Kukla's Korner Hockey

Kukla's Korner Hockey

Don't Do It New York Rangers

06/24/2017 at 7:10am EDT

from Larry Brooks of the New York Post,

The last thing the Rangers should do and the last thing the Rangers intend to do is to leap head-first into the free-agent pool and dole out the kinds of long-term, big-money contracts to players on the wrong side of 26 years of age that have handcuffed this franchise the past two seasons.

The temptation and the cap space in the wake of Derek Stepan’s departure to the desert are both there, all right, for general manager Jeff Gorton to outbid the world and grant defenseman Kevin Shattenkirk and center Alexander Radulov lengthy deals for $40 million plus.

But that would be all wrong for this franchise, which is kind of mystery meat at the moment. This is the time for Gorton to take a deep breath and etch a plan for the future through which the Blueshirts retain maximum maneuverability and are not caught with guys who can be expected to naturally regress three or four years into their respective contracts.

The Rangers just escaped cap hell in a painful process in which they essentially were forced to shed Stepan and Dan Girardi, franchise bedrocks who became contract anvils. They are not going to take the immediate plunge back into it by signing Shattenkirk, whom they have had repeated opportunities to acquire over the past 15 months, or Radulov.

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About Kukla's Korner Hockey

Paul Kukla founded Kukla’s Korner in 2005 and the site has since become the must-read site on the ‘net for all the latest happenings around the NHL.

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