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New York Rangers postmortem: Time is running out

By Dave Stevenson

May 9, 2017; New York, NY, USA; New York Rangers head coach Alain Vigneault looks on against the Ottawa Senators during the third period in game six of the second round of the 2017 Stanley Cup Playoffs at Madison Square Garden. Mandatory Credit: Adam Hunger-USA TODAY Sports
May 9, 2017; New York, NY, USA; New York Rangers head coach Alain Vigneault looks on against the Ottawa Senators during the third period in game six of the second round of the 2017 Stanley Cup Playoffs at Madison Square Garden. Mandatory Credit: Adam Hunger-USA TODAY Sports /
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The New York Rangers face a very critical offseason after being eliminated by the Ottawa Senators. 

Going into this season, the New York Rangers were seen as a fringe playoff team. However, a lightning quick start with a 16-7-1 record through the end of November raised their expectations. With a high octane offense and a good, but not great, defense the Rangers were looking like a Stanley Cup contender. However, their offense eventually went cold and their defense got exposed over the course of the season.

Still, since they finished as the first wild card team, they had a chance of making some noise in the postseason. After all, thanks to the NHL’s playoff format, the Rangers could completely avoid the Metropolitan Division until the Eastern Conference Finals. A six game series win over the Montreal Canadiens made their Stanley Cup dreams seem possible. However, after their loss to the Ottawa Senators in Game 6, the Rangers must once again go home early.

Where do they go from here?

It’s time for the blue shirts to make some critical decisions. They must decide their direction moving forward. Do the Rangers push in all of their chips with franchise goaltender Henrik Lundqvist finally starting to show his age? Or do they continue to steadily rebuild and retool while contending? The second likely isn’t an option. Lundqvist bailed them out for so many years and he doesn’t deserve to go through any kind of rebuild at this stage in his career. So really, the Rangers have one option – load up like the Washington Capitals did during the 2015 offseason.

New York won’t have cap space to play with as things are. Before factoring in potential raises to restricted free agents Mika Zibanejad, Jesper Fast, Oscar Lindberg, Adam Clendening, Matt Puempel and Brandon Pirri, assuming the current $73 million salary cap ceiling remains stagnant, they have $9.2 million of cap space. However, there are several moves the New York Rangers could do to create cap space.

The obvious option is to find a way to get rid of at least one of Dan Girardi and Marc Staal. Getting rid of both would be ideal, but with their combined annual cap hit of $11.2 million and a combined nine years left on their deals, that’s not going to be easy. Buying out Girardi is the simplest option and it would create $2.889 million of cap space for the 2017-18 season. It would cause some long-term issues, but right now, the Rangers probably don’t care. Trading Staal would be complicated because of his no movement clause, but unlike Girardi, he’s still serviceable.

Why create cap space? So the New York Rangers can sign the one free agent who could turn them into a Stanley Cup contender – Kevin Shattenkirk. The defenseman’s future on Broadway is assumed around the league, which is why the St. Louis Blues couldn’t get more for him. He’s a top notch puck mover and is stellar on the power play. In other words, Shattenkirk is precisely what the Rangers need.

Rebuilding the blue line will be very important for them this offseason and signing the best free agent defenseman would be a heck of a way to do it. Combine that with re-signing Brendan Smith and New York’s core of defensemen all of a sudden looks a lot better. This would likely involve trading a forward (more than likely Rick Nash), but it would be worth it for them.

The Rangers also have to take a good long look at Alain Vigneault. He’s a solid coach, but he got completely outcoached and outsmarted by Guy Boucher in the second round. Vigneault isn’t the best tactician and the Rangers are a team who need every advantage they can get. Depending on who’s available this offseason, he could be gone despite signing an extension earlier this season.

Hope for the future

Their blue line needs reinforcements, but they have a very strong core. Ryan McDonagh is one of the most underrated defensemen in the NHL and rookie Brady Skjei turned out to be a gem. Nick Holden and Kevin Klein are nothing to write home about, but both have value as trade assets and would be perfectly fine in a third pairing role.

The Rangers have impressive forwards and most of them are relatively inexpensive. Derek Stepan is one of the better two-way centers in the NHL. Should the New York Rangers decide to move on from Nash, he has a ton of value. J.T. Miller and Kevin Hayes are growing young forwards. Zibanejad has been a perfect replacement for the man he was traded for (Derick Brassard). Mats Zuccarello has at least a season left of being a borderline elite wing. Chris Kreider had a breakout year and has become much more consistent.

New York still has a very good goaltender in Lundqvist. He’s aging and last year might be his last as a very good goalie. But his contract aside, most teams would kill to have a goalie like Lundqvist. Heck, most teams have never had a goalie as consistently great as him.

Next: Each NHL Team's Biggest 'What If' Moment

The Rangers have a critical offseason ahead. They’re sort of in a weird situation as a team with young talent who needs to win now, but a lot of their core pieces are already in place. Now the Rangers have to add the right pieces.

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