Those are all educated guesses from Friedman, he has no NYR sources.
Not bad guesses, but he always has the Rangers doing "stuff" for interest reasons.
I don't think its so much guesses as what other people in the business are telling him. Its interesting in itself. Another thing, I am not so sure that Gorton wants to shoot down that talk. Is it good or bad for us? Toronto has the same 'they could go crazy'-reputation, not so sure that its bad for them.
Look, there is no way that Gorton will trade top prospects and picks for someone like Trouba, offer-sheet anyone or stuff like that. Why? Its not good for us, without any doubt.
I sometimes think Gorton has some issues. I am not at all comfortable that we have developed especially Lias but also Chytil perfectly. We were in a darn hurry with both. Does anyone think that Kakko will play in rookie camp, the WJSS, at Traverse and in preseason with TPS before our camp starts? No, I think we learned a lesson with Lias, it wasn't good at all for him. I don't think he will go to the WJSS or TPS pre-season. It was a mistake we made because we weren't at all used to handling kids. For a long time, Gorton seemed to plan to have LHS play as RDs, that is just total value destruction and very far from optimal in today's game. And we paid for it with Smith for example. The HFD organization has been a total misery. Our pro-scouting has been a total misery. Our contract management has de facto been a total misery, you would like so many do-overs there. And so forth and so forth and so forth.
But the topic we are discussing here -- that is Gorton's home ground. I don't for a second fear that Gort's will sign a James Neal to a 35m 7 year deal or whatever. That we will trade a boatload of assets for Malkin. Give up 5 firsts for Point. He will make moves that logically will bring the organization in the right direction. Its not the thinking behind in principle dealing Miller for Namestnikov that was flawed, it was the fact that Namestnikov was tremendously overrated and has little to negative value that was the problem.
Artemi Panarin is another issue. First of all, even if we went all in for him, I am not sold that he would sign here. Second of all, if he did I think it can play out in more or less three different scenarios.
1. Panarin comes here and is an excellent fit with our current core and he lifts the kids we have incoming into a territory giving us a very dynamic offensive environment. His low mileage and non physical style lets him play at the top of his game for another 7 years. In this case he was a top signing, no doubt.
2. He comes in and is good for a few years, boosts the stats of our kids hence making them more expensive to resign, and then regress when we need him the most and also take up a very significant part of our cap limiting our options for several years. In this case, he wasn't a horrible signing, but he wouldn't be the best option either.
3. He comes here and delivers like say Gabby did and then turns into a burden not only on our cap but also on the ice, like so many UFAs before. I don't think this actually would happen, but 7 years is a long time, a lot can happen.
So while I think its unlikely that we will sign Panarin, I wouldn't rule it out. And I do think Gorton will explore the situation, how badly does Panarin want to come here? If he sees Florida as an equal opportunity, I don't think we will be in the running at all.
To be honest, I think the talk about wanting to go to one of the biggest markets is total nonsense, I think he just don't like playing for Tortorella but that is just my guess.
