Ranger moves won’t help
Rangers GM-in-waiting Jeff Gorton told the team’s website on Saturday that he “(doesn’t) think there a lot of holes in our team right now.” And he’s right. The Blueshirts have been one of the best teams in the NHL from the start of the 2011 season to the present day.
Unfortunately, there is one gaping hole in the Rangers’ makeup, and it remains after Saturday’s acquisitions of left wing Emerson Etem and goalie Antti Raanta from Anaheim and Chicago, respectively, to replace Carl Hagelin (dealt to the Ducks for Etem and two picks) and Cam Talbot (traded to the Edmonton Oilers for three draft selections).
That hole is the doughnut in the Rangers’ final score of Game 7 of the Eastern Conference finals, a defeat at the Garden to the Tampa Bay Lightning: 2-0.
Maybe the difference-maker for that moment, the next time it arrives, is already on this team. Maybe he isn’t. But no matter how encouraging it was on Saturday that Sather for once actually acquired draft picks rather than trading them away, remaining competitive long-term can’t suddenly become his priority.
The priority must continue to be winning now because — as is frequently said around the Rangers these days — the window is closing. The objective through any trade should be to get better now, not later, and Saturday’s deals didn’t improve the team.
Hagelin’s departure was not a surprise because he was a restricted free agent with arbitration rights that the cap-strapped Rangers couldn’t afford, and he doesn’t score enough goals to trump logic. But he is an excellent penalty killer, a speedy skater who pressures defenders, and — not to be overlooked — he keeps himself in terrific shape and appeared in all 82 games last season.
Getting the 41st overall pick and 23-yearold American left wing Emerson Etem (Long Beach, Calif.) in exchange for Hagelin, the 59th pick and the 179th pick doesn’t seem like enough, especially considering the Los Angeles Times’ brief but telling summary on why Etem played in just 45 games last season for Anaheim:
“His inability to finish hurt his cause to become an everyday player.”
A player who can’t finish? Not ideal. Except Etem is a restricted free agent without arbitration rights coming off a modest $870,000 cap hit on his first contract, so he’s less expensive than Hagelin. Every dollar matters for Sather.
As of Saturday evening’s conclusion of the NHL draft in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., the Rangers had approximately $12.5 million available under the league’s $71.4 million salary-cap ceiling to sign another forward or two, a seventh defenseman and to re-sign restricted free agents Derek Stepan, Jesper Fast, J.T. Miller and Etem.
Raanta’s $800,000 salary helped that cause in the late trade of forward Ryan Haggerty to Chicago (which Sather did well on, to flip the seemingly one-dimensional Haggerty after signing him as an undrafted free agent in the spring of 2014).
The affable 26-year-old Finnish goalie lost his backup job to the Blackhawks’ Scott Darling in February. But he is an NHL-level talent more than capable of spelling Henrik Lundqvist for 20 to 25 starts, and Talbot had convinced teams he was ready to be a No. 1 goalie, which is why the Oilers gave up picks No. 57, 79 and 184 to get him.
It was not surprising that Talbot and Hagelin were traded, but it was surprising that they didn’t bring the kind of the return the Rangers need: players up front who can finish.
Free agency opens on Wednesday. The market is underwhelming, but maybe they’ll address it then.
CLASS IN SESSION
The Rangers didn’t own a first-round pick for the third straight year due to the Martin St. Louis deal, but after starting Saturday with five draft picks in rounds 2-7, they finished with seven thanks to Sather’s trades.
His third deal swapped the 57th pick acquired from Edmonton to the Washington Capitals for the 62nd and 113th overall selections. Here is how the Rangers used their seven picks:
No. 41: Ryan Gropp, left wing, Canada, Seattle, WHL; No. 62: Robin Kovacs, right wing, Sweden, AIK, Sweden; No. 79: Sergey Zborovskiy, defenseman, Russia, Regina, WHL; No. 89: Aleksi Saarela, center, Finland, Assat, Finland; No. 113: Brad Morrison, center, Canada, Prince George, WHL; No. 119: Daniel Bernhardt, right wing, Sweden, Djurgarden Jr., Sweden-Jr.; No. 184: Adam Huska, goalie, Slovakia, Green Bay, USHL.