The New York Rangers’ recent rebuild was a total unicorn

Just over four years ago in February 2018, the New York Rangers and then-general manager Jeff Gorton penned a cute little letter to their fans saying that it was time to restock the cupboards and embark on a rebuild.

The Henrik Lundqvist era was creaking to a shut, they were no longer a threat in the east, and there was nothing imminent to suggest that was going to change.

They had an excellent run, though.

From 2005-2017, the Rangers only missed the playoffs once, made three Conference Finals appearances, and earned a trip to the Stanley Cup final in 2014. They were never able to win the Cup on the back of Henrik Lundqvist’s broad shoulders, Rangers fans wouldn’t have a ton to complain about over that time frame.

Fast forward to today and New York now sits comfortably among the elite in the Eastern Conference with a 31-13-4 record, have one of the best goalies in the league, the world’s most proficient bread man, and the NHL’s reigning Norris winner. It doesn’t hurt when Mika Zibanejad is your second best forward, either.

Rostering elite players at each of center, wing, defense, and goalie are the minimum to compete for a Cup these days, and the Rangers certainly meet that threshold.

I always enjoy diving into rebuilds, but let’s get one thing straight: due to the uniqueness of New York’s market – one of the league’s most desirable free agent locations – and some outrageous draft lottery luck, this rebuild was anything but normal.

So how did they get there? 

Rangers leverage free agent appeal for massive gains

To be clear, this isn’t a complaint about New York being an attractive destination for free agents. As an Atlanta Thrashers fan assimilated to Jets nation, I long ago accepted the imbalance of desirability for each individual market. New York is one of the capitals of the sports world and the Rangers have a compelling history within the league. It makes complete sense players want to play hockey at Madison Square Garden.

That being said, that appeal gives the Rangers a clear advantage – particularly when it comes to attracting college free agents who are either undrafted or play out their four year college career and break free from the team that drafted them.

Let’s consider the addition of Jacob Trouba back in the 2019 off season.

Trouba hasn’t found the lofty 50 point benchmark he made during his final season with Winnipeg, where he and Josh Morrissey formed a lethal shutdown pair while both contributing offensively. But he is still a no doubt top pairing defenseman who takes care of his own end first, and is capable of helping out in the attacking zone too. It also helps that he’s right handed, and has a boomer of a clapper.

But the way Trouba was acquired by New York is so Rangers-esque it hurts.

On June 17th, 2019, the Rangers shipped out defenseman Neal Pionk and the 20th overall draft pick in the upcoming 2019 draft to acquire Trouba.

I’m not on TSN’s The Insiders, so I’m not going to pretend I know who was really in the mix for Neal Pionk when he scored 34 points in 42 games as a freshman and became a coveted, undrafted college free agent in 2017. But, given the Rangers’ history in acquiring college free agents and attracting talent in general, it’s no surprise he ended up in New York. The Rangers got a promising 21 year old defenseman without having to spend a draft pick or give up an asset. Which is tidy work no matter which way you look at it.

The first round draft pick they sent over to Winnipeg was actually Winnipeg’s draft pick that they had traded to New York three months earlier at the trade deadline. The Jets needed to bolster their depth at center, and acquired Kevin Hayes from New York in exchange for the aforementioned 2019 first rounder, a 4th rounder, and Brendan Lemieux.

Well, guess how they acquired Hayes in the first place?

That’s right, college free agency. Hayes was actually drafted 24th overall by the Chicago Blackhawks in the 2010 NHL draft, an excellent late first round selection after winning their first of three Stanley Cups that decade.

Hayes elected to play out his entire four year college career, which, in the current CBA, means you become untethered to the franchise that drafted you and become a free agent. It’s no surprise he ended up choosing New York, because you know, New York. They needed a good centerman behind Derick Brassard and Derek Stepan, and they found him. They went to the Cup Final that year but fell to Los Angeles.

Point is, they acquired a 23 year old, 45 point centerman in Hayes under very similar circumstances to Pionk: without spending a draft pick, and without having to move an asset. I guess having one of the most iconic skylines in the world is a selling point, or something. Maybe it’s the cabs?

Regardless, that is ultimately Hayes and Pionk for Trouba. Two assets they acquired basically for free just from being New York. And then they eventually converted them into a top pairing, no nonsense two-way defenseman.

The next way New York was rewarded for being New York was when reigning Norris Trophy winner Adam Fox was dominating the college circuit back in 2019. Fox was a superb 3rd round selection by the Calgary Flames in 2016 – at least until it became clear he wasn’t going to sign with them.

