TLDR:
* No indication the Rangers will buy out Trouba
* Sources are “divided” on whether the Rangers will Trade* Trouba.
* Chris Tanev is “extremely well regarded” by Rangers
* Brooks kept using the word “menacing” and physical about defense.
* Multiple “indications” that Kakko is being shopped to move up in the draft along with Rangers pick 30.
Personally I don’t like Brooks but I know some people do and feel he has a decent pulse on the team. Do with this as you will.
Should clarify there's no indication Rangers would buy out Trouba, but sources are divided if they would trade him after 15 team no trade list is submitted 7/1.
Idk how Brooksie (or the front office, if he’s acting as a mouthpiece here) could watch us fail to break through Florida’s neutral zone structure for 6 games and come away with the takeaway that we need to get more “menacing” on defense. We need puck-movers who are reliable in their own end.
There’s a lot of people who feel like the answer to that series is to get more physical. Which I don’t completely disagree with, you need guys who aren’t going to be moved off the puck entering the zone, but I think our biggest need is puck moving defensemen on the back end
Jones would’ve been crushed in a bad way by Florida forecheckers. Lindgren and trouba stunk, however they can take abuse and withstand playoff physicality for the most part.
See but the thing with Jones is that he doesn’t put himself in position to get leveled by a big hit and leverages his body very well. He’s a smaller guy but he really doesn’t get pushed around much. He’s literally just a lite version of Fox and I mean that as a compliment
Floridas biggest weakness with their 2-1-2 aggressive forechecking system is puck moving defenseman.
For all Jones faults and issues, his one biggest strength matched up with Floridas biggest weakness.
It should have been a perfect match up for us.
No, Jones was actually a lone bright spot versus the Panthers in the regular season. The one game he got to play versus them and he was cooking their forecheck and defense in transition.
I have been shocked how Lav has skated under the radar and if you mention coaching you get bashed .. the team was solid to start than halfway thru canes series and than every game with Florida was line jumbling every game . Taking players in and out except for the defense why was jones not put in blows my mind.. it also blows my mind that trouba was hurt at the deadline he should not have seen the ice than til the playoffs if he wasn’t healed and even in playoffs he should have sat a game or two when showing he wasn’t up to par..
Yeah, the first goal in game 6 that basically ended the season is because Trouba went for a menacing hit on absolutely nobody and destroyed the entirety of defensive zone coverage
That play was… just awful. That and Mika’s incomprehensible throw away pass cross ice at the blue line were the “should have learned to not do that when you played Pee Wee hockey” moments in the series.
That's his and the Post's commentators answer to everything. A big body that hits. Nevermind that we were that during the Torts years and still had nothing to show for it but exhausted players in the ECF.
Agree. It feels like a very old school “grit” type perspective. It’s not totally off base - need some physical presence to win puck battles too - but it was an interesting and repetitive choice of words.
I don't really understand moving up in the draft. We have very few picks available, its a relatively weak class, and we are in contention now. How would moving up make sense?
My guess is that there's someone on the board that the Rangers really like (which terrifies me) or, as speculated earlier in the year, Dolan wants to make a big splash at the Sphere since he owns it (which terrifies me even more).
If you replace kakko with one of the young wingers you get 1.5+ in cap back that can be redirected to top 6 rw which is a far bigger need.
Moving up isn’t totally wild. While this team is def all in now, this team also has jack shit in the prospect and draft pick dept.
there are no good prospects outside of wing. Wing is basically the only area the rangers can get internal upgrades next year.
Honestly our prospect pool after Perrault is bleak. Othmann is still developing and hasn’t generated the same interest from other teams, and we saw that at the trade deadline when he was shopped (allegedly) and passed on by multiple GMs. Having another top prospect if only for the possibility of a trade at the deadline could be invaluable.
Alternatively Drury could have his sights set on a particular player that he’d like in our system and feels they wouldn’t fall to 30.
Brooksie is kind of an idiot about hockey, but he definitely has the best sources in the front office, so I pretty much trust him on what the team is thinking
I don’t think Drury is more or less tight lipped than any other GM in the league. What org do you see out there and say “yup, saw it coming a mile away they’re always leaky”. Not to mention beat writers talk with agents as well as front office - so a leak could come from an agent easily.
Hockey insiders who have the actual pulse of the league often say they got nothing on the rangers because no one talks. Brooks is awful, and has just made stuff up for years.
Brooks doesn't have a decent pulse on the team. If he's being told this it's because Drury rang his line. This isn't the old front office where there were leaks everywhere.
I really don’t understand trading Kakko to move up in a relatively weak draft class. We don’t have a surplus’s of RW. His contract is totally fair given his play.
He only has two years of control. If they do this they feel confident in Otthman being the third line right wing. Doing so also gives us more cap this season.
Lastly if you don't feel like Kakko will end up being the guy. If the Rangers are able to hit with this pick. Let's say the move into 10-12 range.
That pick plus Otthman and Perrault hitting, plus Lafriene developing. Plus I got and Fox still being relatively young. The rangers would be competitive for another 8 years.
That's the thing Drury is trying to set up so that after Panarin is gone, and Zibs/Trochek are in decline we will still be a consistent playoff team.
Otthman and Perrault and unknown draft pick in a "weak" class being 3/4ths of our right side all playing 82 games + competing the cup next year is doing some serious heavy lifting here.
If the Kings can easily move that insane Dubois contract then we can move Trouba. If we don’t it’s because we believe the player is worth it. I’d move him and use the money elsewhere.
Yeah that was surprising, but you still need to field a cap compliant team. My guess is they're going to be bargain hunting in FA to accelerate that draft capital(s).
Edit: Holy shit, I didn't realize that was a 7 year deal.
I think they are just trying to find players to help Ovi score goals. I think they just want him to beat Gretzky’s goal record so they can say they have the top guy.
PLDs contract isn’t great, but if guys don’t want to play there and you’re trying to get guys to pass Ovi the puck that’s what you got to do.
I can.
While he's proven himself to be an entitled space cadet, he's still young and talented which WSH is short on. They probably don't think McMichael or Lapierre are quite ready to be 1C just yet so it's probably a worthwhile gamble in their eyes. Plus, they desperately need to find a proper triggerman to push Ovie to the scoring record before the rebuild begins in earnest and Kuemper stunk for them, getting benched for Lindgren so it's just a trade for each other's albatrosses.
Makes perfect sense. He can dish the puck when he feels like it and all they want is to get Ovi the record in the next year or two. PLD either acquits himself and is trade deadline bait (with retention) in four to five years from now, or he’s just as useless as Kuemper was for them and they’re right back where they started.
Kings took a worse contract in the short term for Dubois though. Kuemper is overpaid by about 4 million at this point in his career. Dubois assuming he can get back to his 60 point play is overpaid by 2 million
Edit: yes 60 point centers easily get 6-7 million
PLD has upside and youth and Trouba doesn’t. Washington gets to offload Kuemper and buy a lotto ticket while the upcoming run is mostly meaningless - they’re not a competitive team in the next five years
Couldn;t disagree more about moving on from Kakko. The guy is still young, plays a solid defensive game, and is cheap. I know the points haven't come, but look how Laf turned it around in a summer. I'd love for him to get another chance, boost his value, and maybe become a deadline trade piece.
Plus, moving on from him to move up in the draft? The window is now. Why?
I’m okay with keeping Kakko too as long as he gets paid for the player he is (a solid bottom 6 possession player), and not the player he was supposed to be as a #2 overall.
The points have come too. 40 just a season ago in mediocre 3rd line ice time with no power play. Of course the points only went down this season with 20 games lost and a drop of 2+ min in avg TOI
Maybe just like Kakko's career year last year, maybe this year was Laf's outlier and he will disappoint moving forward. I dont hope for it by any means, but its NYR, so i wouldnt be surprised either.
“I don’t think the Rangers have the stomach turning over the captaincy again after only two years.”
Larry you said like 2 days ago they are being ruthless
It feels like Larry is doing his FO source a favor with his rhetoric.
It could have easily been “Drury bailed out by friend and should count his blessings” instead it’s “championship mentality” - both are true yet one narrative was pushed.
It could have easily been “rangers are between a rock and a hard place with Trouba and are stuck with him” instead it was “need the physically menacing presence” - again both are true (sort of) but one narrative was pushed.
Trading Kakko and a pick to move up to select a player who will likely top out as a good middle 6 winger on a reasonable contract would just be so Rangers.
