Confirmed with Link: NYR Fire John Davidson and Jeff Gorton

[Zats Muccarello]

Horrible decision by the Rangers but as a Bruins fans I certainly don't mind it.

 

[TheTakedown]

I guess I'd feel more comfortable if Dolan bought into the concept of patience and understood that two steps back by trading Zibanejad might not be immediately replaced with three steps forward with his replacement.

If moving Zibanejad was more or less a constant in the equation, Dolan's personality has now entered into equation as a variable.

I'm less concerned about moving Zibanejad as I am forcing a subsequent move into existence. Because escaping one hanging, just to find yourself in another noose is a real possibility.

What about Moving Zibanejad and then replacing with Eichel? It's semi-lateral but it's an upgrade in average age, and close to what you're expecting to pay Zibanejad anyways

 

[fm]

It's going to piss away 2-4 good prospects, picks, and young players, that's why. Don't see a huge difference between Mika and Eichel in terms of production, leadership, 'grit', etc etc

 

[Anzi]

I think we paid to keep him off the open market. And honestly, coming off a season like this, if we tried to acquire him now, it would probably cost us more --- at least in assets.

I think the trade value for Trouba was fair. I think the contract's a little on the higher side, but not grossly overstated. I think Pionk is a little older and more experienced that he was with us, but I don't know if he'd be looked upon favorably if he was here. I think the difference in numbers is usage. He's on the powerplay, about 1/3 to 1/2 his points are coming there. Pionk wouldn't be getting those points with Fox ahead of him, and he wouldn't be answering any questions about what we need either. So in the end, we'd probably still be trading him for a player like Trouba, if not Trouba himself.

Trouba is the 7th highest paid defenseman in the league so I think he's more than a little overpaid. I will be very surprised if we don't end up buying him out at some point or give up a good pick to dump him off on someone before the end of his contract. The difference with Pionk isn't only in points. He's gone from a guy that Rangers fans mocked for having terrible analytics despite good point totals to a guy with both good analytics and point totals.

 

[TheTakedown]

they are relatively close IMO. Some of the kids could explode into another level

Kreider , Zib, Panarin are win now guys

I agree if they make a stupid move it’s gonna hurt but let’s not assume Drury is an idiot. He was sought after around the league for a reason

10000000%. Drury is legit. There's no better GM option out there right now, far and away better than the next available GM option. Drury knows wtf he's doing.

 

[TheTakedown]

Heard that JD and Gorts were quick to sign their names off of the letter they sent out. And you know nothing like that goes out without Dolan approving it.

From who?

 

[JESSEWENEEDTOCOOK]

 

[TheTakedown]

The next day, and I still feel the same. This COULD have major ramifications and signal a terrifying new era of "involved Dolan," but more than likely it's a perpetuation of the approach we saw under Gorton. Drury had been groomed by Gorton for a long time, I don't think he's going to come in and do a 180 suddenly. And if Dolan wanted that, I don't think Drury would have taken the job--he'd have just waited and taken pursued the next opportunity he could.

Anyway, all we can do is wait and see. I don't like the spectacle of all this right at the end of the season, but the moves themselves don't bother me in a vacuum. It could even end up being a big positive turning point; although I'm never optimistic about this team enough to talk myself into that.

Like what was said, Drury didn't take several GM positions because he was not promised autonomy... Drury would have resigned if this was this case, I am sure of it, because look how sought-after he is on the GM market.

I'm ready for Drury, the guys know what he is doing

 

[JT Kreider]

10000000%. Drury is legit. There's no better GM option out there right now, far and away better than the next available GM option. Drury knows wtf he's doing.

I'm more concerned about his ability to hold off Dolan. First order of business should be finding a way to get Lundqvist back in the organization ASAP, even as the backup if he still thinks he can play for one more year (keep Kinkaid around as well as a 3rd option).

Between Sather and Hank I'd be much more at ease about there being a significant buffer among Dolan and Drury.

