Why not? I would deal away a first if I felt that this would make our team a true contender.
You can't go half way. When you rebuild, you go balls-to-the-walls in rebuilding and when you go for the Cup, you go balls-to-the-walls in trying to win. This is why we never win, we do everything half way.
The addition of a player like Iginla would make us a real contender. If I got a called and was offered him for #1, Noreau and Pyatt, I would pull the trigger.
Sure it will harm our farm, but how much will you care about the farm when you are marching past my office in June?
i think you got it all backwards.
the reason why we have never won and contended regularly is because we always did it half way.
we always tried to buy a team via trades and free agency and we never stayed the course and built from within.
the current team we have is the best example of staying the course and building from within as i have ever seen in my 43 years following this team.
the biggest chunk of our payroll goes to three players that where the bi-product of trades and free agency.
i would rather have the higher pick myself and the problem historicaly with the rangers in the draft is two fold, first, they never sucked enough to get a good pick and second, they consistently made the wrong picks out of what they were able to choose from.
the last several years they have made progress in that area and it shows on our roster and farm system and i not only want a contender i want one for many years to come.
i don't want another one and done like 94 and we already have 3 big pieces in richards, gabby and nash with a heck of a supporting cast and let's not forget one of the best goaltenders in the league.
plus the cap is going down next year and we should be finding ways to improve and stay the course and lowering the payroll and the only way to do that is buy having solid young players on entry level contracts.