Brooks Rangers' Core Has Run Its Course as Tough Jacob Trouba, Chris Kreider, Mika Zibanejad Decisions Loom

[BrooksBurner]

1 hour ago, Pete said:

Does Mika return to form and shoot more without his BFF?

Can you expand on that? His shot attempts seem to be in line with his career in general

[BrooksBurner]

32 minutes ago, Jdog99 said:

Oh no...a difficult conversation with mopey mika.

 

How's he gonna respond...MOPE to an extreme for the next 6 years?

 

+1 on the cartoon representation of Mika. It’s a dead ringer. Even the long black ears are representative of his hair

[Abe Froman]

Multiple Mika.

[Rangers1994]

2 hours ago, RangersIn7 said:

Trouba is the biggest issue at this point. He’s gotten slower. His play in his own end is below average. He gives you little to nothing offensively. And his cap hit is just too much.

Priority 1 is to move him.

Ask for his list.

Find a destination suitable to him.

Eat 25% or so.

Move him out.

The return doesn’t mean much

 

 

What would your ideal return for Trouba be?

[MuddyInTheMiddle]

4 minutes ago, Rangers1994 said:

 

 

What would your ideal return for Trouba be?

 

No salary retention for a minimum salary contract!

Edited June 3 by MuddyInTheMiddle

[Pete]

26 minutes ago, BrooksBurner said:

Can you expand on that? His shot attempts seem to be in line with his career in general

The eyeball test says he's passed up prime scoring opportunities trying to set up Kreider. 

[Pete]

21 minutes ago, Rangers1994 said:

 

 

What would your ideal return for Trouba be?

The ideal return would be not having him be on the team. 

[RangersIn7]

16 minutes ago, Rangers1994 said:

 

 

What would your ideal return for Trouba be?

I honestly haven’t even thought much about it… and it honestly doesn’t matter.

 

The return you’re looking for is cap space.

 

Ideally… you retain 25%. Ship out his $6 million and take back a pick or a mid-range prospect.

Its a salary dump for 2 years. Nothing more.

[RangersIn7]

31 minutes ago, Pete said:

The eyeball test says he's passed up prime scoring opportunities trying to set up Kreider. 

I don’t buy the narrative that he isn’t a 1C.

He got shutdown by a very good team and drags Kreider around cause he doesn’t engage physically.

 

Id like to see LaFreniere and Kakko play with Zib, TBH. Or put Chytil up there with them, leave Kakko on the 3rd line. 

 

Keep Panarin with Trochek.

 

In trades….
 

I’d target the one thing they haven’t had at all over the last 3 seasons….

 

A SHUT DOWN D!

 

Preferably a LH D.

 

 

You keep Fox and Lindgren together.

Find a LH shutdown D to play with Schneider.

 

Id move Trouba in a salary dump.

Then… if you’re serious about remaking the core… you have 2 very movable pieces that could bring back the kind of return you’re looking for.

 

Kreider

Miller

 

That’s the price you have to pay to do it.

 

You would have to give up a guy who has scored 127 goals in the last 3 seasons.

And a 24 year old defenseman who still has his best hockey in front of him. 
 

There’s lots of teams who’d be very interested in that. 

Anyway… there’s real options to re-shuffle that core. 
But you’re going to have to sacrifice some pieces of significance to do it.

 

Edited June 3 by RangersIn7

[Jdog99]

1 hour ago, Pete said:

And yet if he were happy to be collecting a paycheck, then you would be giving him shit for not caring about wins and losses.

 

Ur right - how bout showing some fire out there on ice. I dunno - might be the kinda thing u would see out of a champion.

[Pete]

16 minutes ago, Jdog99 said:

 

Ur right - how bout showing some fire out there on ice. I dunno - might be the kinda thing u would see out of a champion.

 

I think everyone processes frustration, disappointment, anger, etc. differently and there should be room for emotional and physical responses that might be different from you or what you expect out of a "champion".

 

[RangersIn7]

3 minutes ago, Pete said:

 

I think everyone processes frustration, disappointment, anger, etc. differently and there should be room for emotional and physical responses that might be different from you or what you expect out of a "champion".

 

No one is a champion until they’re a champion.

Ask Ray Bourque

He heard all that shit too.

That he’d never win… blah blah blah. 
 

 

[RangersIn7]

29 minutes ago, Jdog99 said:

 

Ur right - how bout showing some fire out there on ice. I dunno - might be the kinda thing u would see out of a champion.

Like Lias throwing his Silver medal into the audience?

[Rangers1994]

Whatever Drury does, he has to lock up Shesterkin before training camp.  No question marks going into the season.

[Jdog99]

5 minutes ago, RangersIn7 said:

Like Lias throwing his Silver medal into the audience?

 

How bout some passion during actual gameplay...he can mope all he wants when the games over.

[Jdog99]

8 minutes ago, RangersIn7 said:

No one is a champion until they’re a champion.

Ask Ray Bourque

He heard all that shit too.

That he’d never win… blah blah blah. 
 

 

 

I didnt follow him too closely...but ide bet he wasnt half as mopey or soft as mika

[Keirik]

35 minutes ago, Rangers1994 said:

Whatever Drury does, he has to lock up Shesterkin before training camp.  No question marks going into the season.

