A Scary Yet Important Thought to Consider

and a Gaborik resurgence away from a Cup contender (and they both are probably one in the same. The pups like Stepan and McDounagh another year with us will get better too.

Why the hell would we trade Lundqvist? Its not even a thought, especially with elite goalies Tim Thomas and Bobby Lou taking their teams to the Cup (the Canucks defense is horrible at times too).

The Rangers might just be closer than you think, so trading these guys is not a thought.

….you don’t trade them away. That would be like taking the engine out of your car because the tires are a little worn and the paint’s rusting.

Stay the course I say…..contention is near.

we have a playoff team and we are a few offensive players away from doing something big here

but yes at times I feel like Hank is being wasted when he goes out night after night and plays his ass off while his team cant score 2-3 goals

Don’t worry about Lunqvist. Look at that asshole Thomas who is likely to grab a Conn Smythe at 37 and has had his best years late in his career. I think we can all agree Hank is a superiior athlete and goaltender. Hank is still young and has plenty of excellent years ahead of him, god willing health-wise.

1) “The New York Rangers have had bad luck in the past with their on-ice personnel, i.e. bad signings, draft busts, and fluctuating team chemistries. The players, coaches, front office, and the fans, suffer through this.”

That was the past. The team is doing great right now. A lot of good young players, Sather is doing a good job in the trades (And as a Sather Hater, I can honestly say he is doing a good job overall right now). The team is drafting well. They are shying away from the bad signings. Last year was an exciting year and a great year overall for Rangers fans. And with all these young kids and talent, we have a lot to look forward to.

2) “the signing of the horrid Donald Brashear.”

You can blame Torts for that.

3) “He (Gaborik) has one of the best snipes in the league and when healthy a dominant force. He has talent that needs to be shown off and used in the playoffs.”

That’s all on him. He could of done a lot more for us last year (especially in the playoffs)

4) “His 22 goals were still top-5 on the team”

22 goals for Top 5 on the team is very good. It looks worse when you consider the fact that 10 of those goals came in 3 games. Gaborik needs to step up and play like he did in the previous season..

5) “Hank never got any consideration for a Vezina nomination after producing a 2.28 GAA with a 92.3 save percentage and 11 shutouts.”

That’s completely false. He got a lot of consideration. He was definitely 4th or 5th. He has gotten a lot of praise for his great season. Thomas and Rinne both deserved it over him but he should’ve been nominated over LOLuongo.

6) “But now, given the current circumstances, that talent is about to get wasted.”

You could have said this 2-3 years ago (I think I even did a post on this at one point) but right now that’s not true. This team is in a great space and if some of their top players stepped up (cough Gaborik) they could’ve made it past the 1st round last year. It also would’ve helped to have Callahan. They will definitely be a top team in the east if they add another top player and get Gaborik back on track. (The edition of Erixon was big especially if he players this year. Now go add a Top Center and maybe 1 more scorer)

I would definitely trade Gaborik if we could get good value in return. We would never get anything equal to Hanks value and I would never trade him.

Overall I don’t understand this post. I feel like it’s stuck 2 years in the past. Right now everything is good in RangerLand. As fans we should all be excited for the bright future.

they wouldn’t be better if they didn’t add a piece. I said they would be better than last year’s team because of the improvement of the players we already have even if hey don’t add anyone. I realize we would obvioulsy be better if we added richards or something, but i think we are still in a rebuilding process.

 i do not expect to contend for a cup next season. let’s continue to let our young guys develop and then reassess where we are and consider adding more pieces. Afterall, our most talented scorers (other than gabby) have no NHL experience. one rebuilidng season won’t cut it.

I realize we brought gabby in to be the focal point of our offense, but I believe if he played with a true high-scoring power forward or another sniper on the opposite wing, he would truly be in his element. I don’t think we will ever win with gabby as our go-to scorer (just my opinion)

To summarize, one or two rebuilding seasons won’t cut it. Our cup contention is a long-term project. We are on the right track, but we will not ever win while gabby and hank are at their apex. That’s jus the reality of it to me.

we agree on everything. I have no problem with trading gabby. I realize gabby has the potential to create offense, but its just my opinion that his skill set can better serve a cup contending team as a second option. Being that our first option is still developing or hasn’t even been drafted yet, it may be in our best interest to trade him to a team like LA that is truly one or two pieces away.

I don’t want to rush kreider or thomas and am fine with bringing them along slowly. I do believe that dubi/anisimov/stepan/grachev need to make profound strides in their games if we want to compete anytime soon.

If we do decide to keep Gabby, he will have to be a second option on one of our cup contending teams. his legs/mobility won’t be the same, but hopefully his shot will still be a factor in open spaces.

That would mean that Gabby was actually producing the way we need him too, and more importantly WHEN we need him too. It also would mean he was playing at the level for two seasons straight, because there is NO WAY, no matter how good his season is next year, he says anything about other guys play after the season Gabby had last year.