The Rangers Rebuild Continues Full-Steam Ahead

Mats Zuccarello, Kevin Hayes, and Adam McQuaid are no longer Blueshirts. Where do we go now?

This is what rebuilds are folks: trading away your best assets — fan favorites make it all tougher — for futures. We knew — at least some of did — that this was going to happen when that letter was released last year. But now, for the second consecutive trade deadline, the Rangers have been sellers. Gone are Mats Zuccarello, Kevin Hayes and Adam Mcquaid. They got a lot of picks back, which is absolutely something you need when rebuilding your hockey team. Here are all the moves Jeff Gorton has made since “The Letter” came out last season:

And here are all the deals he made this year:

Let’s go through each of the deadline trades individually, shall we?

Mats Zuccarello to Dallas for a 2019 Conditional 2nd-Rounder and a 2020 Conditional 3rd-Rounder

The conditions on these picks are what makes the deal interesting. The 2019 pick becomes a first if the Stars make the Western Conference Final and the 2020 pick becomes a first if the Stars re-sign Zuccarello. Look, it sucks losing Zucc; he’s a fan favorite who we saw grow in front of our eyes. He was a part of the best run the Rangers’ have had in 20 years. We’re all fans at heart, so in our eyes, whatever the Rangers got wouldn’t be enough. But they did pretty well here, especially considering the conditions on the picks. Gustav Nyquist, a similar player to Zuccarello, fetched a 2nd- and 3rd-round pick from the Sharks and Wayne Simmonds fetched a bottom-six NHL player and a 4th-round pick.

Zuccarello breaking his arm in his first game with the Stars definitely hurts their chances of going far in the playoffs. But if they miss the playoffs, that 2nd-rounder just becomes a better pick. For this deal, I think the Rangers did quite well and fans will realize that once the emotions calm down.

Kevin Hayes to Winnipeg for Brendan Lemieux, 2019 1st-Round Pick and 2022 Conditional 4th-Round Pick

Another pretty good haul for the Rangers. Hayes reportedly wants a 7/49 deal this off-season, which is a shit-ton for a 2nd/3rd line center (albeit a pretty damn good one). I don’t know much about Lemieux, so that’ll be on my list this week. The 1st-round pick is the big thing here. Getting another 1st means the Rangers can potentially have four (4) 1st-rounders this year — their own, the Jets’, the Stars’ and the Lightning’s. The 4th-rounder only converts if the Jets win the cup this year.

Would we have all liked a blue-chip prospect for Hayes? Absolutely. But that clearly wasn’t on the table. So getting a 1st is big. All in all, I think this is a good deal for the Rangers.

Adam McQuaid to Columbus for Julius Bergman, a 2019 4th-Round Pick and a 2019 7th-Round Pick

The Rangers recouped the 4th- and 7th-Round picks they gave up to get McQuaid and got a reclamation project in Bergman; Darren Raddysh, who was acquired from the Blackhawks for Peter Holland, also fits the reclamation project mold. This seems to be the MO for both the Rangers and the Knicks: find former high draft picks who haven’t worked out for whatever reason and see if you can unlock the talent that is clearly there. They did it with Ryan Strome as well, and so far that’s been a win.

McQuaid is going to be Torts’ favorite defenseman in Columbus. Guy is nails and a solid depth player. He’s definitely not a fancy stats god or anything like that, but he’ll be good for the Blue Jackets in a depth role.

So to sum it all up: I think the Rangers did pretty well here. They got more picks, which just makes them more flexible moving forward. A cap-strapped team has to trade a young RFA? Dope, the Rangers can get in on it. Some dumbass GM wants to trade a star for character issues? Let’s get after it. A team is looking to offload a bad contract and is willing to give up picks and/or prospects to do it? Come on over. The rebuild is definitely not over, but, to me at least, it’s heading in the right direction.