To be honest, the bigger guy to lock up as early as possible really is Laf. As a believer, i think this is your last chance to get any sort of discount before he explodes going forward. When i say discount, i mean more like a 7.5 to 8m range. If you wait for him to get to the enf od the year with numbers like 40/40, you probably dont even sniff that low of a contract. 

[Rangers1994]

Just now, Keirik said:

To be honest, the bigger guy to lock up as early as possible really is Laf. As a believer, i think this is your last chance to get any sort of discount before he explodes going forward. When i say discount, i mean more like a 7.5 to 8m range. If you wait for him to get to the enf od the year with numbers like 40/40, you probably dont even sniff that low of a contract. 

 

But Laf is a RFA.  So he won't go anywhere anytime soon.  Shesterkin will be a UFA.  Thus, the latter may be more urgent.

 

Still, it pays to resolve both issues before training camp.

[Keirik]

5 minutes ago, Rangers1994 said:

 

But Laf is a RFA.  So he won't go anywhere anytime soon.  Shesterkin will be a UFA.  Thus, the latter may be more urgent.

 

Still, it pays to resolve both issues before training camp.

Shesty is making his money regardless of what he does next year sans absolutely falling off a cliff. UFA really isn't an issue. Laf is an RFA but with ARB rights so he likely gets a very healthy bump or a one year deal and you pay through the nose to keep him eventually. It's going to be slightly easier to maybe save 1m or so if you sign him earlier to a long deal that eats up a couple of years of UFA years rather than waiting.

 

Of course this only holds true if you are really a believer of him. I personally am and have always been.

[Rangers1994]

1 minute ago, Keirik said:

Shesty is making his money regardless of what he does next year sans absolutely falling off a cliff. UFA really isn't an issue. Laf is an RFA but with ARB rights so he likely gets a very healthy bump or a one year deal and you pay through the nose to keep him eventually. It's going to be slightly easier to maybe save 1m or so if you sign him earlier to a long deal that eats up a couple of years of UFA years rather than waiting.

 

Of course this only holds true if you are really a believer of him. I personally am and have always been.

 

All the more reason to lock up both before training camp...

[MuddyInTheMiddle]

11 hours ago, Keirik said:

Shesty is making his money regardless of what he does next year sans absolutely falling off a cliff. UFA really isn't an issue. Laf is an RFA but with ARB rights so he likely gets a very healthy bump or a one year deal and you pay through the nose to keep him eventually. It's going to be slightly easier to maybe save 1m or so if you sign him earlier to a long deal that eats up a couple of years of UFA years rather than waiting.

 

Of course this only holds true if you are really a believer of him. I personally am and have always been.

 

TBH huge gamble giving him 8 X 8 on his current body of work. If he turns into a regular 40/40 or even 30/40 guy, he is paid fairly, but hardly what I would call a "discount". If he slides backwards this season towards the 15/25 he put up the season before, that contract is going to become an albatross.

 

If they are signing him for term a full year before he hits arbitration, I would think that you would try and bring that in at 6.5-6.75 million X 7-8 years. He has never had the production that he did last season away from Panarin. Ryan Strome can vouch for that.

 

 Would still be able to get another contract at 29 years old too if injuries don't derail his career.

 

 

[BrooksBurner]

46 minutes ago, MuddyInTheMiddle said:

 

TBH huge gamble giving him 8 X 8 on his current body of work. If he turns into a regular 40/40 or even 30/40 guy, he is paid fairly, but hardly what I would call a "discount". If he slides backwards this season towards the 15/25 he put up the season before, that contract is going to become an albatross.

 

If they are signing him for term a full year before he hits arbitration, I would think that you would try and bring that in at 6.5-6.75 million X 7-8 years. He has never had the production that he did last season away from Panarin. Ryan Strome can vouch for that.

 

 Would still be able to get another contract at 29 years old too if injuries don't derail his career.

 

 

If Lafreniere were to miraculously bust now, there’s no future to protect. The cap hit will be meaningless. It will be a dark time for the Rangers.

[Br4d]

9 minutes ago, BrooksBurner said:

If Lafreniere were to miraculously bust now, there’s no future to protect. The cap hit will be meaningless. It will be a dark time for the Rangers.

 

He's not going to bust.

 

What we saw from him against the Panthers was a guy who had the right ideas and the wrong support network to bring them to fruition.

 

They cut to the bench several times with Laf doing everything he could to keep Panarin's spirits up.  I assumed Panarin was still suffering from the after-effects of the flu during the Panther's series.  32 is very different from 22 in terms of bounce-back time.

[MuddyInTheMiddle]

1 hour ago, BrooksBurner said:

If Lafreniere were to miraculously bust now, there’s no future to protect. The cap hit will be meaningless. It will be a dark time for the Rangers.

 

Nobody said anything about busting; I'm talking about a slight regression(or levelling off) instead of a progression. Where he was drafted should have no impact whatsoever on his next contract.

[BrooksBurner]

14 minutes ago, MuddyInTheMiddle said:

 

Nobody said anything about busting; I'm talking about a slight regression(or levelling off) instead of a progression. Where he was drafted should have no impact whatsoever on his next contract.

 

You said if he slides backwards towards 15/25 (for 40 points), which I interpreted as sliding back towards the bust conversation. I don't consider that a slight regression or a leveling off. Do you?