There's nothing less surprising than the Rangers watching Trouba get eaten alive in his own end against Florida and thinking the issue is they need more players like him. This organization is so bad at evaluating defensemen and has been for decades.
There were times this year where Trouba looked pretty good for decent stretches of time. And then there were games where he looked like he didn’t even belong in the NHL anymore. It’s hard to know which guy is going to show up next season. He isn’t worth $8,000,000 a year, but if he can at least play solid 3rd pair minutes without costing us games, I’d rather just deal with him for two more years.
And really, it’s probably just one more year. He can easily be traded after this coming season as a veteran with playoff experience on an expiring contract. The Rangers retain 50% for the rest of that season and he’s off the books in the summer just in time for free agency.
We don’t want to tie up cap space with buyout money when we’re in the Cup window. I want as much financial flexibility as possible to make big moves. We’re not going to get lucky like we did with Goodrow to SJ again.
Yeah, realistically between extensions for Igor and Laf next summer Trouba will only be on the team one more season max anyway. I could see SJ/CHI/UTAH or someone of that ilk trading for him to transition a rebuilding team to a playoff contender this offseason, but if not as long as the Rangers understand he’s not a shutdown defenseman and can only take 3rd pairing minutes they can make it work.
Our window is the next two years, and if we can have a more reliable guy on the third pair who won't be solely responsible for like a goal a game AND $8 mill in cap space, you trade him. I think we have to.
Agreed. The gymnastics to move around Trouba and replace him is just shuffling around deck chairs while damaging our future, for not much gain today. I’m anti-Trouba but it doesn’t make sense right now.
Chris Tanev would be an interesting guy to sign. An awesome defensive player, highly regarded in the league, but he'll turn 35 later this year and he's racked up a lot of miles playing a punishing, shot blocking style, so I wouldn't want a long commitment to him.
Tanev’s agent is definitely going to push for a four year contract, and likely end up with a three year. This fan base doesn’t want to resign a 26 year old Lindgren for more than a year tops. If Drury gives term and AAV both this sub will have more drama than a NJ based reality show.
Oh boy. Why the fuck would we trade Kakko to ‘move up’ in a very weak draft class? Kakko, at his cap hit, is a decent asset. He’s one of our few forwards that don’t avoid going in the corners like it’s the plague. If they want to trade him, they can keep that low first and bundle it together with him to get a player who’ll make a more immediate impact. Trading him to get a higher pick is just dumb- our cup window is now.
Trading Kakko to move up? What player would they really be looking to target to get .. like honestly how this team drafts they will move up from the 30 spot and take someone projected to go in the second round
Trouba takes up way too much of the cap for what he brings. He also just completely melts in big games. The Florida series isn’t an outlier. He was awful in the ECF against Tampa.
I also really hope they move on from Lindgren. I like how hard he works and plays, but they need to get better at that position, and I feel like he’s going to turn into another Dan Girardi.
The kept Hank at a higher cap hit for the last two years of his contract while in a stated rebuild. There was a remarkable drop off in Hanks performance as well during that time coupled with a rebuilding team and defense.
There’s a pattern of misguided loyalty fucking with sheer ruthless business sense.
Henrik had a full NMC that he refused to waive. If I remember correctly they asked and he said no. Can't blame the team for keeping him and if they had treated him like shit to get him to waive, the fanbase would have killed them for that instead.
The lesson here is that teams need to ignore the fan base and concentrate on building a winner. Yeah, they'll alienate some fans along the way, but a winning club will bring almost all of them back every time.
"Remarkable drop off in play" was going from best of this generation to still slightly above average NHL goaltender, also this happened while he HAD A HEART DEFECT.
We as a fan base should never say a negative thing about Henrik.
I don't think so, over the course of his tenure and by default contracts, he out performed everyone's expectations knowing what we know now and before we knew his health.
The front office gave him his last contract, he signed it. He had no obligation to waive his ntc or anything. He was bought out and while it was sad, most fans accepted it and were ok.
We talk about ruthless organizations and GMs and such, but remember why all players ask for trade protection? Because the flyers shipped Richards and Carter right after they signed and went to the final.
One team changed the whole entire economy of player contracts, and now every team has to make a conscious decision on signing a player and what that means for the future.
Well then the rangers aren't serious about winning.
He struggles at getting the puck out of the defensive zone. He struggles at puck possession. He's sloppy and makes every defensive linemate worse because of his shit positioning and decision making. He's undisciplined and takes stupid penalties. He's realistically the 6th or 7th defender on a real cup team and those types of players usually get like 1-1.5m, not 8. I don't care what they say happens in the locker room, he's not a good captain either. Realistically if they don't get rid of him, we're never going to win.
Another thing to consider is that Igor is soon to be a free agent and surely he's sick of playing with our sloppy defense lead by trouba in front of him, not to mention playing insane in the playoffs to come up short partially because of trouba. We need to make moves that convince Igor to stay, he's not lundqvist, there's no guarantee of his loyalty to NY, especially when he saw what happened to Hank as a reward for his loyalty.
And I swear to God don't come at me talking about his blocked shots because A) the requirement for him to block so many shots is a product of his lack of defensive skill, and B) high shot blocking numbers DIRECTLY correlates with injuries and long term heavy drop offs in skating ability as seen by literally every player who has that play style such as Lindgren, girardi, and others
Everything you have said is spot on, thank you. I appreciate you. I went to Game 3 in Florida this year and he took 4 penalties himself, two different ones during the same shift! Hes a moron.
I am hoping this article is a just a way of boosting Trouba’s trade value🙏🏼🙏🏼 Anyone else notice the unnecessary amount of flattery Brooks threw Trouba’s way? Giving players compliments is very unlike Brooks, especially for a player that clearly has not earned any praise. I’m hoping Brooks is doing Drury a favor here by trying to give Trouba some good PR (this has happened in the past) so that he can trade him more easily.
This is a possibility. Personally I think Brooks is doing his front office source a favor by spinning a favorable narrative.
“Larry, I’ll give you the intel to break a story, but we need the narrative to be in favor of Chris Drury. If Chris goes, we all go, and you lose me as a source”.
I’m speculating but this wouldn’t be far fetched either.
Yes those were my thoughts as well. Brooks does Drury favors by writing articles to influence other organizations/fans and Drury, in return, gives him intel. For instance, about a week before Goodrow was waived, Brooks wrote an article about how it was time for the Rangers to move on from Goodrow and wrote several nice things about him--calling him a "playoff hero" and stuff like that. My guess is someone in the front office told him they were looking to move Goodrow and wanted him to put some good PR out there to increase his trade value.
Worst thing to happen was to give him the C. Watching another year of Trouba skate like hes 90 years old and handle the puck like its a grenade thats been thrown in the trenches. Ugh
Cool, they’re not serious about winning then. They will never win with him on the roster. Probably still wouldn’t win without him because the roster is so flawed, but they’d at least be better off.
I understand why they won't, and it's because they don't want to turn off any other vets that could come to the Rangers, but I do wish that they could bench him or scratch him when he's playing like ass.
Well they're not winning the cup with Trouba in the lineup so I'm curious if they factored that into their assessment of him
Also there's nobody outside the top ~6 in the draft who is worth trading Kakko for to move up, especially in a win now season and next to nothing of quality on the RW front in free agency, unless the play is to get Ehlers and run Berard 3RW.
If Drury wasn't so bad with draft capital (trading 2 2nds to get rid of his own Nemeth contract, trading a 2nd/3rd/4th for Kane who refused to be traded to anyone else, trading a 2nd/4th for Wennberg who is literally worse than Brodzinski) then we'd have a lot easier time both moving up in the draft and/or trading guys like Trouba
The fanbase will blame Gorton for the Trouba contract and completely ignore that Drury has been irresponsible with draft picks, forcing us to hold onto Trouba. Thanks for that call out.
The decision is much different with an NHL ready player on ELC to step in or picks to favor a trade. Thus we have neither options so we are stuck with Trouba. Blame Gorton tho I guess /s
The Rangers don't have a 2nd round pick for another 3 years all because of Drury trying to fix his own mistakes. And this is after a season in which his off-season acquisitions at forward were Bonino and Wheeler because he drove himself into cap hell
These continue to be the consequences of poor GMing and nobody ever connects the dots because everyone forgets them
I feel like the fanbase, at least here, really falls into favor for Drury and I don’t know why or I can’t see it. What is it for people? Because he’s an ex-Ranger? Because people hated Gorton so much that anyone else is favored? I think one of the ironies is that Drury was in the same rooms as Gorton when both good and bad decisions were made. But somehow, Drury is squeaky clean and removed in the fans eyes. I honestly don’t know if people know or remember that.
