Tell me RB, what changes next season that gives the Rangers better shot next year than this one, except for the looming cap crunch? What about the season after that, or the one after that?!? We have a great team with a few holes this season. The objective should be to address those holes and try to win this season. I’m not saying trade all of the prospects and picks, but three good pickups this year and we have a legit shot. Most of this board is ready to throw away this season for some pie in the sky theory of windows and having to lose to win…nonsense!
We need to to improve next year if we are to be a contender going forward -- but that is not impossible. Good things happen to good teams. Carolina lost a Norris candidate level D in Dougie Hamilton last season and replaced him with spare parts, and now they feel that one of those spare parts even is an upgrade over what they had.
We have fixed issues in NY before. When I was younger we had an issue between the pipes. It took a long long time for us to replace Richter. Management sat down and said, listen, if we ever is to become respected again we must get a top goaltender. How did we solve that? We drafted Dan Blackburn 10th overall, Al Montoya 6th overall, Also picked a bunch of other goalies, one was Hank. We also loaded up on top AHL goalies. For a long time, HFD always had elite elite goaltending. Jason Labarbarera. Johan Holmqvist. Valley. Jason Muzatti. JF Labbe. We traded for goalies, Dunham and Weeks. Eventually -- Hank emerged.
Who is our best PMD RHS D between Zubov and Shattenkirk? We didn't have anyone. Klein? Girardi? Then we really focused on this. Trades. Drafts. UFA signings. This resulted that we as an organization at one point of time was in possession of the following FIVE RHS PMDs: Adam Fox, Tony Deangelo, Kevin Shattenkirk and Neal Pionk. All have basically been around the top 15 in RD scoring just the last 12 months.
OTOH, a team like Philly haven't had a decent goaltender since 1986, so I am not saying that its always easy. BUT, this is IMO how you solve an issue. I don't know how many times we have tried to fill a hole by signing one big UFA that fits the mold, and it doesn't work. Its not that easy. You need flexibility and many horses in the race. We must replace Strome. We don't have that many horses in the race. We need more. This is what Drury should focus on.