General agreement overall, esp as to sentiment/conclusions, but a few points I disagree in part/to an extent.
"Even if Tampa slaps the shit out of the Rangers" -- I saw the if. TB is not gonna slap us. The Gs cancel each other out and 2 very good teams, could go either way. But they are not gonna "slap[] the shit out of" us.
"from what Rangers fans told me, Barron wasn’t being used properly in New York so no real loss there" -- correct NYR fans said that, correct he was not getting ice time b'c FO stupidly 'self rented' Strome, and setting aside any draft pick(s) in return, that + idiocy of keeping McKegg = reduced ice time for Chytil, Kravtsov and Barron. Hence I disagree w/"no real loss there" although I get you are talking about immediate actual vs potential. Barring injury, Barron will be good at min. Very good remains to be seen and star is waaaaaay too early to even think about going there, but he was an unnecessary loss at a thin position. I believe WPG + NYR could have agreed upon alternate compensation instead of Barron. So not end of the world, but unnecessary, and while Drury does deserve kudos along w/his counterpart, this misstep diminishes his performance here.
Copp is worth well over the 2nd surrendered, I just believe 1sts + 2nds, while not to be overvalued, should not be underrated either.
The thing here is realize this expense is all for a 1 shot. If NY wins the Cup, it was fully worth it. If not, the value of the experience needs to be weighed vs the cost of who can they keep/return going forward in the short term?
THIS YEAR and ONLY this season, NY is having its cake and eating it too, b'c Zib + Fox extensions do not kick in until next yr.
Figure Geo + Nemeth + Hajek + Strome are gone, w/recovery 1.5 Hank buyout = 11ish m which covers $$ for those 2.
Almost nobody can be traded due to nmcs, and in case of Goodrow, out of need, must be kept.
We are likely gonna have to deal Lindgren's 3 per x 2 just to scrape up cap $.
We need to extend certain rfas.
Then unfortunately Motte is probably not keepable, and Vatrano is a higher priority.
If we can't convince Trouba to waive for FL, and we will have to eat 2m there so he is a bargain at 6, where is the $$ to sign Copp?
And if Trouba goes, I still give him greater likelihood to return, but not as much of a slam dunk. Maybe he Copp follows his budd to the Panthers?
So no ? this was a smart deal, but there will likely be consequences after.
