As I believe that the Rangers are more pretenders than contenders, trading him makes so much sense.
I think they are exactly what they feared they'd be - the dreaded middle.
They're good enough to beat some teams, not good enough to beat the top teams. On a given night, they are just dangerous enough to pull one out against a better team, but not consistent enough to be counted upon to do it.
But this is a team that needs a re-tooling. There's really no way around it.
We can kid ourselves when they're on a hot streak, and the love for Lundqvist makes us want to keep trying to extend the old window at times, but the reality is that this team needs to start putting in the work for the next window. Unfortunately, that also means we are going to have to make some difficult decisions, and we're going to have to take calculated risks.
Everyone is on the table; though the price of some guys is (and should be) set fairly high.
You have to listen to offers every asset - including guys like McD, Zucc, Nash, Graber, Miller, Kreider and even Zibanejad.
Obviously, guys like Nash or Grabner are a little easier to come to terms with internally. But you can't rule anyone out for the right price.
It's also important that we don't just trade players for the sake of generating a "fresh start" for the roster. The moves have to make sense, and they have to be worth the price. Additionally, the Rangers aren't going to get rid of everyone - this isn't the 2004 trade deadline. The juice has to be worth the squeeze.