eco's bones
Registered User
Yeah. I don’t think I would trade any of those elite assets. But I also didn’t want them to sign Panarin. And I feel I was way wrong on that one.
Oh, I wanted the Rangers to sign Panarin so badly. To get to the top you really need to get elite level players and having more than one is kind of important......and getting them before they start their decline. Henrik was an elite player. He's not anymore but the main reason we were a very good team for a good dozen or so years. Now we have both Panarin and Zibanejad who could both be classified as elite with the possibility of Kakko and Shesterkin joining them in the future and with guys like Fox, DeAngelo, Kreider and Trouba in the background and with a lot more talent on the way. Elite players make players around them better. The problem sooner or later will be the cap but if you look at how Pittsburgh managed to stay on top so long--one of the things you see is that Crosby and Malkin have been turning teammates into much better players and sometimes when necessary you move some of them and maybe you get more value back for them because of the strides they made as players playing with the superstars. There are also things that Pittsburgh is not doing right to learn from because in this long process they've also managed to have finally decimated their development system as their elite players in the meantime are aging out.
Eventually guys like Kakko and Chytil will get a chance with Panarin and will be the better for it. So we're in an excellent spot for the next say 15 years anyway and Panarin is going to be a huge part of seeing that to fruition. If the Rangers got Eichel as well that will certainly have cap ramifications but the Rangers have load of guys on ELC's and second contracts that helps at least to offset some of those issues.