We lived in such peaceful bliss the last 15 years of zero Dolan involvement.

Seriously the last time I can remember Dolan even speaking in an official Rangers capacity was when he crashed a Torts post game presser in 2012 to proclaim to the world the Cup would be here soon and Torts wanted to wring his neck

 

[Kakko Schmakko]

What about Moving Zibanejad and then replacing with Eichel? It's semi-lateral but it's an upgrade in average age, and close to what you're expecting to pay Zibanejad anyways

what "will" does Eichel have? 2 goals in 21 games. Zibanejad's 3 or 4 best games this season produced more points than Eichel did in 21.

 

[JimmyG89]

Definitely not happy with JD and Gorton being dismissed. Gorton was given a very tough initial hand. No cap space, an aging team in long term deals. He played his hand pretty damn well all things being considered, but there are 4 things to me that are all based on the fact that this team is the New York Rangers or that he had nothing to do with:

• Panarin signing with the Rangers to play in New York City and reunite with JD, someone he was familiar with.
• Fox, a fan of the team and native NYer, wanting to play for the Rangers and Gorton pulling the trigger on trading for him instead of waiting a year (that aspect was a great move, but he was ending up on the NYR no matter what).
• Getting the #2 pick in the lottery and taking the consensus #2 player
• Getting the #1 pick in the lottery and taking the consensus #1 player

There are obvious flashes of brilliance. Zibanejad trade, the Nash trade, moving Stepan when he could, trading Spooner for Strome, drafting with late 1sts he got in trades and getting some top end prospects that have increased in value since the draft (Chytil, Miller, Lundkvist).

There were poor decisions. The McDonagh/Miller trade, Lias Andersson situation, Kravtsov coming over too soon, Brendan Smith's contract, Kevin Shattenkirk's contract, and some argue the Trouba contract.

As fan, we looked to this upcoming offseason as the defining moment for the rebuild. Flush with cap space, even with a flat cap now, the team's youth becoming more experienced in playing NHL games, and the aging teams in the division really making final pushes to win a cup. They could ideally do anything this offseason with the assets, cap space, and the lure of playing for an original 6 team that has a future unlike most. Gorton wouldn't have his hands tied any longer trying to build a team with less than ideal cap space.

I wish we would have been able to see it through. It is possible that Drury and Gorton shared a same/similar vision for this team, but now Drury is on his own in this regard and naturally there will be disagreement in the workplace, it happens all the time, but the final say is now Drury, not Gorton and I hope there is a similar mindset of how this team is built moving forward from the direction they have been going in.

 

[NYRangers0723]

I thought Dolan kept his nose out of the Rangers business. I don’t get why Gordon and JD were fired.

 

[TheTakedown]

I have been one of the most ardent defenders of the team's progress this year. I believe the strides made were impressive by many of the youngers (Fox, Laf, KK, etc.). And while I, like others, deeply appreciate your insight, I feel like you're leaning so hard into the "Dolan is a psychopath" angle here and might be a bit blind to the fact that real issues exist as a result of JD & JG. I can honestly understand why an owner would be upset with them and want them gone. Just a few that I've been thinking about since the firing:

• We've spent a lot of money on players in their prime. Panarin, Kreider, Trouba, etc. If we're not ready to compete soon, what were we thinking? Were these last two years Panarin's best? How much longer can we wait? This begs the question about what their position on re-signing 28-year-old Mika Zibanejad may have been if JDJG did not think we were ready to take the next step?
  
  
• I have to imagine the decision to choose Georgiev over keeping Hank around to mentor Shesty did not sit well. Georgiev was terrible for most of this year and is looking like a career backup. This was obvious to many of us on here who continuously pointed out Georgiev's erratic performances. We tossed aside one of the most important players in franchise history in favor of a guy we might now move anyway.
  
  
• The ADA situation. I believe the right call was made in getting rid of him. But how can you justify to your boss handing out the second largest contract on defense and then just months later excuse away banishing him. It's not like these issues with ADA weren't apparent prior to this. He didn't suddenly morph into a troubled human.
  
