Yeah it's the same situation as Florida with Spencer Knight. Sure, Knight is a top prospect and is hard to give up, but you literally have Bobrovsky and he's going nowhere anytime soon. It's a classic example of trading from a position of strength, why refuse to trade a potential starting goalie or top-4 D when you have those roles filled for the next half decade?
This is especially true because it's not like Schneider is NY's only RD prospect, either. Lundkvist is another great RD prospect and Rangers fans keep hyping up other guys like Jones.
Jones is an LD. The issue isn't even position per se. It's variety. Fox, Lundkvist, and Jones are all small-ish PMD guys. K'Andre Miller has size, but he isn't very physical. Lindgren is physical, but doesn't have much size. Which leaves Trouba as the ONLY Rangers defenseman with size
and snarl. Schneider provides something that the other guys don't. He's a dead cert to be manning a spot on the right side of that blueline for years.
That said--it's perfectly fair for Vancouver to demand him. I just don't see a deal to be made if he's the sticking point.
I also don't see how the Rangers are logical trade partners for Miller, either. He's a #1 center. We already have a better one. He's a #1 LW. We already have two amazing LW in our top six. He plays the PK and the PP? That's not a problem area for the Rangers, who have top-of-the-league PP and PK units. Yeah, he could probably pay RW (when was the last time he did so?). But why spend 1c assets to fill a top 6 RW hole? Surely a team is out there where Miller would be an upgrade at 1C. That's who you should deal with.
And I'm still not convinced that the Rangers are doing anything beyond their due diligence on Miller. It just doesn't make any logical sense. Trying to convince the rest of the buyers that the Rangers are about to crack open their prospect cupboard in order to get them to panic and raise their offers for Miller? THAT makes a lot more sense.