When Calgary came to terms with that reality, Fox became the wildcard of the June 2018 blockbuster that sent Dougie Hamilton, Fox, and Michael Ferland over to the Hurricanes for Elias Lindholm and Noah Hanifin. He was the only prospect moved in the deal, and while people “liked” him, I’d say most fans weren’t predicting this level of impact.

Now, Fox has his right within the CBA to play out his college career and become a free agent if he wishes. But the Jericho, New York native also refused to sign with Carolina, leading to a trade at the end of April 2019 where the Hurricanes cut their losses and sent him to New York in exchange for two conditional second round draft picks.

The result? New York gets the inside edge on a college defenseman who torched Harvard’s college league with 116 points over 97 games. He has since converted that into 136 points in 170 NHL games, a Norris Trophy, and is the key player in one of the best trades made in the last 5 years. Yes, New York had the inside edge, but they did part with two solid assets to acquire him.

Long story short, Trouba and Fox have been absolutely massive to New York’s ascent.

The final piece of New York’s advantage is Artemi Panarin. There’s not really much explanation required here. Pan-Pan has 205 points in 154 games as a Ranger, which is a 110 point pace over an 82 game season. That is saucy.

I didn’t do any research into this claim, but Panarin has to be the best free agent signing of the salary cap era. Loui Eriksson or Ilya Bryzgalov also come to mind, but 100+ point 26 year old wingers are pretty damn valuable assets to have. Especially when they cost nothing but money and cap space to acquire.

Safe to say, they did better with this signing than they did with Scott Gomez back in 2006. Though, for some reason Montreal wanted him and eventually gave them Ryan McDonagh to do so. It’s a strange world.

Confusing draft record works out for them anyways

The standard outcome of “hey guys, we’re going on a rebuild”, is that you select in the top 10 for five years, ideally get a few lottery picks, and come out with franchise talent you can build around. You know, that whole draft and development thing we’ve all become so obsessed with.

Well, the Rangers never really bottomed out – the worst of their “rebuild” was the 2018 and 2019 seasons where they missed the playoffs and finished with 77 and 78 points, respectively. That put them 24th in the league in 2018, and 26th in 2019. In 2020, they finished 18th in the league, yet won the jackpot in the draft lottery and the right to select Alexis Lafreniere with the 1st overall pick.

The Rangers also got lucky in 2019, hopping up to select 2nd overall despite the 6th best odds to do so, selecting Kappo Kakko. 

Amusingly, the players selected from their “rebuild” years have had a pretty minimal impact on this year’s success. Lafreniere has 13 points in 46 games this year. Kakko has 14 in 37.

Even more interesting, is that their three first round picks from 2017 and 2018 – Lias Andersson (7th, 2017), Filip Chytil (21st, 2017) and Vitali Kravtsov (9th, 2018) – have all made little impact at the NHL level, and don’t look like franchise altering picks. Andersson has already been traded to LA, Kravtsov has a very intriguing blend of size and talent but went back to Russia after a challenging start to his NHL endeavours, and Chytil seems like he could score 15 or 20 goals one day (he had 14 in 60 games when he was 20), but might struggle to earn that opportunity again on this deep, competitive Rangers team.

So that’s three first rounders who are aged 22 and 23 not really moving the needle, which is typically the age when non-blue-chip prospects start making an impact.

And, if we rewind the clock even further to their drafts from 2014-2016, when they were still supremely competitive and made their 2014 run to the Cup final, we’ll see that they have failed to produce a player that’s played more than 100 games from that crop of 20 selections over those 3 drafts. So they’re basically dead drafts. Which is often the price you pay for being competitive.

Buuuuuuuuuut not so fast. 

Their 4th round, 118th overall selection from 2014 seems to be okay, but he’s 26 years old and has only played 78 career games. Most 26 year olds breaking into the league that late won’t become much more than depth players.

Except that this 26 year old is a goaltender, his name is Igor Shesterkin, he has a career save percentage of .928, a career record of 49-21-5, is currently sporting a 2.05 goals against average and .938 save percentage on the season, and has quickly risen to a top 5 goaltender in the league and the running favourite for the Vezina.

So there’s that.

You can call the Rangers lucky for Kaako and Lafreniere falling into their lap, sure. But incubating a goaltending egg for 6 years who hatches in time to perfectly align with the departure of Henrik Lundqvist – one of the best goalies of the salary cap era – and the rebuilding of the entire roster…?

What do you call that? Fate? Destiny? I don’t know, you decide. But if life is timing, this has to be one of the supreme examples.