It’s been 3 years and he has been average, but is spoken of very positively. I don’t get it.
I want to make a Drury pulse check post for discussion here with details on his tenure but I haven’t found the time or motivation. But I’m so curious what people are thinking. Personally, I don’t see how he has a cold seat if we don’t make SCF next year.
>I feel like the fanbase, at least here, really falls into favor for Drury and I don’t know why or I can’t see it. What is it for people? Because he’s an ex-Ranger? Because people hated Gorton so much that anyone else is favored?
it's a product of blind faith in the organization's decision-making, despite their track record of failure
>I think one of the ironies is that Drury was in the same rooms as Gorton when both good and bad decisions were made. But somehow, Drury is squeaky clean and removed in the fans eyes. I honestly don’t know if people know or remember that.
Drury was Gorton's AGM and not only made horrendous cap decisions but did a terrible job in Hartford and was also head scout during the McDonagh/Miller trade. he drove the bus on Hajek
>It’s been 3 years and he has been average, but is spoken of very positively. I don’t get it.
average is generous. he inherited 90%+ of the current roster -- a team with a Norris winner, the best goalie in the league, a top 5 player in the league, and multiple lottery picks, and he hasn't made the team better at all, despite spending a ton of picks/prospects trying to do so
>I want to make a Drury pulse check post for discussion here with details on his tenure but I haven’t found the time or motivation. But I’m so curious what people are thinking. Personally, I don’t see how he has a cold seat if we don’t make SCF next year.
there's no point really. they will see president's trophy + ECFs and conclude good things
yeah it was talked about in [this article](https://sny.tv/articles/rangers-libor-hajek-is-like-a-sponge-and-always-wants-to-get-better) but it's so old that SNY doesn't have it anymore and I'm kind of annoyed about it
Given the current position of the team that would be quite counterintuitive, and basically a Dolan showman performance decision for the sphere, but it's certainly possible
And then of course that would close the book on yet another draft and development failure for NYR, this one involving the highest draft pick they ever had up until that point
Utah needs a top 6 center more than anything. Can't see them trading for a winger unless it's a big name like Marner (or Laine if he's still considered a big name).
If you guys want to know how a franchise doesn't win a cup in 30 years and has only one finals appearance during that time span, it's because it regularly makes decisions like this.
Guy threw his helmet once and somehow he is a leadership god …… tells you how shit the leadership is in the rest of that locker room when some new guy who never did much in the nhl can walk in and be captain over established stars in the room
And I am so sick of this idea he is some killer. I could live with the shit defensive play if once a period he came across the ice and absolutely destroyed someone on the rush and left a guy wide open ……. But he is good for like 2 big hits a year ….. wow ?!!?!
It was a mistake signing him in the first place. It was a mistake paying him that much. Rip the band aide off and trade him and let Zac jones cook
Why trade Kakko when his value is at his lowest? I just don’t want him to blossom somewhere else. And if that happens, everyone here will blow a gasket
We aren’t buying Trouba out this year. The cap crunch isn’t really until next season. I do believe we will look for opportunities to move him like we did with Goodrow.
The real question is who are the replacement options for Trouba? Who is going to part with a low cost, high energy, physical defenseman? I’d love to know who is realistically on the market because we can’t just find these guys in a stock pile. Every team wants what the Rangers need!
We could get almost any cheap dman and they’d likely be better than trouba, replacing trouba from a skill standpoint is very easy. If you want a physical dman that can also perform well that might be a little more difficult. However it’s not hard to find a better replacement for trouba at a fraction of the price.
It seems like we are running it back with maybe a cheap vet signing or two and i think it's a mistake. I just don't think this team can get over the hump and i feel like we need another good forward and a workhorse dman. You can say what if all you want but the bottom line is we lost and that's all that matters. We were a mismatch for Florida and we need to fix it
Rangers should remove Trouba and the C can go to Trocheck or Fox. Trouba is the Rangers equivalent of Radkos Gudas from Florida last year and guess what they removed that dumb dirty shit head and won a cup.
Yeah they just signed Kakko to a deal to trade him to move up in a weak draft. Good lord I don't get why anyone listens to what this absolute clown has to say about anything. I miss Torts bullying his dumb ass.
Also please do the right thing and buy out Trouba.
We should be using lindgren and the 30th to trade up not kakko. I think a package of lindgren and 30 will allow us to move up a decent bit. At the same time we aren’t giving lindgren a contract he doesn’t deserve and could replace him for someone much more affordable.
I always expected trouba to be on the team next year but not because we wanted him but because no one would want him and his contract. Keeping him when we could move on would be a massive mistake. He makes winning much more difficult than it needs to be as he’s not only a liability himself but drags down everyone on the ice with him.
you'd probably have to package both if you *really* want to move up, and it's only worth moving up if you're getting within the top ~6
but at that point i'd rather use those guys to acquire a roster player or disgruntled WPG prospect
The Kakko thing makes sense but I don’t think it’ll wind up happening.
I’m not sure what Kakko’s value is on the open market but I certainly don’t think you’d get a top-10 pick with Kakko + 30. For a win now team, is getting 12th-18th overall to pick Michael Hage or something actually all that worthwhile?
It’s also really hard to move up with a player. One of the 5-6 teams in that range needs to think Kakko’s value + 30 is better than whatever is on the board at that particular time, and 1st round picks are never worth more than they are at the draft table.
Let’s not forget that Trouba had a modified no-trade clause in his contract, and had an $8 million cap hit. Moving him will be difficult.
I agree that his contract makes him a liability, especially given that he’s not even in the first two pairings right now. But let’s not forget that he’ll be very difficult to move.
This is such a fan fare piece. Brooks is grasping at straws because he has nothing else.
I find it weird Kakko was signed first and just how quickly after the end of season. You have all summer and there is no need to sign any of the RFAs till after the draft and free agency. They are the lowest priorities right now.
Top priorities are figuring who is interested in coming here? How much they would want? Who is available for trade? Who are your draft selection potentials?
You just got Kakko's production for league min in less games from Brodzinski.
IMO Kakko is long gone.
I don't think Kakko get packaged with our 1st, cause I just don't see that making sense. I totally could see us trading Kakko to get like a mid round 1st. Like San Jose trading pitt's pick to us for Kakko. That makes perfect sense. This way Dolan gets to go up 2 times in the sphere. And I could see us also trading Kakko to the Ducks for their 1st from Edmonton and say pitts 3rd round pick. I don't know if Verbeek makes that trade, but I could see it. And the same goes for Grier.
I truly don't expect the Rangers to do anything with Trouba. They are going to run it back...losing supporting pieces is just normal hockey operations. Moving/A Buyout of Trouba would be a major shift in Drury's thinking. All my rants on the subject are just wasted vomit to the void. I expect them to come back with the same team. Just as the Leaf fans are realizing nothing is going to happen with the Core 4 for them.
All I am trying to vomit out there is a well run organization sees his contract, realizes he hasn't lived up to it and moves on. There are a ton of right handed defensemen out there in FA this summer. I'm sure 1 of them could replace 21 points and 18 to 20 minutes a night for less than 8 million. It is just how do you get rid of that 8 million? His play was disgraceful this post season. I don't think they see that. I think they see a human being trying his best and hope he can turn it around.
Not exactly surprising.
The options are basically trade him this coming year (likely retaining salary too) and then you either are forced to resign Gus and Lindgren or UFA shopping for another position in a tight budget
Trade following next year when Trouba is in his final year. Or ride out his contract. Make a UFA choice this year between Lindgren and Gus (hopefully Gus)
Trouba and Lindgren are probably the two worst puck movers in the top 6. The ideal move is to make sure both are off the team sooner rather than later
The latter scenario is the cheapest and least painful
I never really thought they would buy him out because he only has two years left on his awful contract, but a trade I can definitely see happening. I really hope it does. He played poorly even before his injury, he's been bad for years and never deserved that contract.
How did this entire sub miss the fact that Trouba was playing in a broken ankle in the playoffs?
I still think he sucks now, but clear failure of the coaching staff to keep playing him despite his complete ineffectiveness.
