GDT: NEW YORK RANGERS WIN NHL DRAFT LOTTERY

[Tawnos]

Rangers are going to be a weird team with so much of their talent on wing. Panarin handles a lot of the responsibilities that a pivot traditionally does. It sounds that, to some extent, Lafreniere also plays like that.

Working backwards, what's the right profile for a 2C? Wins faceoffs, good defensively, plays in front of the net?

Well, in many ways Zibanejad is the perfect center for Lafrenière. Wins faceoffs, good defensively,and can be the triggerman rather than the playmaker.

 

[Avery16]

Ah yes, Torts, who has taken three teams past the first round in the last 15 years, the obvious choice to take the team to the next step.

Third time's the charm, right?

 

[CasusBelli]

Ah yes, Torts, who has taken three teams past the first round in the last 15 years, the obvious choice to take the team to the next step.

He’s an experienced disciplinarian. He really got a lot out of our roster. The success we had under AV was the result of good habits Torts had instilled here. I can’t speak for his time in Vancouver or Columbus — don’t follow those teams — but he was more than capable when he was the Lightning boss as well.

 

[GeorgeKaplan]

I know that this was mostly luck but can we now drop the "Panarin deal was bad" some still believed because we weren't done rebuilding?

No

 

[CasusBelli]

I know that this was mostly luck but can we now drop the "Panarin deal was bad" some still believed because we weren't done rebuilding?

As long as we don’t run into cap trouble that threatens retaining Igor, Fox, KK, AL and MZ together ... you have my word.

 

[SnowblindNYR]

No

We literally got as good of a pick as we possibly could have and watched Panarin have a Hart worthy season. What more do you want?

 

[Thirty One]

Apologies if this has been posted, but I thought the site was down for the last 4 hours. I kept refreshing and it couldn't connect, so I'm not going to read through 30 pages of stuff.

Also apologies because this will be a bit of a downer.

The CBA allows for a bonus cushion. Teams can exceed the cap via performance bonuses, up to 7.5% of the cap ceiling. With the cap being 81.5 mil next year, that means we can exceed the cap, via bonuses, by 6.1125 million.

The base cap hits (without performance bonuses) have to fit within the 81.5 cap, but with performance bonuses, we can go up to 87.6125 million. What does this mean to us? Well, we have a LOT of players with performance bonuses. The table below shows all of the players we have signed who have performance bonuses for next season.

[TABLE="class: brtb_item_table"][TBODY][TR][TD]Player[/TD][TD]Performance Bonuses for 2020-21 (in Millions)[/TD][/TR]
[TR][TD]Lafreniere[/TD][TD]2.85[/TD][/TR]
[TR][TD]Shesterkin[/TD][TD]2.85[/TD][/TR]
[TR][TD]Kakko[/TD][TD]2.65[/TD][/TR]
[TR][TD]Kravtsov[/TD][TD].85[/TD][/TR]
[TR][TD]Andersson[/TD][TD].85[/TD][/TR]
[TR][TD]Fox[/TD][TD].85[/TD][/TR]
[TR][TD]Barron[/TD][TD].85[/TD][/TR]
[TR][TD]Richards[/TD][TD].5[/TD][/TR]
[TR][TD]Chytil[/TD][TD].35[/TD][/TR]
[TR][TD]Gauthier[/TD][TD].3[/TD][/TR]
[TR][TD]Miller[/TD][TD].3 [/TD][/TR]
[TR][TD]Lindgren[/TD][TD].2125[/TD][/TR]
[TR][TD]Reunanen[/TD][TD].1325[/TD][/TR]
[TR][TD]Rueschhoff[/TD][TD].1075 [/TD][/TR][/TBODY][/TABLE]
As a 1st overall pick, Laf will almost certainly get max performance bonuses. Laf, Shesty, Kakko, Fox, Chytil and Lindgren should all be on the team. Let's assume Gauthier is on the team as well. That is a total of 10.0625 million in performance bonuses. That means that our total cap commitment, before bonuses, can't be higher than 77.55 mil.

If Hank decides to retire, we are in good shape. Otherwise, I think Fast is definitely gone, and I think we are going to have to trade one of Strome or ADA no matter what. We will probably also have to buyout Staal or Hank.

Also keep in mind that Laf will probably earn at least some of his schedule A and B bonuses, as could Fox, Kakko and Shesty. Any bonuses that don't fit under the cap will roll over to the next year. So as awesome as it is that we are getting the 1st overall pick, it does complicate our cap situation.

You only have to fit the bonuses under the cap if they meet them (and even then not necessarily this year's cap). And Type A bonuses are max of $850,000 for good performance (20 goals, 60 points etc.). Type B are a max of $2 million for elite benchmarks (top 10 in scoring, top 5 in Hart voting).

 

[GoAwayPanarin]

Sounds like a 3C to me. Second liner should still be a 60-70 point guy, I think, unless he’s a PF or defensive specialist — in which case 50 is acceptable.

60-70 points is solid 1st line production.

We're not in the 80's anymore.

 

[GeorgeKaplan]

We literally got as good of a pick as we possibly could have and watched Panarin have a Hart worthy season. What more do you want?

You spent how long complaining about the best goaltender in the league?

 

[Avery16]

Rangers are going to be a weird team with so much of their talent on wing. Panarin handles a lot of the responsibilities that a pivot traditionally does. It sounds that, to some extent, Lafreniere also plays like that.

Working backwards, what's the right profile for a 2C? Wins faceoffs, good defensively, plays in front of the net?

Finally, LW depth to even out our RD depth.