Mixed trade record results in one of the best and worst trades since 2010

Let’s start with the bad side of New York’s recent trade record here. This deal seemed wacky at the time to me, and is still perplexing when the trajectory of the players New York traded away has been unsurprisingly very good.

On February 26th, 2018, the Rangers moved 23-year old 20-goal scorer JT Miller and 29 year old Captain and perennial 30 point shutdown defenseman Ryan McDonagh for Vladislav Namestnikov, Brett Howden, Libor Hajek, a 2018 1st round pick, and a conditional 2nd round pick in the 2019 draft.

I’m still just completely baffled writing that out.

The 2018 first rounder became defenseman Nils Lundqvist, who appears on his way to becoming a quality NHL defenseman. Howden, Hajek, and (from what I can tell), the 2019 2nd rounder – Karl Henriksson – are irrelevant today and are unlikely to impact the franchise in a meaningful way.

Which leaves Namestnikov, a former 1st rounder whom the Lightning sold very, very, very, very high on, as the centerpiece of the deal.

In 2018, the Russian got off to a hot start over the first three months of the season playing alongside Tampa’s loaded offensive group, scoring 15 goals and 33 points over his first 38 games. Very nice. In January and February, however, he amassed 13 points over 25 games – a much more accurate representation of his 0.5 points-per-game career ceiling.

But the Rangers had seen enough, and deemed him a worthy return if they were going to trade their captain and get this rebuild under way.

In the 262 games since that trade, Namestnikov has accumulated 105 points for four different teams.

Whoops.

From Tampa Bay’s point of view, that has to be one of the best trades of the 2010 decade. McDonagh has been the perfect two-way lefty defenseman to play behind Victor Hedman, while Miller was eventually traded for a few assets and a first round pick, which were in turn used to acquire Blake Coleman from the New Jersey Devils.

And both McDonagh and Coleman won two cups with the Lightning.

…whoops.

However, the Rangers are on the correct side of history for a deal in 2016. That summer, the Rangers traded a 2nd round pick and Derick Brassard – a quality top two centerman – for a talented but frustrating 23 year old Mike Zibanejad who had all the skills of a former 6th overall pick, but hadn’t quite converted it into the output that seemed possible.

Well, Brassard only played two seasons in Ottawa (though he did help them get to game 7 of the Conference Finals in 2017), and Zibby has completely exploded as a Ranger, scoring 154 goals and 332 points across his 370 game career on Broadway. It’s always nice to get a franchise center who breaks out at 24 years old without having to spend 6 years developing him, isn’t it? Ottawa dealt with the growing pains, and New York has reaped the rewards.

Of course, it helps to have the Bread Man saucin’ fresh biscuits right to your tape too.

The final trade worthy of note is when New York capitalized on Peter Chiarelli’s complete destruction of the Edmonton Oilers franchise and flipped the mediocre Ryan Spooner for the now 55ish point center/right wing Ryan Strome. Strome scored just 2 points over his first 18 games in the 2018-19 season, and Chiarelli did what all intelligent negotiators do: he sold really, really low. Textbook, right?

And not to be forgotten, this happened after the other New York team fleeced Chiarelli for the 2015 15th overall pick (Mat Barzal) and a 2nd rounder which was eventually packaged to move up in the draft and select Anthony Beauvillier at 27th in exchange for 29-game Oiler stalwart Griffin Reinhart. Reinhart sits 311th in franchise history for games played as an Oiler, just 1008 behind all time leader Kevin Lowe. He almost made it.

New York franchises 2, Edmonton, 0.

We’ll never see a rebuild like this again

This rebuild or retool or whatever you want to call it is a total unicorn. Right after a trip to the Cup Finals in 2014, New York drafted Shesterkin, who has become one of the best goalies in the league and has seamlessly replaced Henrik Lundqvist. They acquired a 110 point winger through free agency, which is typically where most general managers make their biggest mistakes. They brought in Trouba for what was essentially two free college players. They’re on both sides of two extremely lopsided trades with Zibby and Miler/McDonagh. All of this while striking it rich in the draft lottery and getting 1st and 2nd overall picks that aren’t currently impacting the squad in any significant way. To top it off, ya got the reigning Norris winner because he’s from New York and likes it there.

The Rangers are back. And, given the vast amount of room for growth this team has in its youngsters – Lafreniere, Kakko, the aforementioned Lundqvist, 22 year old defenseman K’Andre Miller, and 20 year old defensive prospect Braden Schneider, it looks like New York is primed for a long string of playoff appearances.

The only question this time, is whether they can reach further heights than the Henrik Lundqvist era and get to give Lord Stanley’s Cup a big ol’ smooch.