So we have it on good authority that the Rangers were indeed in on the bidding for Montreal shutdown center Phillip Danault when the free-agent market opened at noon on Wednesday, but dropped out when the bidding yielded a six-year offer of an average annual value of $5.5 million per season from the Kings.
This was a judicious decision from general manager Chris Drury, who is confronting a cap squeeze of considerable proportions for 2022-23. Morten Harket, lead singer of the band, A-ha, may not agree, but better to be safe than sorry as it pertains to the 28-year-old who probably doesn’t bring quite enough offensively to slot in as a second-liner and projects as a third-liner for a championship contender.
But the prudent call did nothing to address the lingering uncertainty in the middle, where the club is caught in a holding pattern created by pending extension talks with Mika Zibanejad, pending trade talks with Buffalo about Jack Eichel and ambiguity about the plan for Ryan Strome.
Until the issue is resolved, until Drury essentially chooses between extending Zibanejad and trading for Eichel, the 2021-22 Rangers are just a fuzzy picture. It all flows from there.
Yes, Pavel Buchnevich was dealt away. Yes, management is addressing the grind deficiency and size-and-strength shortage by signing Barclay Goodrow, Patrik Nemeth, Sammy Blais and Jarred Tinordi. Beyond that, we’re told that Drury was investigating signing Boston smashmouth purveyor Nick Ritchie as the day evolved.
But with all that, Drury’s first summer in charge can be distilled to his call on Eichel. Supposed suitors are dropping out, just like the Sabres annually do in the playoff chase. Vegas might be in the mix after clearing out $7 million of space by unceremoniously shipping Marc-Andre Fleury to Chicago but the longer this plays out, the more it seems that Drury is negotiating against himself.
This is reminiscent of the situation around Rick Nash during the summer of 2012. At age 28 and with six years remaining on his contract at an AAV of $7.8 million per, Nash wanted out of Columbus. He had a no-move clause that he’d only waive to come to the Rangers. Glen Sather, then the general manager, had tried to acquire Nash at the trade deadline before negotiations broke down because of the Jackets’ greed.
Talks resumed after the Blueshirts had been beaten in the conference finals by the Devils. The Rangers were bidding against themselves. There was no deal at the draft. There was no deal when the free-agent market opened on July 1. No deal the following week, the week after or even the week after that.
The deal was made on July 23. The Rangers protected their most valuable young assets — at one time Columbus was “demanding” some sort of permutation that would have included Chris Kreider or Derek Stepan and J.T Miller or Carl Hagelin and/or Brandon Dubinsky and Ryan McDonagh and/or Michael Del Zotto — before finally sending Dubinsky, Artem Anisimov, Tim Erixon and a first-rounder to Columbus for Nash.
Sather did not panic. Neither should Drury. There is no rush. There is no deadline on this. If the Rangers are outbid by Vegas or an unidentified mystery team, so be it. The Blueshirts have every bit as much leverage as Buffalo. It would be malpractice for Drury not to use it.
Plus, it is not as if the Rangers do not have an option, maybe even a preferred one. That would be retaining Zibanejad on an extension that makes sense for both parties. Because remember: it is not just Mika versus Jack in the evaluation process. It is Zibanejad on a contract probably in the range of $10 million per starting at age 29 versus Eichel at age 25 on a contract with five years to go at $10 million per plus the cost of acquisition. (This does not take into account immediate concerns about the Sabre’s health as it relates to possible surgery).
Sending Filip Chytil, Vitaly Kravtsov, Zac Jones and a first-rounder to the Sabres makes sense in a vacuum. Maybe it makes sense, period. But after already having traded Buchnevich, this kind of a trade all but obliterates the potential high-end depth former GM Jeff Gorton’s regime collected the last three-plus years.
From having too many to fit into the top six, the Rangers could have too few, lickety-split, in the face of an injury. This would be a trade for the long term, that’s understood, but what is the plan if Eichel is sidelined the first four or five months this season?
The questions today, the questions tomorrow, they are the same as the ones Drury has been confronting for weeks. Perhaps even for a few more weeks after this. Again, say after me: it is better to be safe than sorry.