Speculation: Roster Building thread: Part XIX (Thanks, Sam)

[NYR Viper]

Soucy is playing.

That's the gripe. And it's a legit one.

That is pretty poor. The team is out of the playoff picture and you have a veteran d-man who has been riding around waiting for an opportunity, probably playing for another contract and his NHL future, and they play Soucy?

 

[NYRFAN218]

I think it's pretty clear this is running deeper than the players and coach at this point. You can even fire the GM and really clean house but there's 1 person you can't fire and it's clear where the policies and hard stance guidelines that have everyone on edge come from. Vince touched on it again in his end of season article but I think the same thing that plagued the Knicks prior to Leon Rose are starting to plague the Rangers.

 

[SA16]

LOL the teams 8th defenseman is now calling out everyone. Was he promised playing time that never came? Is he pissed that Robertson was called up to get some games? I'm actually legitimately curious to know what his gripe is.

It's that he's old and doesn't realize he's not as good as he once was. Nobody in the league thinks he's good. That's why he's got 3 straight deals with an AAV around 800k. He was a scratch 52 times in the regular season between CAR/TB in 22-23 and 23-24 (not sure how many were due to injury) and a healthy scratch in 19/20 playoff games those years.

If he's so valuable how come he didn't play then and how come none of those teams (or Colorado) had any interest in keeping him? If Colorado didn't include him in the trade he wouldn't have played there either when players were healthy (Colorado has had a lot of injuries since then but that's beside the point if the Rangers had 3 dmen out he'd have played more games too)

If he hated it so much why not mutually terminate the deal and sign with someone else? It wouldn't have cost him any money. He's on a minimum deal anyway. He'd be ineligible for the playoffs signing after the deadline but he's a permanent playoff healthy scratch anyway so what's the difference?

 

[effen]

LOL the teams 8th defenseman is now calling out everyone. Was he promised playing time that never came? Is he pissed that Robertson was called up to get some games? I'm actually legitimately curious to know what his gripe is.

- Went from regular playing time on a cup contender to... this.
- Played fine his first 3 games then got sent to the shadow realm to watch Carson Soucy vomit all over himself.
- Is 33 and possibly doesn't get another NHL deal after this. Could see the Rangers ending his career not giving him a chance to showcase for his next team.

He's a professional athlete, he should be pissed.

 

[Mike in Houston]

The organization is a complete shitshow. And it all starts in the front office.

 

[Fitzy]

It doesn't particularly matter from our perspective as fans who deserves to complain and who doesn't.

When it becomes a pattern, which is has, it's bad news.

Stories this season

-No one wants to help out the Rangers with any trades because some people are pissed at the Goodrow/Trouba deals
- Players feel disrespected
- Lindgren was happy to be let out of here
- Young developing guys getting scratched/less minutes

This franchise has gone from optimistic to Vince's postseason article in like 9 months. No rational person behind the veil of ignorance would choose to be a fan of this team as of right now. We're just stuck in path dependency.

 

[effen]

Makes sense to be owner driven. But then what changed for Dolan between July and November when the memo came out when the team was 12-6-1? I remember reading/hearing the memo wasn't supposed to leak to the public. Maybe that was all Drury just to test the waters to see what he could get in a trade, then it gets leaked, and Dolan didn't know until it leaked?

Maybe Drury thought if he came to Dolan with a decent offer for Kreider on the table, he could convince him to allow it?

AFAIK there was no memo, it was to an internal league slack channel or whatever. It's 2025, this is probably at least one of the avenues NHL GMs have worked out how to announce to each other guys who are available.

I'd imagine someone lost their job over leaking that.

 

[effen]

Why do they have to win the lotto?

This team is going to be worse next season then this season.

The draft next year is deeper than this year.

The pick being top 10 is not far fetched.

Because the post I responded to talked about Gavin McKenna, the presumptive 1st overall in 2026.

The pick could be top 10, but I'd really, really doubt it. 20-30% chance.

 

[NYRFAN218]

AFAIK there was no memo, it was to an internal league slack channel or whatever. It's 2025, this is probably at least one of the avenues NHL GMs have worked out how to announce to each other guys who are available.

I'd imagine someone lost their job over leaking that.

