The biggest Mistake The Ranger Orginzation ever did was Letting Mess go, He really did not want to leave, & his heart was proabaly not 100% into the Vancover deal, which was unfourtanate. How Ironic that Not re-signing Messier was the biggest mistake of Neil Smith's Career, when just 6 years earlier it was the best move smith had ever made was trading for Messier.
They should have paid him the same Money Gretzky was making which I think was $5 Mill per a Yr. I know Gretz was a little annoyed about the whole Situation, but seriously we Had Wayne Greztky in NY & he could not get us to the Playoffs, Maybe it was Gretzky that was riding messier Coat tails alittle bit, Gretz played awesome in the P/O's the year b4 but he never had the same success in the regular season that Messier had during his tenure with Vancover and years after Gretz Retired, Just look @ THE STATS, an injured Older Messier was better than Gretzky.
I think the moves that had been made with the Keane & Skrudland signings B4 Messier left for Vancover were all geared around bring Messier Back & taking pressure off of both Gretzky & Messier. Messier leaving Made no sense, other than Vancover was not going to lose out to the Rangers Again witha big name Free agent like they lost out with gretzky the year before. Of course there was the $$$$ factor, The Rangers cleary did not want Messier back, what was Mess suppossed to do?
All the moves that Smith made after Messier left were just desperation moves, none of them made any sense, In a 9 year span Smith Rebuild the Rangers & than Destroyed them. Glen Sather said once during An interview on WFAN NY, when he got to NY there was NOTHING there, absoultely NOTHING! Sather was starting from scratch.
My point in all this, Both Teams & there Fans Suffured because of this. But Ranger Fans still Love Messier.