  
• JT Miller. The Ryan McD trade, where we just threw in JT Miller might very well go down as one of the worst in history. Miller is now a premier center in the NHL and he was nothing more than a toss-in. You can point out the other successful trades that have been made, but they don't make up for trading a #1 D-Man and a #1 Center for arguably the two worst players in the NHL and some picks.
  
  
• Lack of protection for our star players. We've gotten completely manhandled for the last week. The Islanders knocked out our premier D-Man and we did nothing. The same player who knocked him out elbowed our star center in the face and we did nothing. Wilson nearly killed our two top wingers and in the game we did nothing. It was obvious last year we needed some level of protection for them and instead, we built a fourth line around Rooney and Howden. A thug on skates would be as effective as Brett Howden. Everyone should be upset with what transpired there this year.
  
  
• Constant wastes of money. I don't care how rich you are, lighting money on fire with buyouts of Hank, Shatty, now ADA, etc. cannot make anyone happy. Every single year we have to talk about irresponsible contracts that we're forced to buy out. It's ridiculous and I'm sick of it and I'm sure the one floating the bill is even more so.

The fact is JD absolutely failed in Columbus and wasn't fully responsible for St. Louis. He could never get his teams over the hump when he took over a full rebuild. Same goes for Gorton who appears to just have become a lackey of JD rather than a Sather mentee, which is clearly what Dolan wanted. Chris Drury is extremely bright and I have a lot of faith in him. The team has been mired in mediocrity, a lot of the moves we've made have no direct other than sideways. How can you justify signing Trouba and Panarin to massive contracts in their primes when you also want to justify taking more years to rebuild? There's no logic here. There's no direction here.

I would have been fine keeping both of them on for another year or so. But I also am absolutely fine with moving on from them and think all the "sky is falling" posts in here are a severe overreaction to two guys who aren't even on the ice and have never played a premier role in getting their teams to the promised land.

f*** yes, all of this

 

[TheTakedown]

It's clear the NHL used Dolan to hammer JD and Gorton for climbing up on their high horses and calling out the NHL and DoPS for their hypocrisy.

If Dolan truly wrote that statement, and fired JD and Gorton for disagreement, what will happen next is that Dolan will keep exposing the NHL and the DoPS. Instead we got the gong show last night with fights everywhere at an NHL record level. Thus, it is clear it was not Dolan who wrote the Statement.

JD and Gorton tried to do the right thing, but in the heat of the battle they forgot Dolan was lurking in the shadows, the NHL sprung it's crackpot assassin and the rest is history. That mistake cost them their jobs.

So to recap:

1. JD & Gorton got fired for taking on the NHL and embarrassing the league. Dolan was that hatchet man.

2. This was not a hockey decision, because Drury is essentially Gorton 2.0 and will keep doing what Gorton was doing.

What a freaking soap opera. Well done NHL.

I disagree. You're taking a lot of mental leaps to come to that conclusion... None of that makes sense

 

[cheech70]

What about Moving Zibanejad and then replacing with Eichel? It's semi-lateral but it's an upgrade in average age, and close to what you're expecting to pay Zibanejad anyways

I still don't understand this trading Mika talk with a NMC???

 

[Edge]

Trouba is the 7th highest paid defenseman in the league so I think he's more than a little overpaid. I will be very surprised if we don't end up buying him out at some point or give up a good pick to dump him off on someone before the end of his contract. The difference with Pionk isn't only in points. He's gone from a guy that Rangers fans mocked for having terrible analytics despite good point totals to a guy with both good analytics and point totals.

I think they would still mock him here because I don't think he gets the opportunities here that he gets in Winnipeg. I don't see a happy ending with him behind Fox and the problems that we're complaining about in this organization. I think if we reverse that trade, it's actually worse for us.

