Player Discussion Worst Mistakes Made By Rangers

[Dijock94]

McIlrath over Tarasenko

Dan Boyle over Stralman

Buying out Girardi to sign Smith(waste of cap)

Trading Hagelin and Talbot for nothing

 

[The Crypto Guy]

I'm not saying it was a mistake. The OP referred to it as one in his post. I think most of us then were under the agreement that (if we liked Brad or not) the opportunity to move on from that contract couldn't be passed up.

Ohh, my fault. I thought you meant it was is mistake, I didnt know you were going off the original post so I was confused haha.

 

[RangerBlues]

Slats giving control to Gorton to rebuild the team.

 

[ReggieDunlop68]

Buying out Richards was a no brainer.

His original Rangers deal would have expired at the end of NEXT season.

He must have put that Richards one in from The Best Moves the Rangers Ever made list.

 

[ReggieDunlop68]

It’s funny that a lot of the points being posted are recent and during the retool —> rebuild period.

It’s funny, yet not surprising given the memory lapses around here.

Top 5 Worst Moves/Moments in Rangers History HF Boards Social Media Era Edition:

1. Not going to over time on Thursday against the Islanders

2. The hot dogs werent ready early near section 206 on Tuesday

3. Staal’s missed shot last week

4. The TMM call last week

5. Henrik Lundqvist

 

[marciiauzii]

Loved Richards but that was not a mistake. He was done as a top level player.

Trading McDonagh. I actually regret this one quite a lot. He was the heart and soul of Rangers. Trading Miller was fine but I didn't see why McDonagh had to go. His contract needs were not that awful considering what we gave to Brendan Smith. Same boat with Keith Yandle.

Signing Shatty to his deal too. But nobody knew he would be so bad. I mean I have no idea how he put up points before. He is a non factor for Rangers these days.

 

[FireGerardGallant]

Stopped reading after I saw getting rid of Giradi was a “mistake”.
The downfall for this team was signing Giradi and Staal to those large contracts and not resigning Stralman

 

[DanielBrassard]

Just recent history:

Signing Girardi
Letting Stralman walk
Signing Staal
Trading for Eric Staal
Signing Smith when you had Staal, McDonagh, Skjei, and Holden as LHD and just trading Stepan who had 4 years left on his contract because you were worried about Decline/NMC, then signing Smith for 4 years and giving him a NTC.
Signing Glass, then trading Stempniak at the TD for nothing

 

[Webster]

The guy who doesn’t want Zuc traded.

Of course I do, he shouldn't waste his skills playing with kids.

But back to Gorton, a lot of people on social media say he's the worst. Smith being mentioned as a terrible signing, but he seems to go under the radar on this board. Personally I think it's too early to judge the GM.

 

[tailgunner]

trading hagelin for an uber driver is the worst trade in rangers history considering the ramifications...we have stunk ever since that trade

 

[ReggieDunlop68]

Of course I do, he shouldn't waste his skills playing with kids.

But back to Gorton, a lot of people on social media say he's the worst. Smith being mentioned as a terrible signing, but he seems to go under the radar on this board. Personally I think it's too early to judge the GM.

Alot of people on Social Media

+ Think Gorton is the Worst

= in middle school

 

[BringBackLibertys]

Of course I do, he shouldn't waste his skills playing with kids.

But back to Gorton, a lot of people on social media say he's the worst. Smith being mentioned as a terrible signing, but he seems to go under the radar on this board. Personally I think it's too early to judge the GM.

Dude, those people have not watched the Rangers for more then a few years then, because Gorton is not even close to the worst....The worst part for me is your constant droning on about Zucc being so amazing has made me like him a lot less then I used to, it's a shame how people can distort things to the point that it changes your opinion of a player (and the fact that he mailed it in this year, that is not very professional of him).

 

[SML2]

2014: the decision to sign Staal and Girardi to long term deals where they would be paid as top pair defensemen but performed like 5-6 defensemen. Had they made the decision to put one or both on the market, I am certain they would have brought back a first plus a solid prospect each. If you couple that wth the decision to package Callahan with 2 firsts for MSL who retired in a year and a half, think about that. What could Callahan have gotten you back. Even If it's a second and a prospect, you're talking about a swing of possibly 5 first round picks if you think each of those could have gotten you one plus the two we gave away. It's a phenomenally bad set of circumstances. All we have to show for it now is Staal and the buyout price of Girardi.

 

[Fitzy]

The Eric Staal trade was brutal.

Getting shit-kicked in the 2016 playoffs should have been a warning sign after two years of deep competitiveness. Unfortunately, most of the damage had been done by that point. Trading for Brendan Smith was the last big expense of picks that needn't have happened. He wasn't even playing well for Detroit.

 

[Kupo]

Slats giving control to Gorton to rebuild the team.

 

[Vinny DeAngelo]

Constantly being in on every big NAME free agent instead of getting good guys that’ll fit the system.

 

[NYRFAN218]

The Eric Staal trade was brutal.

Getting ****-kicked in the 2016 playoffs should have been a warning sign after two years of deep competitiveness. Unfortunately, most of the damage had been done by that point. Trading for Brendan Smith was the last big expense of picks that needn't have happened. He wasn't even playing well for Detroit.

Everyone likes to point to the lack of 4 1st round picks as a reason to why the farm is depleted (and it is justified) but at least all of those trades were made when the team was a legit contender and was done to put the team over the top. Everybody who watched Rangers hockey in 15-16 knew that team was smoke and mirrors and that Yandle should have been traded given his contract situation as opposed to adding. In 16-17, we knew the team was really nothing too great but instead gave up multiple picks for Smith.

