Regarding the post-deadline Rangers:
1. Other than the two locker room-wrenching deals in which the Rangers sent away pending free agents Mats Zuccarello and Kevin Hayes in exchange for anticipated going-rate rental packages, nothing surrounding Monday’s deadline affected the Blueshirts nearly as much as Vegas extending Mark Stone for eight years at an annual $9.5 million cap hit after acquiring the winger from Ottawa.
Because if Stone, a nice player who can score but who has never been considered an elite talent, was able to command that price in a no-tax state, you’d have to expect pending free agent Artemi Panarin’s price to come to high-tax New York to play for the Rangers will come in at around $11 million per for seven seasons.
That would give the 27-year-old winger, who will seek the Cup with Columbus as an own-rental, the second-highest cap hit in the NHL, tied with John Tavares and exceeded by only Connor McDavid’s $12.5 million.
Would it be prudent for the Rangers, dying on the vine for elite talent, to make that kind of a commitment to Panarin?
Of course there will be moves between now and the opening of the free-agent market on July 1. At this juncture, though, it appears as if the Rangers will have a large chunk of space with which to work, but these buyers must beware of the motives of those rushing to a high-tax state to play for a bad team.
If the Blueshirts have to bribe people to play here, better they go elsewhere regardless of their talent. Better the Rangers pass. We know what this looks like when the team is filled with mercenaries who came to our city only because the money was overwhelming. It looks like 1998 through 2004.
2. If the Rangers were not going to extend Hayes, the return from Winnipeg of a first-rounder (which should come in between 23rd and 31st overall) and Brendan Lemieux represented a fair going rate for a rental property.
3. Though the trade of Zuccarello unlocked emotions throughout Rangerstown, general manager Jeff Gorton got a fair return in that deal as well. Despite the conditions being somewhat of a long shot, there is even the chance the Blueshirts could wind up with another first-rounder in the mix either this year or next.
“It was a very, very difficult trade to make,” Gorton said. “Obviously he’s a player who is extremely popular with the fans, his teammates, the front office and coaches. It’s always hard to trade a player of that magnitude. We kept him in the loop, but we had a decision to make.
“I understand why he’s so popular and what he meant to us on and off the ice.”
4. The Rangers have left the door ajar for free-agent returns by either or both players, but the chance of a reunion with either seems slim. The Rangers have never been comfortable committing long-term to Hayes; it doesn’t make sense they would in July. And Zuccarello will most certainly be able to command more than the three years as a free agent the Rangers would be comfortable giving the Norwegian, money aside.
5. So the Blueshirts have at least their own and the Jets’ first-rounder in this upcoming entry draft and would add the Lightning’s if they win the Cup and the Stars’ if they go to the conference final and Zuccarello plays in 50 percent of the team’s games in the first two rounds.
Winnipeg’s is going to be a low one and Tampa Bay’s would be 31st. The bottom third of the first round isn’t normally where you find impact players, but there are enough examples (Claude Giroux, 22nd in 2006; John Carlson, 27th in 2008; Evgeny Kuznetsov, 26th in 2010; David Pastrnak, 25th in 2014; Brock Boeser, 23rd in 2015) over the last dozen years that it is not impossible.
6. No team inquired about Henrik Lundqvist. I thought the Sharks, who have the league’s worst five-on-five save percentage and second-poorest overall, might, but they did not.