I don't really have a problem with Trouba and what he brought this year overall. I think it works for this team and I think his value is clearly demonstrated when we lose him.

For me it's a non-issue.

 

[Edge]

What about Moving Zibanejad and then replacing with Eichel? It's semi-lateral but it's an upgrade in average age, and close to what you're expecting to pay Zibanejad anyways

I think your cost is still going to be very high. Nothing's changed on that front with Eichel. So we can probably re-insert some of the names we talked about earlier.

 

[DialUp]

Who knew a small town pizza guy would be such a killer and savage his way into absolute power. He might name himself coach and send selfies to Keenan every game to show him how it's done.

Hope he gets something good back for Nils!

 

[TheTakedown]

I think Georgie's value at the time was nothing more than a mid to late rounder. Never had any value like some fans thought he had.

And that's fine... That's what he should have been traded for though... Geo makes $2.4M, and we got got $3M for buying out Hank... and get this -- with Hank's condition this year, we could have LTIR'd him, his contract would have expired this upcoming offseason, he still would have been able to be around the team, mentor Shesty, etc...

Instead, we kept this f***ing loser in Geo who not only sucked this year, but clearly had issues with is teammates as well (lets not pretend ADA is the only problem here -- it's clear that there are multiple locker room issues).

All for a net-gain of $600k in f***ing cap space.

I'm sorry, but when you put all of these things together, the handling of your star goalie who has dragged this team to the playoffs multiple times -- I believe that was the start of it. That's fireable in its own right, IMO... Everything else is icing on the cake

 

[TheTakedown]

I think Slats is going to be more involved behind the scenes as a liaison between Drury and Dolan.

I hope so. That should quell everyone's craziness about Dolan "running the team". Hint: he won';t be

 

[GoAwayPanarin]

Also, who wants to bet that we see the pack coaching staff get the promotion next year after the Quinn group is let go?

 

[Unusual Suspect]

Mentioned that earlier, actually. I'd be surprised if Knoblauch isn't on Drury's short list. I'd bet Martin and Allaire stay, of course.

 

[ArPanet]

Can we poach this guy?

Chris Macfarland Colorado AGM




Coaches and Staff

 

[Peltz]

It would be fitting for Gorton to go to Buffalo.

He'd know Drury basically has a mandate to go get Eichel and he'd bend us over.

Ugh... that would suck from every angle.

 

[Peltz]

See I disagree with this.

The problem with the "fell from the sky" narrative is that it's a no-win situation. If those guys succeed, well you got lucky and they were supposed to succeed. If they fail, well that's your fault and you're an idiot. So there's nothing to win there, only lose.

But let's take them out for a second and replace them with Zegras and Lundell. Are we still just lucky? We knew those were the guys before they did what they did in their D+1 seasons. The Rangers knew that in their D-1 seasons.

Yeah they traded for Fox, but they still had to trade him and they still got him at a damn good cost.

The Trouba thing we try to argue both ways. On the one hand we see how much we've missed him and his impact on the lineup when he's out. On the other hand we're talking about overpaying him instead of holding onto Pionk. So we hold onto Pionk, how in the world does that make us better? If we think we're easy to play against now, good luck swapping out Pionk for Trouba.

The Girardi contract predates Gorton. If we're going to include him in the blame for that as an assistant, than we also have to acknowledge his role in drafting Shesterkin, Buch, etc. before he was GM. We can't just selectively cut that out if we wanna include the contracts that pre-date him. It's both or neither.

I'm sorry but I think some of this is Post hoc rationalisation at this point.

This fanbase is irrational when it comes to the Trouba contract. It was a fair signing. Yes, he's highly paid, but the entire organization crumbled without him. Seriously.

He's an integral part of our defense and we needed to sign a proven entity that can throw some hits.

I'm completely fine with the Trouba contract. The Kreider contract is, I think, a fairer thing to criticize. And if that's the type of thing Dolan didn't like, I think I'm fine with that. But, for some reason, I doubt it.