> How did this entire sub miss the fact that Trouba was playing in a broken ankle in the playoffs?
According to Troiuba himself, he was fine by the playoffs.
> but clear failure of the coaching staff to keep playing him despite his complete ineffectiveness.
While you're right, remember this is hockey. We've seen Ryan McDonagh and Erik Karlsson play on fractured feet. Players are going to tough it out and coaches are going to let them do it. It's something that needs to end since it rarely results in that injured player being much of a factor but this is hockey culture and it's probably not changing until the mindset from top to bottom changes.
I think the Rangers are trying to quietly rework Trouba's contract if they can. I have no issues with him keeping the C if he stays, as being captain doesn't mean you have to be the best player, but you're the best leader. I do think it's better than 60/40 he isn't a Ranger though when puck drops
No cap compliant way to do it. They can bury $1.15 mil in the AHL by sending him down, or they can buy him out but have to wait a period of time before signing him again, which is exceedingly unlikely to the point of being unheard of.
I get it. I was just going for humor. Apparently I failed. Lol.😂
Honestly it’s tough reading hockey threads on Reddit. So many people have no idea what the rules are. So I appreciate your explanation.
That waiting period would be a full season to resign a player a team buys out. And while I 100% feel no team in the league takes 2 years of Trouba at 8 million per, the majority of teams would happily sign him to a 2-3 million per deal after he’s bought out.
Honestly I blame reddit mobile for not showing the parent comment. Couldn't see the OP said "quietly"; probably would've been able to yank my head outta my own ass if I had. 😛
On the one hand, he was clearly injured during the playoffs and on the runup to the playoffs. He played well when he was fully healthy. On the other hand, guys of his age, with his playing style ARE likely to get injured a lot.
Did the Rangers not just win the Presidents trophy and make it to six games in the conference finals? That’s not struggling. That’s the opposite of struggling. Dude is the captain of a Presidents trophy winning team and plays 20-22 minutes a night.
You need a lot of luck to make it to the Finals. When you get in to the top 8, every team is a great team. Rangers could have made the Finals this year with a little more production from the top guys.
You've got a great core of talent, great young players that are getting better and better in Laf, Miller, Chytil, Schneider, Cuyle, best goalie in the league.
I'd say the pieces are all there, don't need much change. Just contend every year, and if you're lucky with injuries, the stars will align.
You and I are the only ones who see the big picture and the obvious final result. The guy is captain for a reason, leadership, calm cool and collective, intimidation and owns the respect of the opposing teams
He’s a great player and gets respect from opposing teams who think they can bully anyone on the Rangers. Igor and the likes have the ability and space to perform at a high level because of the intimidation and fear he brings. Yes he trips up on occasion but worth every penny. Think for a moment if he wasn’t in the lineup
What did Trouba do when Fox got kneed? Or when Shesty got ran? Or when Vesey got taken out?
Paying a guy to be an active detriment to the on ice performance of your team because you think people are scared of him (the opposite is true, other teams love it when you roll out a pylon) is moronic. Deterrents aren’t real and haven’t been for decades.
Do you guys only focus on his struggles rather than focusing on his strengths and what he brings every night. Rangers were finally playing as a team and the season results showed that. What happened to the Breadman? He was brutal. Mika was playing scared and a complete no show but hey it Trouba that played poorly scratching my head
Are you trolling? Mika and Bread sucked, Trouba sucked worse and was consistently the worst player on the ice. And as for the season results, the rangers literally went 11-2 without him. He “brings” essentially nothing when it comes to on ice performance. He could be the best locker room guy in the world, and it wouldn’t matter because winning teams don’t ice liabilities like him every night.
I’m not trolling. The Rangers regular season was phenomenal and the team was playing great until the playoffs started and thanks to Igor they were competitive. I just think fans are too hard on Trouba; maybe my rose coloured glasses
I hadn’t watched the Rangers for years. Huge fan in the 80’s, 90’s and early 2000’s. Finally couldn’t take Sather anymore so I moved on and ignored hockey for almost 20 years.
Came back because I was curious. I didn’t even know Jagr played for them barely followed the cup run but I did know they wasted Henrik lol. One of the first games I saw was an OT game against god knows who. I was shocked at the 3 on 3 play (like I said, long time). One of the guys on the ice was Trouba. Opposition got free puck and he laid a devastating hit on a guy just as he passed. Only problem? He took himself out of the play as well as he was too slow to even come close to getting back into the play while another Ranger was desperately trying to get back after being caught deep. Turned into a 2 on 1, opposition scored, Rangers lose.
Reading the message boards that night everyone was wondering why Gallant was putting one of the slowest players on the team it there in OT 3v3.
Everything Ive read or heard on podcasts say buying him out is a non starter, trading him would mean finding a team dumb enough to take an albatross contract along w/a bottom 6 d man, so near impossible.
Were stuck w/him and his up and down play for at least another season.
U people forget not every player has good games they are human they can’t do everything. Even McDavid, MacKinnon, Ovi, Crosby, Stamkos they all have bad games.
Not sure why anyone thinks he’s going to be moved just because we want him moved. There is almost no feasible means of moving him. First off, they are not buying him out. It would cost $4M against the cap the next two seasons and $2M against the cap the two seasons after that. Their cap situation already isn’t great so they won’t add more dead money to it. Sure it creates some flexibility (net $4M to play with next two years) but I don’t see the Rangers brass thinking it’s worth it to pay Trouba NOT to play for them.
Then as far as a trade is concerned he has little trade value currently. He also has a modified NMC. So once the potential trade destinations are whittled down, there probably aren’t any teams willing to take on his contract (there probably aren’t any even if he didn’t have a NMC). You have to hope that some team out there values his veteran presence and physicality enough to take on those last two years and I just don’t see that happening. Perhaps a situation where a rebuilding team needs to meet the cap minimum and is okay with a contract expiring next year. All unlikely.
TLDR: * No indication the Rangers will buy out Trouba * Sources are “divided” on whether the Rangers will Trade* Trouba. * Chris Tanev is “extremely well regarded” by Rangers * Brooks kept using the word “menacing” and physical about defense. * Multiple “indications” that Kakko is being shopped to move up in the draft along with Rangers pick 30. Personally I don’t like Brooks but I know some people do and feel he has a decent pulse on the team. Do with this as you will.
Should clarify there's no indication Rangers would buy out Trouba, but sources are divided if they would trade him after 15 team no trade list is submitted 7/1.
Thanks, fixed my comment
Idk how Brooksie (or the front office, if he’s acting as a mouthpiece here) could watch us fail to break through Florida’s neutral zone structure for 6 games and come away with the takeaway that we need to get more “menacing” on defense. We need puck-movers who are reliable in their own end.
There’s a lot of people who feel like the answer to that series is to get more physical. Which I don’t completely disagree with, you need guys who aren’t going to be moved off the puck entering the zone, but I think our biggest need is puck moving defensemen on the back end
We had a healthy Zac Jones sitting in the press box all series. It was frustrating, to say the least.
Jones would’ve been crushed in a bad way by Florida forecheckers. Lindgren and trouba stunk, however they can take abuse and withstand playoff physicality for the most part.
See but the thing with Jones is that he doesn’t put himself in position to get leveled by a big hit and leverages his body very well. He’s a smaller guy but he really doesn’t get pushed around much. He’s literally just a lite version of Fox and I mean that as a compliment
Floridas biggest weakness with their 2-1-2 aggressive forechecking system is puck moving defenseman. For all Jones faults and issues, his one biggest strength matched up with Floridas biggest weakness. It should have been a perfect match up for us.
No, Jones was actually a lone bright spot versus the Panthers in the regular season. The one game he got to play versus them and he was cooking their forecheck and defense in transition.
Regular season means nothing
Well when Jones sits in the press box the entire Florida series, yeah, uhhh, duh lmfao
I have been shocked how Lav has skated under the radar and if you mention coaching you get bashed .. the team was solid to start than halfway thru canes series and than every game with Florida was line jumbling every game . Taking players in and out except for the defense why was jones not put in blows my mind.. it also blows my mind that trouba was hurt at the deadline he should not have seen the ice than til the playoffs if he wasn’t healed and even in playoffs he should have sat a game or two when showing he wasn’t up to par..
lol everyone is upset jones didn’t play but if you mention it being lavs fault you get down votes .. who makes the line ups
Yeah, the first goal in game 6 that basically ended the season is because Trouba went for a menacing hit on absolutely nobody and destroyed the entirety of defensive zone coverage
That play was… just awful. That and Mika’s incomprehensible throw away pass cross ice at the blue line were the “should have learned to not do that when you played Pee Wee hockey” moments in the series.
