Sam Bennett, Ryan Donato, and the Ghosts of Free Agent Centers Past

Now that we’re finally done with NHL season—and the Florida Panthers have captured a second consecutive Stanley Cup—we can try to optimistically look ahead to see how the New York Rangers can fix all the things that went abhorrently wrong with this team this past year.

There are many people with many opinions, but one of the most resoundingly consistent ones is that the Rangers need to punt Mika Zibanejad and bring in a better/more consistent top six center. Yes, Mika had a very strong couple of months since J.T. Miller joined the team, but he makes a ton of money and this is the second year in a row where his inability to play good hockey for large stretches of the season has been a problem.

To be clear, the trade to land Zibanejad was one of the best the Rangers have made in recent history. For a time he was absolutely one of the best players in the organization, he earned the extension that he was signed to. I think we all figured it would end badly because this is true. We just didn’t anticipate that point being two years in. Despite how terribly he's played for much of the last two years, I still believe there is a wealth of talent there: You still see flashes of the speed, the shot, the dynamic 200 foot game. It's all still there, just not consistently. He was really good after Miller arrived and that carried through to a strong IIHF World Championship tournament where he recorded five goals and three assists in nine games.

There have also been whispers that Mike Sullivan feels like he can get Mika back on his game. That's part of why David Quinn was hired as an assistant was, because of his previous relationship with Mika. That all being said, there's also talk that Drury has already had conversations with Mika about how it's in everyone's best interests for the two parties to make a clean break, and perhaps the deal to send Chris Kreider to the Anaheim Ducks was step one in moving that along. Mika's wife has since pointed out that the couple is very happy in New York and that any rumors about Mika waiving his NMC are baseless.

The bigger question for me is, whether Mika is traded or moved to wing, what do they do to replace Mika down the middle? It would be an understatement to say that the Rangers are organizationally thin at center. They are anorexic at center. They are 'Kate Moss after a bout of food poisoning with an ipecac chaser' at center. If you remove Mika, there’s not a single center in this organization who should be playing in a top six role next year (yes, I include Trocheck in that).

Unfortunately, this free agent market doesn’t offer any solutions.