Our Cupboard and Upcoming Cup Window (with implications for Richards)

After the Erixon heist I got to thinking, the result of which was further questioning about Brad Richards and what the Rangers should do to create the best Cup window. Let's start with establishing where we are:

In 4 years this is our defense:

Marc Staal (28, 1 yr left at 4 mil) Tim Erixon (24, 1st yr 2nd contract, Dad discount)

Ryan McDonaugh (25, 2nd yr 2nd contract) Michael Sauer (27, 2nd yr 3rd contract?)

Michael Del Zotto (25 1st yr 3rd contract?) Dylan McIlrath (23, end of EL?)

(Dan Girardi 31, 1st yr after 3.33)

- Looks pretty great to me and is a wake-up call to let players like Del Zotto take their time because this defensive line-up is nasty and young. Imagine. If McIlrath barely flirts with expectations he will bring enough D and toughness to be a great third pair guy. DelZ will have good enough D for third pair and can be given a year in Hartford or whatever it takes to figure out how to use his offense. McD and Sauer are already a pretty damn good 2nd pair and McD skates and moves puck well so maybe we get some offense. Staal, nothing needs to be said although he will probably become a 40 pt/yr D-man just based on his ice-time and skill. Erixon has promise on offense and is very solid on Defense. Truthfully Erixon, McD, and Sauer are probably a rotation for the top pair maybe Staal/Sauer (who plays a little like Girardi) and then McD and Erixon a very mobile yet defensive pair that can do damage against 2nd lines. Del Z and McIl trustworthy but specialty guys and do real damage against third lines.

- Obviously there is a great chance that Girardi will still be around, I simply leave him out as he is older and even without him you get a sense of the Rangers' amazing foundation on D. It certainly isn't a reach to expect any of these players to be able to play these roles. We also have Kundratek, Valentenko, and Pashnin who all seem like they have NHL careers ahead of them and thus are trade chips or perhaps allow us to trade someone like Sauer and one of them or another prospect for a very good forward (I mention Sauer because teams will pay more for a known thing ie someone with NHL experience. Sather will have to figure that all out as this D may be too good and may not give enough time to McIlrath and those three prospects as 2nd pair and 3rd pair guys respectively and so we can take that excess and turn it into offense).

Forwards four years out is as follows:

Ryan Callahan (29, probably last yr of a 4 yr/ 4 mil contract)

Brandon Dubinsky (28, probably last yr of a 4 yr/ 4 mil contract)

Derek Stepan (24, 2nd year of 2nd contract, 5 yr/ 5 mil?)

Artem Anisimov (26, maybe 1st yr of 4 yr/ 4 mil contract to put on Duby/Cally path or 4yr/ 5 mil?)

Brandon Prust (30)

Christian Thomas (22, hopefully 2 yrs experience)

Evgeny Grachev (24, hopefully 2 yrs experience)

Chris Kreider (23, hopefully 2 yrs probably 3)

MZA (27, 4 yrs exp, most likely to be traded)

Hagelin/Bourque/Lindberg (young)

Think of Boston right now. They have a lot of 60 point talent guys but no PPG studs. This line-up would be similar. Callahan and Duby should be regular 60 point guys, as should Stepan and AA. Christian Thomas and Kreider have immense offensive upside and by all accounts are responsible defensively. Grachev and MZA could be interesting players but are still question marks. Hagelin Bourque and Lindberg, with Bourque as the biggest question mark, are great two way players with some solid offense for the bottom 6. Prust can still be a heart and soul guy if his body holds up. We therefore have 4 60 point guys, two more who certainly have a chance at that, MZA and Grachev who may also, and a good bottom 6 (add in Dale Weiss maybe etc)

As for Hank, he will be 32 and having just finished the highest paid goalie contract and with a good D in front. I'm sure he will sign for whatever the club needs and can probably/hopefully start for another 3-5 years and maybe backup after that. I'm sure everyone will sign good contracts as they are all homegrown, especially the D who will look to Staal as the model.

Therefore without drafting another player, signing one, or trading for one, I think we have a roster that could be a cup contender with pretty realistic talent and expectations of what players will become (obviously fill in one or two bottom six spots). Getting Richards now may make it hard for this roster to flourish as it can starting 3 years out and lasting for at least 4 if not something like 7. We therefore have to ask how committed we are to a rebuild because we have all the seeds and now have to give them time to grow. Rather than Richards I might actually look to trade some of our D for a player that fits this window of 3-9 years from now better. Maybe the Aves still want to shore up their D and are willing to part with Statsny (although his contract may be a little bloated too) or maybe we trade less to take a chance on Peter Mueller (I think we were interested in him before although now there are injury concerns). Maybe San Jose with only 3 good young D now and having tried to get Hjalmerblah on an offer sheet recently to go young on D would entertain offers for Pavelski or Couture (Pavelski especially as he is older. I think he would be good for us as with limited talent on Sharks third line this past year he had 46 assists in 74 games and I think a big presence on the PP, has also been pretty solid in the playoffs when given the time). If we can find a way to keep Kundratek Pashnin and Valentenko within the system for another year or two without pulling a PA Parenteau, maybe we can watch a player like Ryan Johanson and, if he is gonna be a real star, maybe trade Dubby and a prospect or some variation of that to have a little more top-tier talent (you have to give to get)*I obviously haven't done this for other teams futures (although I hope Sather and co have) and don't know how the Aves and Sharks D prospects are but I'm sure someone in the league has a young talented center (actually not that many under 25) or a really promising prospect we could go after if they were one of the last pieces.

So my vision is to continue drafting and trading probably. Richards is tempting and deserves looking into if a good contract can be made like 8 million the first three years and two years of 5 after so if he deteriorated he could be traded to a salary floor team or easily put in Hartford. But if we keep succeeding in the draft and add more and more talented forwards while turning our excellent foundation at D into even more offense, we may not have a superstar but I'd be shocked if we didn't have an extremely deep, homegrown, committed team in three years. Add a typical trade deadline move or what-have-you and the parades will begin.

What do you guys think? Reasonable assumptions? A cup worthy team? What to do with all these D excess?  Young players you would like to trade for (maybe look at the bottom of hockey futures organization rankings and see if those teams have any good young players on their roster now)? It's definitely an exciting time to be a Rangers fan and as always with Sather, this summer will be very interesting...