BOYS IN BLUE
Hayes could be core piece for the youthful Rangers
There won’t be an administrative knee jerk to the back-to-back losses any more than there was a front-office overreaction to the 9-1-1 streak that preceded the Rangers’ twin holiday-weekend disappointments. General manager Jeff Gorton is taking the long view.
“We’re going to watch what unfolds, evaluate and go from there,” Gorton told The Post. “The way we play will be a factor in whatever decisions we make leading into the trade deadline. I’m certainly not in a hurry to do anything.”
Terrible teams with little on which to hang their hats and hopes have rather good reason to disassemble, bottom out and luck into a prime lottery pick to use on a franchise player. But for teams in the expansive middle of the league with attractive young and mid-age assets, the choice is not so clear. Because for every Pittsburgh, there is an Edmonton. For every Chicago, there is a Carolina. For every Toronto, there are the Islanders.
You can finish last, get the first pick and hit the jackpot with Auston Matthews, or you can finish last and wind up with Ryan Murray at second overall as Columbus did in 2014. There are no guarantees, and even fewer than ever with the triple-draw lottery system enacted by the NHL to discourage tanking.
The Rangers do not appear to be either a terrible team or one bereft of a foundation as they focus on getting back on track with Monday’s visit from the equally surprising Senators. So the decisions will be more difficult for the hierarchy than they were in the 2017-18 Season of the Letter, when it was apparent an unsentimental eye acknowledged the program had become stale and an era had ended.
And the decisions start with Kevin Hayes. There are two legitimate reasons for the Rangers to trade Hayes and neither has anything to do with rebuilding. One is if Gorton does not believe the pending free-agent center is worth the contract it would take to keep him off the market and in New York. The other is if the GM could acquire either a goal-scor- ing winger or top-four defenseman under multiple years of contract control who would enhance the Rangers’ chance of contending over the next three or four years, max.
Hayes has been the Rangers’ best player (other than Henrik Lundqvist) since the start of last season. At 26, he has continued to elevate his game while also enriching his linemates. Unless you think you have no chance to compete within the next two or three seasons, it makes no sense to move Hayes for the traditional rental return of a bottom-end firstrounder and a prospect or two. Why trade Hayes, dominant on the puck with escalating pace and an emerging mid-age leader, for a player who might in three, four or five years become what No. 13 is right now?
I’m sorry. When you tell me that your team won’t be ready to win for five years, I hear nothing more than a selffulfilling prophecy, at best, and a plea not to be held accountable, at worst. The Rangers, to be sure, have never said anything of the sort. There is no reason they should start now.
Gorton said Friday he has not begun even preliminary talks with Hayes’ agent, Bob Murray. According to the collective bargaining agreement, an extension cannot be signed until Jan. 1. “We’ve got time,” Gorton said. I’m sorry. Unless there is an impasse or an impact 24-year-old winger or defenseman is coming back in exchange, I’m not trading my best player so maybe I have as good a player in four years, when who knows what the roster and league will look like?
This isn’t about keeping Hayes so the Rangers can make a playoff run. That would be silly. This is about identifying your core players and supplementing them — not subtracting them — under an accelerated remodel. This is about Gorton and the hierarchy’s vision for the future as the GM and his staff keep watchful eyes on the present.