Kukla's Korner Hockey

Kukla's Korner Hockey

Not Much Has Changed With The New York Rangers

07/06/2016 at 8:29am EDT

from Larry Brooks of the New York Post,

Jeff Gorton has to be as surprised as anyone that, three months from the start of next season, the Rangers are almost the exact same team that was not good enough last season. Except minus their best defenseman and power-play quarterback the second half of the season, both of whom were named Keith Yandle. Because believe me, this was not the plan.

But Gorton, in his first full offseason as general manager, is not just some innocent bystander here. He is the decider. From what we’ve gleaned, the Blueshirts, a) are extremely reluctant to trade Derek Stepan; b) won’t trade Ryan McDonagh; c) cannot get anything even remotely resembling equal value for Rick Nash; d) have not been shopping Chris Kreider.

So when removing those players from the equation — after making the decision not to buy out either Dan Girardi or Marc Staal and thus incur $12 million of empty cap space over eight years on the former and/or $21.77 million of dead cap space over 10 years on the latter — how exactly do the Blueshirts expect to change the equation and dynamic on Broadway next year?

The Rangers’ core has been at the heart of a five-season run of notable success. But at its best, it was not good enough to win the Stanley Cup. So why would anyone think this same group can be good enough to win this year?

read on

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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.

From breaking news to in-depth stories around the league, KK Hockey is updated with fresh stories all day long and will bring you the latest news as quickly as possible.

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