That's his and the Post's commentators answer to everything. A big body that hits. Nevermind that we were that during the Torts years and still had nothing to show for it but exhausted players in the ECF.
Agree. It feels like a very old school “grit” type perspective. It’s not totally off base - need some physical presence to win puck battles too - but it was an interesting and repetitive choice of words.
I don't really understand moving up in the draft. We have very few picks available, its a relatively weak class, and we are in contention now. How would moving up make sense?
My guess is that there's someone on the board that the Rangers really like (which terrifies me) or, as speculated earlier in the year, Dolan wants to make a big splash at the Sphere since he owns it (which terrifies me even more).
Gotta get our hands on Dylbobpav McIlSanguiBrendl!
It's not weak. There's a good handful of studs in the top 20.
It doesn’t at all—least of all by sacrificing our own 1st *plus* Kakko, which is how I’m reading this.
Plus that opens another need one the third line. Just doesn’t make sense to me.
If you replace kakko with one of the young wingers you get 1.5+ in cap back that can be redirected to top 6 rw which is a far bigger need. Moving up isn’t totally wild. While this team is def all in now, this team also has jack shit in the prospect and draft pick dept. there are no good prospects outside of wing. Wing is basically the only area the rangers can get internal upgrades next year.
Honestly our prospect pool after Perrault is bleak. Othmann is still developing and hasn’t generated the same interest from other teams, and we saw that at the trade deadline when he was shopped (allegedly) and passed on by multiple GMs. Having another top prospect if only for the possibility of a trade at the deadline could be invaluable. Alternatively Drury could have his sights set on a particular player that he’d like in our system and feels they wouldn’t fall to 30.
Brooksie is kind of an idiot about hockey, but he definitely has the best sources in the front office, so I pretty much trust him on what the team is thinking
There are zero sources in the front office. Drury is tighter lipped than Lou.
I don’t think Drury is more or less tight lipped than any other GM in the league. What org do you see out there and say “yup, saw it coming a mile away they’re always leaky”. Not to mention beat writers talk with agents as well as front office - so a leak could come from an agent easily.
Hockey insiders who have the actual pulse of the league often say they got nothing on the rangers because no one talks. Brooks is awful, and has just made stuff up for years.
I’m not saying you’re right or wrong, but we have a lot fans in both sides of this take. It’s probably somewhere in the middle.
He has the pulse of the FO and the league. That is his biggest asset and why I read his articles.
It’s trouba for 2 years 8 mil or tanev for 3/4 years at 5.5-6 mil. Think id rather trouba based on term
Don't mind Brooks, just wish he didn't for Murdoch.
I appreciate the summary!
okay, but what happened on 9-24-11?
If those 2 are traded. It better be a high pick...
Brooks doesn't have a decent pulse on the team. If he's being told this it's because Drury rang his line. This isn't the old front office where there were leaks everywhere.
Yeah his defense is menacingly bad
I really don’t understand trading Kakko to move up in a relatively weak draft class. We don’t have a surplus’s of RW. His contract is totally fair given his play.
Yeah that doesn’t make sense imo
He only has two years of control. If they do this they feel confident in Otthman being the third line right wing. Doing so also gives us more cap this season. Lastly if you don't feel like Kakko will end up being the guy. If the Rangers are able to hit with this pick. Let's say the move into 10-12 range. That pick plus Otthman and Perrault hitting, plus Lafriene developing. Plus I got and Fox still being relatively young. The rangers would be competitive for another 8 years. That's the thing Drury is trying to set up so that after Panarin is gone, and Zibs/Trochek are in decline we will still be a consistent playoff team.
Otthman and Perrault and unknown draft pick in a "weak" class being 3/4ths of our right side all playing 82 games + competing the cup next year is doing some serious heavy lifting here.
That's not what I'm saying..............
people forget that trouba was basically the reason we lost the TBL series 2 years ago too. getting burned on that GWG should've been the last straw
He also took a penalty that started the Bolts onslaught in Game 3. I want to say it’s ironic but it’s Trouba so it really isn’t
Yep, not just that play at the end but in our last 3 losses he made a pivotal mistake or penalty. Not great
yea I do remember that, fucking ridiculous, right after a miracle equalizer
If the Kings can easily move that insane Dubois contract then we can move Trouba. If we don’t it’s because we believe the player is worth it. I’d move him and use the money elsewhere.
I can’t believe the Caps were stupid enough to take on that contract while doing a full rebuild
Yeah that was surprising, but you still need to field a cap compliant team. My guess is they're going to be bargain hunting in FA to accelerate that draft capital(s). Edit: Holy shit, I didn't realize that was a 7 year deal.
They should’ve checked on cap friendly.
I think they are just trying to find players to help Ovi score goals. I think they just want him to beat Gretzky’s goal record so they can say they have the top guy. PLDs contract isn’t great, but if guys don’t want to play there and you’re trying to get guys to pass Ovi the puck that’s what you got to do.
Yeah but it’s a 7 year contract lol
You can do that with 1-2 year deals - any organization that takes on a 7 yr commitment just to meet the cap floor is an extremely stupid one
I can. While he's proven himself to be an entitled space cadet, he's still young and talented which WSH is short on. They probably don't think McMichael or Lapierre are quite ready to be 1C just yet so it's probably a worthwhile gamble in their eyes. Plus, they desperately need to find a proper triggerman to push Ovie to the scoring record before the rebuild begins in earnest and Kuemper stunk for them, getting benched for Lindgren so it's just a trade for each other's albatrosses.
Makes perfect sense. He can dish the puck when he feels like it and all they want is to get Ovi the record in the next year or two. PLD either acquits himself and is trade deadline bait (with retention) in four to five years from now, or he’s just as useless as Kuemper was for them and they’re right back where they started.
Kings took a worse contract in the short term for Dubois though. Kuemper is overpaid by about 4 million at this point in his career. Dubois assuming he can get back to his 60 point play is overpaid by 2 million Edit: yes 60 point centers easily get 6-7 million
Eh it was one bad contract for another. The only way I can see us doing something like this would be for a Jeff Skinner type.
PLD has upside and youth and Trouba doesn’t. Washington gets to offload Kuemper and buy a lotto ticket while the upcoming run is mostly meaningless - they’re not a competitive team in the next five years
Couldn;t disagree more about moving on from Kakko. The guy is still young, plays a solid defensive game, and is cheap. I know the points haven't come, but look how Laf turned it around in a summer. I'd love for him to get another chance, boost his value, and maybe become a deadline trade piece. Plus, moving on from him to move up in the draft? The window is now. Why?
I’m okay with keeping Kakko too as long as he gets paid for the player he is (a solid bottom 6 possession player), and not the player he was supposed to be as a #2 overall.
The points have come too. 40 just a season ago in mediocre 3rd line ice time with no power play. Of course the points only went down this season with 20 games lost and a drop of 2+ min in avg TOI
And probably spent half the season playing with either Bonino or Goodrow. Not exactly setting a guy up for success like that
Playing with Mika and Kreids is also not a recipe for success either. They may be on the first line but their 5v5 play is atrocious
I’m done calling them the first line, they haven’t been our top line in years now. Shame there’s no player who we know was able to work with them
Maybe just like Kakko's career year last year, maybe this year was Laf's outlier and he will disappoint moving forward. I dont hope for it by any means, but its NYR, so i wouldnt be surprised either.
“I don’t think the Rangers have the stomach turning over the captaincy again after only two years.” Larry you said like 2 days ago they are being ruthless
It feels like Larry is doing his FO source a favor with his rhetoric. It could have easily been “Drury bailed out by friend and should count his blessings” instead it’s “championship mentality” - both are true yet one narrative was pushed. It could have easily been “rangers are between a rock and a hard place with Trouba and are stuck with him” instead it was “need the physically menacing presence” - again both are true (sort of) but one narrative was pushed.
Ruthless with a fourth line center is different than with your Captain that was allegedly selected by his teammates.
Not to mention doing it twice in 2 weeks to guys that both wore letters last year starts to add up.
Trading Kakko and a pick to move up to select a player who will likely top out as a good middle 6 winger on a reasonable contract would just be so Rangers.
