RALEIGH, N.C. — Regarding the Rangers, who don’t seem at all limited by the Glass Ceiling:
1. Quietly but forcefully, Ryan McDonagh has re-emerged as a franchise bedrock in recapturing his elite status on the blue line following a couple of seasons in which he played below his standards. Healthy for the first time since suffering his first shoulder separation late in 2013-14, and having embraced the burden of leadership in his third season wearing the “C,” McDonagh is a thoroughbred cloaked in the identity of a work horse, playing all the tough minutes in all the tough areas against all of the league’s toughest opponents.
In switching to the right side on this trip that began with impressive, back-to-back victories over the Sunshine State’s Lightning and Puddy Tats and continues here on Thursday with a match against the Candy Canes, McDonagh has rescued new partner Marc Staal’s season. The universally respected Staal had been a disturbing shell of himself following his post-All-Star break return from his latest concussion before asserting himself in Florida.
Indeed, Staal’s pairing with Nick Holden had become the club’s most problematic union, with each seeming to compound the other’s issues. And as a byproduct of this realignment, Holden has been much better paired with Brendan Smith the last two games. Holden had been on the ice for 17 of the 32 five-on-five goals the Blueshirts had surrendered in the 16 matches following the break through Saturday night’s defeat to Montreal (Staal had been on for 14, Brady Skjei for nine, McDonagh for five, Dan Girardi for four in 11 games, and both Kevin Klein and Adam Clenedening for seven in nine games).
If coach Alain Vigneault maintains this reconstructed top-four alignment, that would allow him to play Girardi with the ever-impressive Skjei on what could be a pretty darn good third pair while maintaining maneuverability within his matchups upon Girardi’s return from his ankle injury.
Girardi may not be what he was in 2011-12, but he adds value to this team, and what seemed a foregone conclusion months ago of a postseason buyout, well, let’s just say his work has confused the issue for general manager Jeff Gorton, who instead may be forced to consider a buyout of Staal.
The numbers, though, are staggering regarding a Staal buyout, under which the Blueshirts would carry $2.133 million of dead space in 2017-18 and 2018-19, $3.133 million in 2019-20, $3.933 million in 2020-21 and $1.433 million for the four years following that. A Girardi buyout would cost the Rangers $2.611 million of dead space next season, $3.611 million in 2018-19 and 2019-20, and $1.111 million the three following years (Thanks, Capfriendly.com).
But those are calculations for later. For now, every Rangers equation starts with McDonagh.
2. So what price will the Rangers have to pay Vegas GM George McPhee, an interested (if not interesting) observer of Tuesday’s 5-2 game in Sunrise, Fla., not to select Antti Raanta in the expansion draft? A second-rounder? A first, if Gorton also wants to keep the Golden Knights’ grubby hands off Jesper Fast?
McPhee is going to have a raft of goaltenders from whom to choose, including impending free agents Ben Bishop, Ryan Miller, Steve Mason and Brian Elliott. Casey Stengel once talked about the importance of having a catcher for the ’62 expansion Mets because without one, the ball would roll to the backstop, and though McPhee doesn’t exactly talk the same language, he needs someone so his nets aren’t filled with pucks.
And even if Raanta, who will be 28 in May and has one year at $1 million remaining on his deal, isn’t the apple of McPhee’s eye, chances are pretty, pretty good that another NHL team would offer him goodies to become the middle man in a three-way deal for the invaluable netminder.
It is going to cost the Rangers to keep Raanta — 13-3/2.03/.933 in his 16 starts — as Henrik Lundqvist’s partner next year. Presuming Gorton is willing and able to do that, it would leave Fast, Michael Grabner and Oscar Lindberg as the most likely to be sacrificed, with the Rangers likely to do what they must to keep Fast, as well.
3. Brandon Pirri will obviously be the scratch when Grabner is able to return to the lineup, but in the interim, is there any rationale for keeping Pirri on the power play rather than using J.T. Miller or Kevin Hayes? Kind of a rhetorical one, there.
4. The Blueshirts signed their 2016 third-rounder Sean Day to an entry-level deal. The 19-year-old, 6-foot-2, 230-pound defenseman, a first-round talent who slipped because of complex family matters, has had an extremely encouraging year for OHL Windsor, where he will remain for the remainder of the season with the Spitfires hosting the Memorial Cup.