I don't think the Rangers "leaked" it per se. Drury sent the message to the other GM's in that chat which was very uncharacteristic apparently because GM's tend to talk in codes and ambiguity to avoid specific names surfacing to the media. And then it leaked from another source which is how it got out there (which may have been what Drury intended by naming them though it ultimately backfired.) It could be as simple as Utah's GM mentioning to someone else in his front office "wow would you believe Dru is making Kreider and Trouba available??" and that person is a connect of Friedman who ran and told him immediately.

 

[zlev]

i gotta think de Haan is annoyed with the dipshit coaching staff

and he's right. if they would've just put him with Fox instead of trading for Soucy i bet we'd still be alive right now.

 

[SA16]

Why do they have to win the lotto?

This team is going to be worse next season then this season.

The draft next year is deeper than this year.

The pick being top 10 is not far fetched.

Unless they try to blow it up (which is unlikely given they won't have next years pick) I find it pretty unlikely they will be worse next year than this year.

1. Do you think it likely the PP is going to be 17% again?
2. Do you think it likely they will have zero comebacks from down 2?
3. Do you think it likely that they won't tie the game with the goalie pulled a single time?
4. Do you think it likely that Igor will have the worst GSAA when the game is tied again?

Two and Three are particularly notable because that is a lot of points here and there left off the table. And before you tell me it is likely because they aren't good you should know there is not much of a correlation between how good the team is and how many times you tie the game late. For reference this year, 7 teams have scored a 5v6 goal while trailing between 4-6 games. Seattle, Vancouver, San Jose, Anaheim, Toronto, Winnipeg. That is a combination that includes the worst team in the league and the best team in the league. That's like an extra 6 points in the standings right there (since sometimes you also win in OT)

This season was a combination of poor play and some seriously terrible fortune but people hate when you use the words luck/randomness and such around here so that'll be ignored.

 

[ReddestRum]

I'm starting to really hate this organization.

 

[TGWL]

I'm starting to really hate this organization.

I can't wait for the movie.

 

[Overcast]

For someone who "runs as tight of a ship" as Drury, a whole lot of shit sure has seeped through the cracks during his time in Hartford and now in NY. I'm starting to think Drury might actually be on a whole other level of prickdom that really just isn't conducive to this team's wellbeing.

 

[TGWL]

Drury gonna' be handing out NDA's instead of NMC going forward.

 

[Harbour Dog]

de Haan's just became the only exit interview that I want to hear.

 

[effen]

i gotta think de Haan is annoyed with the dipshit coaching staff

and he's right. if they would've just put him with Fox instead of trading for Soucy i bet we'd still be alive right now.

He probably got told he'd see games before the end of the year and to be patient. Then some kid got called up from the AHL he's never heard of to take the spot and he feels like he got lied to.

Hence the "wasting of time" comment. They coulda just waived him. Or sent him on vacation. I'd be mad too.

 

[I Eat Crow]

What a f***ing gongshow.

De Haan is not wrong, but still.

Break up day gon' be lit.

 

[SA16]

i gotta think de Haan is annoyed with the dipshit coaching staff

and he's right. if they would've just put him with Fox instead of trading for Soucy i bet we'd still be alive right now.

If he is so good that if we just "put him with Fox...we'd still be alive" then Colorado must have some terrible management for dealing him as one of four pieces in a trade for Ryan Lindgren.

 

[NYRKING30]

de Haan's just became the only exit interview that I want to hear.

Most anticipated since Dan Boyle

 

[zlev]

If he is so good that if we just "put him with Fox...we'd still be alive" then Colorado must have some terrible management for dealing him as one of four pieces in a trade for Ryan Lindgren.

hockey GM makes dumb trade, news at 11

 

[LionsHeart]

De Haan isn’t saying anything the rest of us haven’t said.

 

[The Crypto Guy]

De Haan isn’t saying anything the rest of us haven’t said.

He's probably a poster here.

 

[SA16]

hockey GM makes dumb trade, news at 11

Then how come Carolina and Tampa also got rid of him and healthy scratched him for 19/20 playoff games?

No organizations think this guy is a good player. But I’m sure the fans who saw him play 3 games and him having meaningless ok numbers in that sample are right. He’s secretly a top four dman yet none of the league know it.

 

[Captain Monglobster]

The offseason is going to be way more entertaining than the regular season.