There's nothing less surprising than the Rangers watching Trouba get eaten alive in his own end against Florida and thinking the issue is they need more players like him. This organization is so bad at evaluating defensemen and has been for decades.
There were times this year where Trouba looked pretty good for decent stretches of time. And then there were games where he looked like he didn’t even belong in the NHL anymore. It’s hard to know which guy is going to show up next season. He isn’t worth $8,000,000 a year, but if he can at least play solid 3rd pair minutes without costing us games, I’d rather just deal with him for two more years. And really, it’s probably just one more year. He can easily be traded after this coming season as a veteran with playoff experience on an expiring contract. The Rangers retain 50% for the rest of that season and he’s off the books in the summer just in time for free agency. We don’t want to tie up cap space with buyout money when we’re in the Cup window. I want as much financial flexibility as possible to make big moves. We’re not going to get lucky like we did with Goodrow to SJ again.
Yeah, realistically between extensions for Igor and Laf next summer Trouba will only be on the team one more season max anyway. I could see SJ/CHI/UTAH or someone of that ilk trading for him to transition a rebuilding team to a playoff contender this offseason, but if not as long as the Rangers understand he’s not a shutdown defenseman and can only take 3rd pairing minutes they can make it work.
Our window is the next two years, and if we can have a more reliable guy on the third pair who won't be solely responsible for like a goal a game AND $8 mill in cap space, you trade him. I think we have to.
I’m not against trading him at all. I honestly hope we do. I’m very against buying him out and paying him to not be here.
Agreed. The gymnastics to move around Trouba and replace him is just shuffling around deck chairs while damaging our future, for not much gain today. I’m anti-Trouba but it doesn’t make sense right now.
In 2 years we’ll be in retool mode, I say we go for a cup now rather than wait
Chris Tanev would be an interesting guy to sign. An awesome defensive player, highly regarded in the league, but he'll turn 35 later this year and he's racked up a lot of miles playing a punishing, shot blocking style, so I wouldn't want a long commitment to him.
Tanev’s agent is definitely going to push for a four year contract, and likely end up with a three year. This fan base doesn’t want to resign a 26 year old Lindgren for more than a year tops. If Drury gives term and AAV both this sub will have more drama than a NJ based reality show.
Please move on from trouba. The money we save is more important than what he brings to the table.
Especially since they're in a "win now" mode. They have to trade him.
Oh boy. Why the fuck would we trade Kakko to ‘move up’ in a very weak draft class? Kakko, at his cap hit, is a decent asset. He’s one of our few forwards that don’t avoid going in the corners like it’s the plague. If they want to trade him, they can keep that low first and bundle it together with him to get a player who’ll make a more immediate impact. Trading him to get a higher pick is just dumb- our cup window is now.
Trading Kakko to move up? What player would they really be looking to target to get .. like honestly how this team drafts they will move up from the 30 spot and take someone projected to go in the second round
Trouba takes up way too much of the cap for what he brings. He also just completely melts in big games. The Florida series isn’t an outlier. He was awful in the ECF against Tampa. I also really hope they move on from Lindgren. I like how hard he works and plays, but they need to get better at that position, and I feel like he’s going to turn into another Dan Girardi.
The kept Hank at a higher cap hit for the last two years of his contract while in a stated rebuild. There was a remarkable drop off in Hanks performance as well during that time coupled with a rebuilding team and defense. There’s a pattern of misguided loyalty fucking with sheer ruthless business sense.
Henrik had a full NMC that he refused to waive. If I remember correctly they asked and he said no. Can't blame the team for keeping him and if they had treated him like shit to get him to waive, the fanbase would have killed them for that instead. The lesson here is that teams need to ignore the fan base and concentrate on building a winner. Yeah, they'll alienate some fans along the way, but a winning club will bring almost all of them back every time.
"Remarkable drop off in play" was going from best of this generation to still slightly above average NHL goaltender, also this happened while he HAD A HEART DEFECT. We as a fan base should never say a negative thing about Henrik.
You’re letting emotion into business where it has no place.
I don't think so, over the course of his tenure and by default contracts, he out performed everyone's expectations knowing what we know now and before we knew his health. The front office gave him his last contract, he signed it. He had no obligation to waive his ntc or anything. He was bought out and while it was sad, most fans accepted it and were ok. We talk about ruthless organizations and GMs and such, but remember why all players ask for trade protection? Because the flyers shipped Richards and Carter right after they signed and went to the final. One team changed the whole entire economy of player contracts, and now every team has to make a conscious decision on signing a player and what that means for the future.
Well then the rangers aren't serious about winning. He struggles at getting the puck out of the defensive zone. He struggles at puck possession. He's sloppy and makes every defensive linemate worse because of his shit positioning and decision making. He's undisciplined and takes stupid penalties. He's realistically the 6th or 7th defender on a real cup team and those types of players usually get like 1-1.5m, not 8. I don't care what they say happens in the locker room, he's not a good captain either. Realistically if they don't get rid of him, we're never going to win. Another thing to consider is that Igor is soon to be a free agent and surely he's sick of playing with our sloppy defense lead by trouba in front of him, not to mention playing insane in the playoffs to come up short partially because of trouba. We need to make moves that convince Igor to stay, he's not lundqvist, there's no guarantee of his loyalty to NY, especially when he saw what happened to Hank as a reward for his loyalty.
And I swear to God don't come at me talking about his blocked shots because A) the requirement for him to block so many shots is a product of his lack of defensive skill, and B) high shot blocking numbers DIRECTLY correlates with injuries and long term heavy drop offs in skating ability as seen by literally every player who has that play style such as Lindgren, girardi, and others
Exactly. Shot blocking has it's place but it's often a desperate move because you are leaving too much gap and allowing a shot
Everything you have said is spot on, thank you. I appreciate you. I went to Game 3 in Florida this year and he took 4 penalties himself, two different ones during the same shift! Hes a moron.
P A I N A I N
I don’t want to hear shit about his leadership or toughness, move him. This is malpractice at this point.
I am hoping this article is a just a way of boosting Trouba’s trade value🙏🏼🙏🏼 Anyone else notice the unnecessary amount of flattery Brooks threw Trouba’s way? Giving players compliments is very unlike Brooks, especially for a player that clearly has not earned any praise. I’m hoping Brooks is doing Drury a favor here by trying to give Trouba some good PR (this has happened in the past) so that he can trade him more easily.
This is a possibility. Personally I think Brooks is doing his front office source a favor by spinning a favorable narrative. “Larry, I’ll give you the intel to break a story, but we need the narrative to be in favor of Chris Drury. If Chris goes, we all go, and you lose me as a source”. I’m speculating but this wouldn’t be far fetched either.
Yes those were my thoughts as well. Brooks does Drury favors by writing articles to influence other organizations/fans and Drury, in return, gives him intel. For instance, about a week before Goodrow was waived, Brooks wrote an article about how it was time for the Rangers to move on from Goodrow and wrote several nice things about him--calling him a "playoff hero" and stuff like that. My guess is someone in the front office told him they were looking to move Goodrow and wanted him to put some good PR out there to increase his trade value.
Worst thing to happen was to give him the C. Watching another year of Trouba skate like hes 90 years old and handle the puck like its a grenade thats been thrown in the trenches. Ugh
I hate him
If we keep Trouba I think it is less of a vote of confidence and more to do with the buyout/trade/salary cap implications.
Cool, they’re not serious about winning then. They will never win with him on the roster. Probably still wouldn’t win without him because the roster is so flawed, but they’d at least be better off.
100%
You ever been in a fight brooksie?
I understand why they won't, and it's because they don't want to turn off any other vets that could come to the Rangers, but I do wish that they could bench him or scratch him when he's playing like ass.
Might ads well wait for the next rebuiid then
Whether you agree with moving on from Kakko or not, packaging him with #30 to move up in the draft when we’re 100% in win now mode is moronic.
