 cups under his belt.
Shattenkirk has shit!!

 

[bobbop]

Didn't realize Boyle had a letter here (guess it's not a total surprise as he was an AV guy).

I suspect Yandle's in AZ was by default.

Not true.

He was Doan’s right hand guy here.

 

[haohmaru]

He has no contract but McLeod is a better option when you can sign Hartnell for the same price?
Give me a break..

Give you a break? How about stop making shit up to suit your narrative? You have no idea if the Rangers inquired/called about Hartnell or not. It's not a given that he'd sign here just because you think he would. McLeod has run out of options and likely wouldn't have gotten a contract anywhere else and he knows it. Hartnell is flirting with retirement and he's not playing for a rebuilding team if he's playing at all.

 

[NYR]

Give you a break? How about stop making **** up to suit your narrative? You have no idea if the Rangers inquired/called about Hartnell or not. It's not a given that he'd sign here just because you think he would. McLeod has run out of options and likely wouldn't have gotten a contract anywhere else and he knows it. Hartnell is flirting with retirement and he's not playing for a rebuilding team if he's playing at all.

Speaking of making shit up.
McLeod has run out of options and Hartnell, while having no contract mind you..Has not??
OK..Haha!

 

[haohmaru]

Speaking of making **** up.
McLeod has run out of options while Hartnell, while having no contract mind you..Has not??
OK..Haha!

Mcleod "running out of options" actually supports YOUR argument that Hartnell is the better player. The better question to ask, though, is whether Hartnell even wants to play anymore (there have been reports that he's mulling retirement) and, if he did, why would he want to play for a team likely to do nothing at this point in his career?

The NYR are not a fit for Hartnell if he wants to play. Iginla didn't have a contract either and he just hung them up. 50/50 that Hartnell does the same thing.

 

[NYR]

Mcleod "running out of options" actually supports YOUR argument that Hartnell is the better player. The better question to ask, though, is whether Hartnell even wants to play anymore (there have been reports that he's mulling retirement) and, if he did, why would he want to play for a team likely to do nothing at this point in his career?

The NYR are not a fit for Hartnell if he wants to play. Iginla didn't have a contract either and he just hung them up. 50/50 that Hartnell does the same thing.

OK fair enough..How about the other 2 bottom sixers I mentioned?
WHERE IS MY 4TH LINE CENTER???

 

[Avery16]

Cole has 2 cups under his belt.
Shattenkirk has ****!!

It’s obvious to most people that the number of rings you have is indicative only of how many winning teams you’ve been on. Not how good a player you are individually. Dan Carcillo has two rings and Mike Gartner has none.

 

[haohmaru]

It’s obvious to most people that the number of rings you have is indicative only of how many winning teams you’ve been on. Not how good a player you are individually*. Dan Carcillo has two rings and Mike Gartner has none.

*: See Bure, Pavel

 

[Fvital92]

Their best line was not Bonino, Hagelin, Kessel. Their best line was whatever line Crosby was on, and their second line was whatever line Malkin was on. They had some other good players besides those two, but we both know that they aren't getting close to winning the Stanley Cup without Crosby and Malkin. If they didn't have those players and they built their team the way they did, they would be at the front of the line trying to acquire the next Crosby and Malkin.

Ranger fans always try to convince themselves that whatever applies for their team is something they all of a sudden have to defend, even if its not really defensible. You are making an argument that is not, at all, backed up by facts. Lets take the last 10 seasons. 3 for Pittsburgh with Crosby and Malkin, 3 for Chicago with Toews and Kane, 2 for LA with Doughty and Kopitar, 1 for Washington with Ovechkin and Backstrom, and then one for Boston. Boston is the only team of that bunch that did not have multiple high picks from their core turn into their star players. And with the exception of Kopitar who went 11th, all of those players were top 5 picks. A number of them were first overall picks. Boston is the outlier. Why are we shooting for being the outlier? Outlier Cup winners happen, but using the last 10 years, there's a 10% chance of the Cup winner being an outlier team with how they were built.

There is a clear formula. Your argument about parity doesn't hold water. Ottawa did not win the Cup, didn't didn't either, neither did we. The teams with the elite talents picked at the top of the draft did. It happens just about every year in the NHL that the Stanley Cup winner has elite talent that they drafted at the top of the draft. How is this not obvious? Why do our fans try to accept what is statistically a terrible strategy?