 

[GoAwayPanarin]

As long as we don’t run into cap trouble that threatens retaining Igor, Fox, KK, AL and MZ together ... you have my word.

They'll find a way to keep their top guys together.

#Chicagoingit

 

[Greg02]

Sounds like a 3C to me. Second liner should still be a 60-70 point guy, I think, unless he’s a PF or defensive specialist — in which case 50 is acceptable.

I guess my point is if you have a couple superstar centers, you expect at least some of the wingers who play with them to fill a role. If you have a handful of superstar wingers instead (especially when one of them is such a playmaker like Panarin), maybe the qualities that you need in your 2C are different.

 

[Thirty One]

I know that this was mostly luck but can we now drop the "Panarin deal was bad" some still believed because we weren't done rebuilding?

Is anyone still carrying that one on?

 

[UnSandvich]

Sounds like a 3C to me. Second liner should still be a 60-70 point guy, I think, unless he’s a PF or defensive specialist — in which case 50 is acceptable.

Looking strictly at C's from last year, C's in the 32-62 range in terms of points leaguewide on the season ranged from 66 points to 42. 11 had less than 50 points.

 

[CasusBelli]

I guess my point is if you have a couple superstar centers, you expect at least some of the wingers who play with them to fill a role. If you have a handful of superstar wingers instead (especially when one of them is such a playmaker like Panarin), maybe the qualities that you need in your 2C are different.

Fair enough. So a guy like Panarin, who is a jack of all trades, might just need a good face off guy to make room for him and maybe someone else to keep the defense honest (so that they don’t just converge on AP). I’ve seen CK do some good work with face-offs. Maybe have Kreids take the draws and make room for AP, with a plug filling the middle? Maybe Chytil?

 

[Alluckks]

Well, in many ways Zibanejad is the perfect center for Lafrenière. Wins faceoffs, good defensively,and can be the triggerman rather than the playmaker.

Laf makes a lot of sense next to Zib, and I think Kreider would help with Chytil a lot as well. It makes sense.

 

[NYRangers0723]

Can we still trade Kreider? Teams were willing to trade a lot for him at the deadline. I am sure teams would still be interested in a signed Kreider.

What Center can we get if we trade Kreider and CAR’s 1st round pick?

If the Rangers had any intention of trading him they wouldn’t have resigned him . Plus I believe he had a NMC the first few years. After that we can trade him if we choose

 

[CraigsList]

So what's the plan now? Play with no expectations again as you play out the 6m Shattenkirk buyout $, last year of Lundqvist, last year of Staal, and Smith?

Then you have money to sign Shesterkin, Chytil, Howden, etc. in '21. Maybe a couple of UFA's but you can't be UFA hunting too much term as I would imagine you'd like to re-sign Zibanejad and Kakko in '23

 

[wafflepadsave]

2020 Draft Profile: LW Alexis Lafreniere - The Draft Analyst

 

[BKGooner]

I find it funny teams acting like The Rangers always win the lottery lol. Honestly before these past few years we always had horrendous luck in the lottery. Unlike teams like Pittsburgh or Edmonton who always seems to win when there was a generational talent in the draft

The other thing is that the Rangers have never tanked.

 

[Greg02]

Fair enough. So a guy like Panarin, who is a jack of all trades, might just need a good face off guy to make room for him and maybe someone else to keep the defense honest (so that they don’t just converge on AP). I’ve seen CK do some good work with face-offs. Maybe have Kreids take the draws and make room for AP, with a plug filling the middle? Maybe Chytil?

Yup, definitely feels to me like there's room to be creative, and also probably some arbitrage opportunity to find someone who will be much more valuable to us than he is to his current team.

 

[Rempe73]

I’m still in shock and can’t believe we basically have this guy. Before the lottery, I was speculating that if we won, I would consider making a deal with Ottawa (though I would want AT LEAST #3 and #5). However, now that we actually won, unless a team’s GM has the IQ of a peanut and is willing to give us multiple elite, cost-controlled talent and 1st round picks (which won’t happen), I don’t want to trade Lafreniere and it’s not even close. I mean, he probably has the most value out of anyone in the league other than McDavid. He’s cost-controlled for so many years, he’s probably going to be the best player (that’s on an ELC) in the league, his ceiling is probably just short of McDavid, and he can possibly put up 1st line production immediately, especially if the season begins late. The only problem is that he’s not a center, but oh well. I’m not going to cry about it.

 

[KirkAlbuquerque]

Gorton on how much the quick loss to Carolina will weigh on offseason decisions:
"Fairly significant. Even though it was 3 games, the way we lost, I just think we have to consider a lot of things we could do differently. ... How do we become a harder team to play against?"

Who's the Dylan McIlrath of this year's draft?

 

[Tawnos]

So what's the plan now? Play with no expectations again as you play out the 6m Shattenkirk buyout $, last year of Lundqvist, last year of Staal, and Smith?

Then you have money to sign Shesterkin, Chytil, Howden, etc. in '21. Maybe a couple of UFA's but you can't be UFA hunting too much term as I would imagine you'd like to re-sign Zibanejad and Kakko in '23

I think the expectations for next season have to be playoffs. Not contention, and probably not even winning a round. But making the playoffs. Frankly, that was the expectation even without 1OA.

Contending in 2 years, elite team in 3. That HAS to be the goal.

Some moves to make to get there, but those are the expectations.

 

[KirkAlbuquerque]

Well, in many ways Zibanejad is the perfect center for Lafrenière. Wins faceoffs, good defensively,and can be the triggerman rather than the playmaker.

We're talking about Mika Zibanejad, right?