NYRFANMANI
Department of Rempe Safety Management
If the draft was rigged, it seems like the winner is often a struggling franchise/market. I think our chances are drastically hurt if it were rigged in any way.
Absolutely. It's all about stakes and money. Rangers are the lowest risk biggest cash-cow in the league ainec for decades. We won't get gifts unless we make them ourselves. The ref and media bias ... I mean really. Refs are bad in general, but I can see them being worse against us. Maybe it's perception, maybe it actually is so, we'll never know for sure I guess. NBC hates us for whatever reason (actually money), their broadcasting of Rangers games are outright unprofessional.
We got a big piece of the pie, the pie ain't getting bigger overall fast enough, so teams/the league will try to take some of our piece. (By any means neccessary)
The Pens f. ex., we're on the brink of extinction, but the stakes (Mario and Co.) and the history of the team, left the capital no choice. (I guess the Lemieux time left Pittsburgh with a potentially huge market gone asleep.) Crosby being the next one and automatically being a cash-cow himself. Capitalist gifts. That's all. Problem being, hockey is rather inconsequential, war ain't.