Yeah, just elite talent can win it all. Can you explain to me why a team likeSan Jose didn't won? They have at least 2 elites forwards and a 1D.
Stop using 3 teams that've won like they were the only ones that used this magical formula.
Nashville absolutely can win it all and didn't draft theirs studs in the top 5, for example. Also, I can list at least 25 elites players that weren't draft in the top 5, even top 10.
We don't what we have in our prospects yet, lets wait and see before calling our rebuild a failure.

 

[Do you want ants]

I didn’t say they have every ingredient needed. I said they have the hard part out of the way. We have the easy part out of the way. Who said it’s so hard for these teams to acquire the easy ingredients? How about you give them a few years and see where they are at?

If it’s not hard, why haven’t they done it in the last decade? They’ve been bad enough, long enough to know they’ll have a shot to draft those elite players. During that time period why haven’t they acquired those lesser pieces to surround them with and start contending?

 

[GeorgeKaplan]

He has NO contract

I’m pretty sure he’s deciding whether he even wants to play another season or not

 

[mas0764]

We need to be bad this year. Its pretty much a requirement. I saw someone say the other day that we might not actually be that bad. That would hurt our rebuild. Finishing 5 points out of a playoff spot does nothing for us. We need to draft elite talents.

Hopefully that happens, and then we sign one of the elite players on the free agent market, whether thats Seguin, Karlsson, Panarin. We could even wait a year further, be bad for two more years, draft again at the top of the draft, and then try to become a playoff team.

Trade Zibanejad?

 

[Levitate]

Cole has 2 cups under his belt.
Shattenkirk has ****!!

I'm not sure what this is supposed to prove. Cole managed to get on some really good teams. He wasn't exactly the difference maker for those cups. He contributed but it doesn't mean he's a better player than Shattenkirk.

I'd rather Hartnell than McLeod but I don't think it really matters in the end either with this team.

 

[Mac n Gs]

OK fair enough..How about the other 2 bottom sixers I mentioned?
WHERE IS MY 4TH LINE CENTER???

Nick Shore, hopefully.

Claesson is also better defensively than you give him credit for, and he actually has the potential to be a really low-risk high-reward player. His numbers are skewed from playing with Karlsson, but it says something that he's one of the few dman able to actually keep up with EK65 and not drag his play down.

 

[haveandare]

We'll see how long that "lol" lasts before the whining begins.
JG is making all the right moves in order to tank IMO so I have to "lol" at anything that might suggest that this isn't a "long term" rebuild especially after pointing the finger at Edm and Buffalo.

I don’t really see what point you’re trying to make here. Chiarelli has been gifted multiple elite players and his team finished 1 point ahead of the Rangers who dismantled themselves 2/3 of the way through the season. There is no logical universe in which Edmonton has bettter management than NYR.

 

[Pavel Buchnevich]

Yeah, just elite talent can win it all. Can you explain to me why a team likeSan Jose didn't won? They have at least 2 elites forwards and a 1D.
Stop using 3 teams that've won like they were the only ones that used this magical formula.
Nashville absolutely can win it all and didn't draft theirs studs in the top 5, for example. Also, I can list at least 25 elites players that weren't draft in the top 5, even top 10.
We don't what we have in our prospects yet, lets wait and see before calling our rebuild a failure.

Who said that having elite talent guarantees you'll win the Cup?

I am using facts. You are using opinions. Am I wrong that in the last 10 years of the NHL almost every team that has won a Cup had multiple core players that they picked in the top 5 of the draft? I also never said elite talents can't be acquired elsewhere, but they usually come from the top 5.

I also never said to discard our players or anything like that. Maybe one or two of them surprises and turns into a better player than expected, but as of now none look like elite talents. We can't be hoping that they surprise. We have to try to plan with a higher percentage strategy.

 

[Pavel Buchnevich]

If it’s not hard, why haven’t they done it in the last decade? They’ve been bad enough, long enough to know they’ll have a shot to draft those elite players. During that time period why haven’t they acquired those lesser pieces to surround them with and start contending?

Because they aren't well run teams. They need more shots at it than most clubs to be successful. But given they have the hard part done already, their success rate doesn't have to be as high as ours.

 

[Pavel Buchnevich]

Trade Zibanejad?

What is the offer for him? There should be no untouchables, but each player should be traded for the right offer.