Well they're not winning the cup with Trouba in the lineup so I'm curious if they factored that into their assessment of him Also there's nobody outside the top ~6 in the draft who is worth trading Kakko for to move up, especially in a win now season and next to nothing of quality on the RW front in free agency, unless the play is to get Ehlers and run Berard 3RW. If Drury wasn't so bad with draft capital (trading 2 2nds to get rid of his own Nemeth contract, trading a 2nd/3rd/4th for Kane who refused to be traded to anyone else, trading a 2nd/4th for Wennberg who is literally worse than Brodzinski) then we'd have a lot easier time both moving up in the draft and/or trading guys like Trouba
The fanbase will blame Gorton for the Trouba contract and completely ignore that Drury has been irresponsible with draft picks, forcing us to hold onto Trouba. Thanks for that call out. The decision is much different with an NHL ready player on ELC to step in or picks to favor a trade. Thus we have neither options so we are stuck with Trouba. Blame Gorton tho I guess /s
The Rangers don't have a 2nd round pick for another 3 years all because of Drury trying to fix his own mistakes. And this is after a season in which his off-season acquisitions at forward were Bonino and Wheeler because he drove himself into cap hell These continue to be the consequences of poor GMing and nobody ever connects the dots because everyone forgets them
I feel like the fanbase, at least here, really falls into favor for Drury and I don’t know why or I can’t see it. What is it for people? Because he’s an ex-Ranger? Because people hated Gorton so much that anyone else is favored? I think one of the ironies is that Drury was in the same rooms as Gorton when both good and bad decisions were made. But somehow, Drury is squeaky clean and removed in the fans eyes. I honestly don’t know if people know or remember that. It’s been 3 years and he has been average, but is spoken of very positively. I don’t get it. I want to make a Drury pulse check post for discussion here with details on his tenure but I haven’t found the time or motivation. But I’m so curious what people are thinking. Personally, I don’t see how he has a cold seat if we don’t make SCF next year.
>I feel like the fanbase, at least here, really falls into favor for Drury and I don’t know why or I can’t see it. What is it for people? Because he’s an ex-Ranger? Because people hated Gorton so much that anyone else is favored? it's a product of blind faith in the organization's decision-making, despite their track record of failure >I think one of the ironies is that Drury was in the same rooms as Gorton when both good and bad decisions were made. But somehow, Drury is squeaky clean and removed in the fans eyes. I honestly don’t know if people know or remember that. Drury was Gorton's AGM and not only made horrendous cap decisions but did a terrible job in Hartford and was also head scout during the McDonagh/Miller trade. he drove the bus on Hajek >It’s been 3 years and he has been average, but is spoken of very positively. I don’t get it. average is generous. he inherited 90%+ of the current roster -- a team with a Norris winner, the best goalie in the league, a top 5 player in the league, and multiple lottery picks, and he hasn't made the team better at all, despite spending a ton of picks/prospects trying to do so >I want to make a Drury pulse check post for discussion here with details on his tenure but I haven’t found the time or motivation. But I’m so curious what people are thinking. Personally, I don’t see how he has a cold seat if we don’t make SCF next year. there's no point really. they will see president's trophy + ECFs and conclude good things
I didn’t know he was head scout on that. Super interesting
yeah it was talked about in [this article](https://sny.tv/articles/rangers-libor-hajek-is-like-a-sponge-and-always-wants-to-get-better) but it's so old that SNY doesn't have it anymore and I'm kind of annoyed about it
Maybe they trade the 30th + Kakko + prospect to Utah for the 6th pick.
Given the current position of the team that would be quite counterintuitive, and basically a Dolan showman performance decision for the sphere, but it's certainly possible And then of course that would close the book on yet another draft and development failure for NYR, this one involving the highest draft pick they ever had up until that point
Utah needs a top 6 center more than anything. Can't see them trading for a winger unless it's a big name like Marner (or Laine if he's still considered a big name).
If you guys want to know how a franchise doesn't win a cup in 30 years and has only one finals appearance during that time span, it's because it regularly makes decisions like this.
This motherfucker needs to go. Wake up people
And for that reason. We deserve to fail.
Not so “ruthless” I guess
Guy threw his helmet once and somehow he is a leadership god …… tells you how shit the leadership is in the rest of that locker room when some new guy who never did much in the nhl can walk in and be captain over established stars in the room And I am so sick of this idea he is some killer. I could live with the shit defensive play if once a period he came across the ice and absolutely destroyed someone on the rush and left a guy wide open ……. But he is good for like 2 big hits a year ….. wow ?!!?! It was a mistake signing him in the first place. It was a mistake paying him that much. Rip the band aide off and trade him and let Zac jones cook
Fine, but he should not have that "C" on his chest.
Boooo, we gotta ditch Trouba. His playoff performance was lack luster to say the least.
Why trade Kakko when his value is at his lowest? I just don’t want him to blossom somewhere else. And if that happens, everyone here will blow a gasket
I want Guentzel. Two reasons: would be great #1 RW and he won’t be opposing thorn in side as he was….
We aren’t buying Trouba out this year. The cap crunch isn’t really until next season. I do believe we will look for opportunities to move him like we did with Goodrow.
The real question is who are the replacement options for Trouba? Who is going to part with a low cost, high energy, physical defenseman? I’d love to know who is realistically on the market because we can’t just find these guys in a stock pile. Every team wants what the Rangers need!
We could get almost any cheap dman and they’d likely be better than trouba, replacing trouba from a skill standpoint is very easy. If you want a physical dman that can also perform well that might be a little more difficult. However it’s not hard to find a better replacement for trouba at a fraction of the price.
The stars are aligning for another ass rip next season fellas
Yep
Holy hockey pucks. Its Game 7 and Trouba is still in the penalty box.
It seems like we are running it back with maybe a cheap vet signing or two and i think it's a mistake. I just don't think this team can get over the hump and i feel like we need another good forward and a workhorse dman. You can say what if all you want but the bottom line is we lost and that's all that matters. We were a mismatch for Florida and we need to fix it
Rangers should remove Trouba and the C can go to Trocheck or Fox. Trouba is the Rangers equivalent of Radkos Gudas from Florida last year and guess what they removed that dumb dirty shit head and won a cup.
Yeah they just signed Kakko to a deal to trade him to move up in a weak draft. Good lord I don't get why anyone listens to what this absolute clown has to say about anything. I miss Torts bullying his dumb ass. Also please do the right thing and buy out Trouba.
Good.
We should be using lindgren and the 30th to trade up not kakko. I think a package of lindgren and 30 will allow us to move up a decent bit. At the same time we aren’t giving lindgren a contract he doesn’t deserve and could replace him for someone much more affordable. I always expected trouba to be on the team next year but not because we wanted him but because no one would want him and his contract. Keeping him when we could move on would be a massive mistake. He makes winning much more difficult than it needs to be as he’s not only a liability himself but drags down everyone on the ice with him.
you'd probably have to package both if you *really* want to move up, and it's only worth moving up if you're getting within the top ~6 but at that point i'd rather use those guys to acquire a roster player or disgruntled WPG prospect
Lindy is UFA, no?
RFA
Drury be serious please
No shit.
Trouba with a little retained for Justin Holl. Then buyout Holl. His buyout hit is only 1.1 mil for 4 years
The Kakko thing makes sense but I don’t think it’ll wind up happening. I’m not sure what Kakko’s value is on the open market but I certainly don’t think you’d get a top-10 pick with Kakko + 30. For a win now team, is getting 12th-18th overall to pick Michael Hage or something actually all that worthwhile? It’s also really hard to move up with a player. One of the 5-6 teams in that range needs to think Kakko’s value + 30 is better than whatever is on the board at that particular time, and 1st round picks are never worth more than they are at the draft table.
Let’s not forget that Trouba had a modified no-trade clause in his contract, and had an $8 million cap hit. Moving him will be difficult. I agree that his contract makes him a liability, especially given that he’s not even in the first two pairings right now. But let’s not forget that he’ll be very difficult to move.
We can always buy him out which saves us 4m
This is such a fan fare piece. Brooks is grasping at straws because he has nothing else. I find it weird Kakko was signed first and just how quickly after the end of season. You have all summer and there is no need to sign any of the RFAs till after the draft and free agency. They are the lowest priorities right now. Top priorities are figuring who is interested in coming here? How much they would want? Who is available for trade? Who are your draft selection potentials? You just got Kakko's production for league min in less games from Brodzinski. IMO Kakko is long gone. I don't think Kakko get packaged with our 1st, cause I just don't see that making sense. I totally could see us trading Kakko to get like a mid round 1st. Like San Jose trading pitt's pick to us for Kakko. That makes perfect sense. This way Dolan gets to go up 2 times in the sphere. And I could see us also trading Kakko to the Ducks for their 1st from Edmonton and say pitts 3rd round pick. I don't know if Verbeek makes that trade, but I could see it. And the same goes for Grier. I truly don't expect the Rangers to do anything with Trouba. They are going to run it back...losing supporting pieces is just normal hockey operations. Moving/A Buyout of Trouba would be a major shift in Drury's thinking. All my rants on the subject are just wasted vomit to the void. I expect them to come back with the same team. Just as the Leaf fans are realizing nothing is going to happen with the Core 4 for them. All I am trying to vomit out there is a well run organization sees his contract, realizes he hasn't lived up to it and moves on. There are a ton of right handed defensemen out there in FA this summer. I'm sure 1 of them could replace 21 points and 18 to 20 minutes a night for less than 8 million. It is just how do you get rid of that 8 million? His play was disgraceful this post season. I don't think they see that. I think they see a human being trying his best and hope he can turn it around.
