Rangers rebuild on organic diet

DALLAS — It has been four decades since the Rangers built their team primarily through the draft — the 1970s, when homegrown Steve Vickers, Pat Hickey, Dave Maloney, Ron Greschner, Don Murdoch, Dave Farrish, Mike McEwen, Lucien DeBlois, Ron Duguay, Mario Marois and Don Maloney formed the foundation of the club that went to the 1979 Stanley Cup finals.

Add to that the availability of prime-time players such as Erik Karlsson and Artemi Panarin, who would look mighty good in Broadway Blue, and skepticism of the current administration’s commitment to rebuilding might be somewhat understandable.

But the bills associated with the last half-decade of going all in have come due, and no one who matters within the organization believes otherwise. The Rangers aren’t trading away a boatload of draft picks and prospects. The letter signed by president Glen Sather and general manager Jeff Gorton detailing the club’s plans that was sent to season ticketholders in early February was not a forgery.

Gorton, of course, is entertaining all scenarios. If Columbus GM Jarmo Kekalainen were to offer the electrifying Panarin, who yearns to play in a big market, straight up for the ninth-overall pick, you bet the Rangers would jump at it (under the condition the winger would sign an extension to keep him from becoming a free agent next summer). But let’s at least try to be serious here.

That is not the world in which Gorton lives, even if the GM said on Thursday that he is willing to entertain “a lot of different scenarios.” Of course he is. But the front office is not looking for Band-Aids or short cuts. The Rangers are not veering from the plan that was set into motion a mere four months ago when they divested themselves of what seemed like a roomful of accomplished veterans.

On a day when Gorton reaffirmed the broad strokes of his plan, the Islanders were introducing veteran Cup winner Barry Trotz as their head coach. The Rangers could have waited for Trotz to become available. The signs that he would leave Washington at the end of the playoffs were there all along. At another time, say in 2013 when Alain Vigneault was hired to replace John Tortorella, the Blueshirts likely would have gone that route.

Instead, Gorton and the hierarchy focused on hiring a fresh face, voice and approach. With Lou Lamoriello now in the picture across the East River, there is no guarantee Trotz would have chosen the current Rangers over the Islanders, anyway. And had the Blueshirts come up empty, rest assured David Quinn would not have been available at this late date. Surely, he would have remained at Boston University rather than come to the Rangers as a fall-back. Quinn does not strike me as a fall-back kind of guy.

So this is where we stand at the juncture of Seventh Avenue and 31st and 33rd streets. The Rangers, who should have oodles of cap space throughout the season with which to operate, are not going into a cocoon. If a price-is-right player becomes available, they will jump in. But they are dedicated to building first from within, and supplementing later. That’s what they plan to do while owning five of the first 48 picks in the draft that commences with Round 1 on Friday.

There is much interest around the league in Kevin Hayes, seemingly much less so in Vlad Namestnikov, as Gorton talks with general managers. No surprise there. But the return for No. 13 would have to be substantial in order for the Rangers to move the impending restricted free agent.

It has been said and re-said that the Rangers do not believe they would get a better player at, say, six than nine. One caveat: if Brady Tkachuk slides past five or six, then maybe, just maybe, the Blueshirts would be willing to add a sweetener in order to move up a few slots to reunite the truculent winger with his college coach. But that seems a longshot.

Listen, it is not as if the Rangers are exactly starting from scratch. Henrik Lundqvist alone gives the team a chance to win on any given night. Gorton is not sending a skeleton squad onto the ice in front of his goaltender. The Rangers intend to compete, not turtle. They’re on the lookout for righty defensemen, but then, so is about everyone.

Gorton is going about this the old fashioned way. It is the only way. Back in the 1970s, the kids were nurtured, the team fell out of the playoffs for a couple of years, but then Anders Hedberg and Ulf Nilsson brought their talents to Broadway and it was ooh-la-la time.

Every 40 years, organic is the way to grow.