i guess i got a little nostalgic with my beginning post ... LOL to clarify:
1) i will dispute with anyone that girardi was done. bad contract sure, but he still could play. im all for, and love, the way hockey is moving away from fighting and heavy hitting towards speed and skill but you still need the guys who can lock it down and sacrifice the body to block shots. the best defense may be to play offense, but NO team plays offense 100% of the time and if anything has showed in the last 2 years the rangers sorely miss girardis block everything style.
2) forgot about the tax part of tampa, but i wouldve paid yandle whatever he wanted. may he biased since yandle is my favorite player but god were we stupid to let him go. even if his contract “wouldnt have fit”, hes the type of player ont he back end you move other contracts cause they cant fit around his.
3) i say this was a panic move because there was no trade chatter from what i remember during the regular season. step put up his annual 55-point penalty killing two way season and everyone was optimistic about the rangers chances of making it to conference finals being in the atlantic bracket. but then, he struggled in the playoffs and everyone turned. people began shouting NMC and DECLINE over the 2 rounds of those playoffs and it appeared gorton heard them because he really didnt get all that great of a return. 7th overall pick was nice, and i like deAngleo as a player butwhen youre trading a guy who is still very valuable and you dont have to trade by any means, you want a sure thing. if lias turns out to be a 50 point two way center like a stepan lite and deangelo figures out hsi shit, this trade can look really good, but im not sure either of those happen right now.
4) error on my part, wasnt a mistake at all. contract had to be bought out when given the chance to free yourself from a deal like that for absolutely nothing. just miss richards. one of the smartest players we had, great leader, shouldve been named captain if he hadve stayed. wouldve been very helpful for us considering weve never been a team to have a TOP line compared to a team that has 3 solid lines. guess thats another point for another time tjough, we really do need some elite talent, its the way the league runs. that point aside, loved richards the player, but the deal had to go.
5) i feel like st louis couldve been had for 2-3 million and IF he wanted to play and IF he wouldve taken that deal, i wouldve done it in a heartbeat. same thing as richards, we havent found a way to replace his heart or leadership. he had a solid regular season 2015, just struggled in playoffs.
6) OMISSION: stralman. dont know how i forgot this. i dont need to go any further into this one because we all know how bad this was.
side note, and possible hot take, dan boyle wasnt actually that bad, in fact he was actually somewhat good. its too bad he was signed in place of stralman because it cast a shadow over him from the very beginning that was unfair.
8) dont think im enough to know about some of the other stuff, but from what i hear the organization wouldve been much better off going into a rebuild in the early 2000’s instesd of sather handing out massive deals to old guys.
9) mcilrath and jessiman are the obvious ones i was referencing, though i even typed their names but if i didnt i thought it would just be clear that fell into the obvious category LOL.