If this team simply correctly identified where they were at certain points, things wouldn't have been as bleak as they were when we decided we needed to rebuild.

We lost Saarela, #50 in 2016, #52 in 2017, #83 in 2017, #33 in 2018, plus what was probably a 1st and a good prospect if we dealt Yandle at the deadline. All that could have been in the Rangers current system if they just knew what they had instead of pushing the chips in when it was clear they weren't a legit contender.

At least they correctly utilized Smith in 16-17 I suppose. Can't say the same about Staal.

 

[Good Intentions]

Biggest mistake? Throwing the kitchen sink at Panarin, July 2019.

 

[egelband]

I don't agree with almost any of these being "worst mistakes" and most of these weren't mistakes at all.

1. Girardi was finished. The only argument to keeping him was if they had decided to rebuild that offseason then they should have just rode out the contract another year or two.

2. They were going to have to offer Yandle probably 7 million at the years he got to match the no income tax money he got in Florida. They simply didn't have the cap space.

3. This is the only debatable one. The value of the trade sucked IMO but it was clear they didn't want to be stuck with Stepan's skating ability and that NMC about to kick in. Stepan has 18 points in 44 games this season so maybe what they saw coming has finally come.

4. Richards they had to buy out because of cap recapture. He was already on the decline and this was a no brainer.

5. St. Louis was also finished as a player. He was a corpse of himself in the playoffs and the 2nd half of the season and they still had no cap space to sign him.

I was thinking the same thing. Almost everything there seemed reasonable, not awful, at least. Not a base thread. But the examples seem off, to me too.
I think the Rangers main problem is bad contracts. Not bad trades or bad personnel choices. But I guess that’s the same for all teams.

 

[egelband]

Going 4 years without a first round pick comes to mind.

This is probably the definitive answer.

 

[egelband]

Talking about Stralman and I'm also thinking about Kevin Klein and how he is missed. We had a solid D those few years.

Don’t you think Klein was pretty much cashed by the end?

 

[Machinehead]

-While history will continue to forget it, cutting Gordie f***ing Howe should probably sit at the top of the list.

-As others have mentioned, Stralman.

-Trading Zubov for Samuelsson so we could get tougher.

-Trading Amonte and Weight so we could get tougher and more #veteran.

-Hiring AV at all (many will say keeping him too long, I think that's being nice).

-Trading for Yandle when we knew aforementioned AV wouldn't play him and then proceeding to lose Yandle for nothing because we needed him for the 15-16 "run" (where the f*** was that team going?).

-Trading for Eric Staal when, again, we should have known the coach wouldn't use him.

-In a broader scope, re: the last two, not starting the rebuild after 15-16 when it was pretty clear where the team was headed. Yes they were still good, but they were done as a legit Cup threat. The only time you should just be "good" is when you're going towards being a threat. If you're going away from being a threat, you should be rebuilding.

-Burning assets on Ryane Clowe, again, to get tougher (I was actually a fan of Clowe as a player, but again, where the f*** was that team going?).

-Spending the 16-17 summer "retooling on the fly" instead of committing to the damn rebuild and accelerating it.

-The two draft picks I need not get into in detail because they've been hammered to death.

-Trading Savard to move up a whole two picks in the draft, because we just desperately needed to select Jamie Lundmark.

-Tanner Glass in general because -anyone wanna hazard a guess?- we needed to be tougher.

 

[Machinehead]

Don’t you think Klein was pretty much cashed by the end?

By his standards, yes.

Compared to the rest of this shit D? I'll take Kleiner right now.

 

[egelband]

Ryan Clowe was a mistake.

Eric Staal was a mistake.

If we knew that was what we were going to do with Yandle when we got him, it was a mistake.

Tearing down this roster before firing AV, IMO, was a mistake. I guess you can't really fire a guy who took you to the finals though.

I never saw the rush to trade Stepan.

That's just recently.

Giving up the #5 OA pick for Michel Bergeron.
Ridley and Miller in their early 20s for Bobby Carpenter only to trade Carpenter about 25 games later for a 36 year old Marcel Dionne.
Norstrom to LA for a bunch of old buddies.
Trading Sergei Zubov.
Telling the world Mark Messier scored the cup winning goal in 94 when that goal was Brian Noonan's.
Taking Lucien Deblois ahead of Mike Bossy.
Letting a 20 year old Dan Blackburn work out unsupervised.

Great list. I would say, though, that Clowe was terrific the few games he was healthy. Such a smart and imposing player. Tim Kerr has a similar impact with the Rangers. Just made a fan want more.

 

[Machinehead]

Now for the sake of fairness, I'll give you two that don't think were a mistake.

Trading for MSL: Yes we gave up a lot. It was worth it. 2014 doesn't happen without him. 2015 doesn't happen without him. In my lifetime of woe, that's one nice run I can look back on. Also, one of the picks traded was conditional on us advancing to the ECF. Not a Rangers fan on the planet would want to give that condition back. Also, also, we got out of an ugly Ryan Callahan contract that we would STILL be paying.

Sanguinetti over Giroux: Giroux blew away his expectations, and Sanguinetti came nowhere near his. Simple as that. We always shit on the Rangers on here for going off the board (you might say rightfully so), so we need to acknowledge when they don't. Sanguinetti was the consensus better prospect on draft day. With that pick, the Rangers did exactly what we always ask them to do, which is not outsmart themselves and just take BPA. Sanguinetti was BPA in June 2006. Sometimes, the responsibility falls at the feet of the players.