Weird situation with McDonagh.
The problem with Zuccarello is the market is oversaturated in wingers. Nash moved. Kane is still available. Another rental. Pacioretty is available. One more season left on his contract. He has had a bad year. Montreal wants a ton for him. Hoffman is available. Ottawa wants a lot for him. He is signed for two more years. The Red Wings have Nyqvist and Tatar available for the right price. Skinner could become available in the summer. He has one more year remaining on his contract. JVR will be a free agent this summer. Scott Burnside has a podcast on the Dallas Stars website. Pierre LeBrun and Chris Johnston are his guests on the recent podcast. Johnston said a GM told him JVR would be the top free agent rental if the Leafs were selling. The Leafs would like to re-sign him but he is not giving any hometown discounts.
Where are all of these players going?
If the Rangers have an offer they like for Zuccarello, maybe they should take it instead of waiting until the summer. Winnipeg.
Will the offers get better in the summer? Scott Howson was a guest on the 31 Thoughts podcast. Columbus could have made the same trade for Nash at the 2012 deadline. Howson said he needed more time to think about the deal. Howson was waiting for the Rangers to blink. The Rangers didn't budge from the offer. They weren't giving up Kreider or Stepan or McDonagh or even DZ in the Nash deal. It was Dubinsky and AA. Erixon and a draft pick. The same components.
How many teams are in the market for McDonagh? Will those teams change? He is signed for just one more season. McDonagh is also injured. Who knows what's going on there. Does the health issue hurt his value? If you're trading for McDonagh,you want assurances he is healthy. Why trade for an injured player?
What Jeff Gorton said on Sunday
Then Gorton makes a comment about not being a popular figure in the room right now. WTF. Gorton kept saying he will do what's best for the organization. Translation. **** these spoiled brats. McD hasn't played since the letter. The Rangers asked him for his 10 team NTC list. McDonagh was playing hurt. He was dreadful in his last game against Boston which is when Gorton and Sweeney had a face to face meeting about Nash. He was 50/50 to go on the Winnipeg and Minnesota trip. 50/50 for this trip two weeks later. Is Ryan throwing a hissy fit? Here I am playing hurt and these guys in management pulled the plug on the season.
I know the popular theory is wait until the summer. Will the offers get better? Will more teams be interested? McDonagh and Zuccarello have just one season remaining on their contracts. The Rangers don't seem interested in giving them contract extensions.
Gorton is on the right track. He just needs to continue selling off players and planning for a better tomorrow which doesn't include any big time acquisitions to accelerate the rebuild. None of this rebuild on the fly nonsense.