Now it’s next year. Eyes are on the championship in 2025. Not much will be said about the conference finals loss, much less talked about in the last 48 hours or so. The Rangers’ weaknesses were exposed against a physically superior opponent in a heavyweight matchup.
Would things have been different?
Let’s look back at the trade deadline, during which general manager Chris Drury tried to fill holes with usable pieces rather than going all in on Jake Guenzel to complete a line with Mika Zibandjed and Chris Kreider or a package of Adam Henrique and Frank Vatrano to fill that hole and the third-line center spot.
The deadline was March 8. Henrique was traded to the Oilers on March 6. Guenzel was traded to the Hurricanes on March 7.
At that point, the Rangers were weeks removed from a 10-game winning streak that began before the All-Star break. The Blueshirts were 1-2-1, having lost a shootout in Toronto when Matt Rempe answered a Ryan Reeves fight, and then suffered a somewhat decisive loss to Florida at the Garden.
Guenzel was a rental. Henrique was a rental. Vatrano, who had one year left on his contract with a $3.65 million cap hit, didn’t want to be traded, but Anaheim general manager Pat Birbeck made it clear he would have to pay a high price to acquire the winger.
If you consider Rangers were just a few goals short of reaching the Cup final (technically accurate), then it’s understandable that Drury would regret not signing a genuine big-time goalscorer. His initial guess may have been wrong, too.
And Capo Kakko, who Drury declined to include in the trade, is certainly up for debate given his disappointing playoff run, which included sitting out Game 2 against the Panthers for health reasons.
Guenzel is a big goalscorer. He’s had great success in the playoffs. If Rangers are doing well, he would be a great player to go on loan and give it his all.
You could argue that Drury should have been it, that the Blueshirts were the only addition to the team.
I think this argument would be more compelling if the Rangers hadn’t beaten a team that gave up six assets, including a first-round draft pick, to acquire Guentzel.
I also think we’re deluding ourselves a bit if we think the difference between the Rangers and Panthers can be boiled down to a few goals here and there.
That is a denial and I hope that Mr. Drury and higher-ups do not view it that way.
Strikeout
Let me ask you this: After scoring three goals in the first three games of the Carolina series, going scoreless in the next three and only notching one assist in Game 4, do you think Guenzel could be a part of the starting power play unit? Probably not.
Now, No. 59 would have elevated PP2, which honestly was unrepresentative leading up to Game 6. I mean no disrespect to anyone, but there were only five players in PP2 on Saturday night: Alexis Lafreniere, Jack Roslovic, Alex Wennberg, Johnny Brodzinski and Erik Gustafsson.
The Roslovic deal wasn’t just a failure; Whammer vs Roy Hobbs At that station.
Roslovic was a last-minute deal with Columbus after Caps guard Max Pacioletti decided not to waive his no-role clause and accept a deal to move to New York.
Roslovic was the last item left in an overstocked box, and the price — a 2026 fourth-round draft pick that would have become a third-round pick had the Rangers reached the Finals — was just too high.
The winger saw some action in the regular season and the Caps series, including helping set up Chris Kreider’s hat trick and the game-winning goal in Game 6 against Carolina, and was pretty effective.
But Roslovic was nowhere to be seen in the conference finals, eventually joining the fourth line and playing nine minutes and nine seconds in Game 6. No. 96 actually had one of the Blueshirts’ best scoring chances of the night, but midway through the first period, he missed a wide net five feet away on one of Sergei Bobrovsky’s few out-of-control rebounds left in the series.
Waiting for Wennberg
Ultimately, the Rangers would have been better off promoting Jimmy Vesey to the right wing position alongside Zibanejad and Kreider and acquiring a fourth-line player in place of Roslovic.
But that’s hindsight, I’ll admit it.
The Washington Post reported on Feb. 20 that the Rangers had been targeting Wennberg in the weeks leading up to the deadline, but the Rangers then backed out of a deal that would have sent a 2024 second-round draft pick and a 2025 fourth-round draft pick to Seattle in exchange for the 29-year-old soon-to-be free agent.
Wennberg handled his job as a check-heavy third-line center even though his offensive power seemed to falter down the stretch, with the Swede refusing to hit the puck.
But the offensive deficiencies of No. 91 and the third line wouldn’t have been an issue if the Blueshirts had scored from Zibanejad, Kreider, Artemi Panarin and the power play against the Panthers. Wennberg at least scored the overtime winner in the Blueshirts’ final win of the season.
I have no doubt about that at all.
I also do not doubt the deadline approach that I supported at the time.
