JT Miller is an elite center by pretty much any metric. I want to re-sign Strome, but if Drury's plan is to maintain flexibility going forward, the best move imo is to trade some assets for JT this year -> go into the playoffs with him & Strome-> let Strome walk with Miller as his replacement at 2C n 2023 -> re-evaluate our needs and cap situation when Miller's contract is up after 2023.
I don't see what new information is going to crop up between now and then that would give you more flexibility.
You are buying 12 extra months of 2C from a guy you would be foolish to extend at the cost of your ability to go get a better, younger target. Signing another 30 year old to a long term contract where you are locked in is classic Dark Ages Rangers. This rebuild was supposed to be about getting better, younger, more flexible, and developing a decade long contender. If nothing else, swap futures for futures so you re-set your clock on their declining value (which I don't even really buy to begin with, as far as Lundkvist at least).
I'd rather have Strome with a movable contract and assets to spend, than Miller with a contract decision in 12 months and no assets. You have the same cap space either way. Maybe less with the latter option because Miller is going to command more than Strome, probably.
Trading out Nils, Krav, and a first leaves you with no ammo to go get a center later. Because you need Othmann, Jones, and Robertson to fill your future holes. And those are your last pieces of any substance.
It would make more practical sense with our contract situation given that Kakko/Lafreniere/Miller all need new ones over the next 1-2 years. I know you want this pie in the sky 24 year old, cost controlled top 6 C, but those dont get traded unless its for elite talent, not Nils/Krav/1st Rd pick.
I am fine with many options, but renting a 29 year old isn't one of them. The problem here is that I keep getting told the only viable option is to rent at expensive asset cost at the deadline or terrible things will happen.
(1) We'll lose the locker room for not going all in. (2) Our top players will get too old to compete by time a younger core is ready. (3) Our assets will all lose all their value. (4) We can't find good, young players anyway, so why try?
I don't buy any of those arguments. I completely reject that it's the only viable option. (1) I don't think the locker room is lost if you stand pat or just add bottom sixers. (2) I don't think our core ages out by time Kakko and Laf are ready - Zibanejad just got 8 years so clearly they believe in him, Fox and Shesterkin are going nowhere, Panarin will be a top line player for forever as well. Don't really care if Kreider and Trouba decline that much, they are replaceable from within with guys like Othmann and Schneider. (3) I think some on this board are actually way lower on a player like Nils than the rest of the league, and I think there are two posters in particular who just don't like him and are pushing the narrative that we have to move him before he's exposed. (4) That's nonsense because somehow other teams who win Cups have all managed to do it.
Setting aside what the Rangers
WILL do (because I have very little faith in them doing the right thing, so by all accounts they very well may trade a ridiculous ransom for JT Miller), but as to what they
SHOULD do, I feel like it shouldn't be this hard to come to an agreement on a path that both allows them to compete this year and also preserves their top assets and allows them to go hunting for a young center or two.
We (tentatively) agree that between Nils, Krav and a first you have the backbone for a tremendous package of value. If it was me I wouldn't trade those guys at all, I'd be trading Kreider and Trouba and doubling down on the future.
People keep asking me "Well then who should we go after?"
Why doesn't someone else suggest an option that's not an aging player with little or no term? Am I the only one capable of coming up with compromise options?