Not exactly surprising. The options are basically trade him this coming year (likely retaining salary too) and then you either are forced to resign Gus and Lindgren or UFA shopping for another position in a tight budget Trade following next year when Trouba is in his final year. Or ride out his contract. Make a UFA choice this year between Lindgren and Gus (hopefully Gus) Trouba and Lindgren are probably the two worst puck movers in the top 6. The ideal move is to make sure both are off the team sooner rather than later The latter scenario is the cheapest and least painful
I never really thought they would buy him out because he only has two years left on his awful contract, but a trade I can definitely see happening. I really hope it does. He played poorly even before his injury, he's been bad for years and never deserved that contract.
Worst news all day. Fuck
How did this entire sub miss the fact that Trouba was playing in a broken ankle in the playoffs? I still think he sucks now, but clear failure of the coaching staff to keep playing him despite his complete ineffectiveness.
> How did this entire sub miss the fact that Trouba was playing in a broken ankle in the playoffs? According to Troiuba himself, he was fine by the playoffs. > but clear failure of the coaching staff to keep playing him despite his complete ineffectiveness. While you're right, remember this is hockey. We've seen Ryan McDonagh and Erik Karlsson play on fractured feet. Players are going to tough it out and coaches are going to let them do it. It's something that needs to end since it rarely results in that injured player being much of a factor but this is hockey culture and it's probably not changing until the mindset from top to bottom changes.
I think the Rangers are trying to quietly rework Trouba's contract if they can. I have no issues with him keeping the C if he stays, as being captain doesn't mean you have to be the best player, but you're the best leader. I do think it's better than 60/40 he isn't a Ranger though when puck drops
There is no way to rework a contract.
Even quietly?
No cap compliant way to do it. They can bury $1.15 mil in the AHL by sending him down, or they can buy him out but have to wait a period of time before signing him again, which is exceedingly unlikely to the point of being unheard of.
I get it. I was just going for humor. Apparently I failed. Lol.😂 Honestly it’s tough reading hockey threads on Reddit. So many people have no idea what the rules are. So I appreciate your explanation. That waiting period would be a full season to resign a player a team buys out. And while I 100% feel no team in the league takes 2 years of Trouba at 8 million per, the majority of teams would happily sign him to a 2-3 million per deal after he’s bought out.
Honestly I blame reddit mobile for not showing the parent comment. Couldn't see the OP said "quietly"; probably would've been able to yank my head outta my own ass if I had. 😛
Lmao. No worries.
Well that's unfortunate
On the one hand, he was clearly injured during the playoffs and on the runup to the playoffs. He played well when he was fully healthy. On the other hand, guys of his age, with his playing style ARE likely to get injured a lot.
He played well when he was healthy? How lol
Did the Rangers not just win the Presidents trophy and make it to six games in the conference finals? That’s not struggling. That’s the opposite of struggling. Dude is the captain of a Presidents trophy winning team and plays 20-22 minutes a night.
We made it to the ECF 2 years ago too, did we progress?
You need a lot of luck to make it to the Finals. When you get in to the top 8, every team is a great team. Rangers could have made the Finals this year with a little more production from the top guys.
Agreed, so which top guy do you think we should replace to get that production
You've got a great core of talent, great young players that are getting better and better in Laf, Miller, Chytil, Schneider, Cuyle, best goalie in the league. I'd say the pieces are all there, don't need much change. Just contend every year, and if you're lucky with injuries, the stars will align.
You get downvoted but you’re right. Everyone in here is angry and acting on emotion.
I can’t wait to see who the hivemind targets as their scapegoat defenseman once Trouba is gone. My bet is Miller.
Exactly, Breadman was afraid of his shadow, Fox forgot what a corner looked like, Mika…. Geez just wouldn’t engage
You and I are the only ones who see the big picture and the obvious final result. The guy is captain for a reason, leadership, calm cool and collective, intimidation and owns the respect of the opposing teams
Why does everybody care about Trouba. The non-existent first line should be gutted but nah let’s pay to win the season….yay…go rangers…so smart
He’s a great player and gets respect from opposing teams who think they can bully anyone on the Rangers. Igor and the likes have the ability and space to perform at a high level because of the intimidation and fear he brings. Yes he trips up on occasion but worth every penny. Think for a moment if he wasn’t in the lineup
I thought for a moment of Trouba not in the lineup and remembered when we went like 13-2, looking better than we had all year, without him.
Wait until Fox gets destroyed and the Breadman comes in to save the day
What did Trouba do when Fox got kneed? Or when Shesty got ran? Or when Vesey got taken out? Paying a guy to be an active detriment to the on ice performance of your team because you think people are scared of him (the opposite is true, other teams love it when you roll out a pylon) is moronic. Deterrents aren’t real and haven’t been for decades.
Do you guys only focus on his struggles rather than focusing on his strengths and what he brings every night. Rangers were finally playing as a team and the season results showed that. What happened to the Breadman? He was brutal. Mika was playing scared and a complete no show but hey it Trouba that played poorly scratching my head
Are you trolling? Mika and Bread sucked, Trouba sucked worse and was consistently the worst player on the ice. And as for the season results, the rangers literally went 11-2 without him. He “brings” essentially nothing when it comes to on ice performance. He could be the best locker room guy in the world, and it wouldn’t matter because winning teams don’t ice liabilities like him every night.
I’m not trolling. The Rangers regular season was phenomenal and the team was playing great until the playoffs started and thanks to Igor they were competitive. I just think fans are too hard on Trouba; maybe my rose coloured glasses
I hadn’t watched the Rangers for years. Huge fan in the 80’s, 90’s and early 2000’s. Finally couldn’t take Sather anymore so I moved on and ignored hockey for almost 20 years. Came back because I was curious. I didn’t even know Jagr played for them barely followed the cup run but I did know they wasted Henrik lol. One of the first games I saw was an OT game against god knows who. I was shocked at the 3 on 3 play (like I said, long time). One of the guys on the ice was Trouba. Opposition got free puck and he laid a devastating hit on a guy just as he passed. Only problem? He took himself out of the play as well as he was too slow to even come close to getting back into the play while another Ranger was desperately trying to get back after being caught deep. Turned into a 2 on 1, opposition scored, Rangers lose. Reading the message boards that night everyone was wondering why Gallant was putting one of the slowest players on the team it there in OT 3v3. Everything Ive read or heard on podcasts say buying him out is a non starter, trading him would mean finding a team dumb enough to take an albatross contract along w/a bottom 6 d man, so near impossible. Were stuck w/him and his up and down play for at least another season.
U people forget not every player has good games they are human they can’t do everything. Even McDavid, MacKinnon, Ovi, Crosby, Stamkos they all have bad games.
Not sure why anyone thinks he’s going to be moved just because we want him moved. There is almost no feasible means of moving him. First off, they are not buying him out. It would cost $4M against the cap the next two seasons and $2M against the cap the two seasons after that. Their cap situation already isn’t great so they won’t add more dead money to it. Sure it creates some flexibility (net $4M to play with next two years) but I don’t see the Rangers brass thinking it’s worth it to pay Trouba NOT to play for them. Then as far as a trade is concerned he has little trade value currently. He also has a modified NMC. So once the potential trade destinations are whittled down, there probably aren’t any teams willing to take on his contract (there probably aren’t any even if he didn’t have a NMC). You have to hope that some team out there values his veteran presence and physicality enough to take on those last two years and I just don’t see that happening. Perhaps a situation where a rebuilding team needs to meet the cap minimum and is okay with a contract expiring next year. All unlikely.
He had a broken ankle 🤣🤣
Was his ankle broken from October to March as well?
You don’t think he had a good season??
Trouba? No