Jeff Gorton vs Chris Drury

[McRanger92]

If you really, truly think about it, Lindgren and Miller are the only two players from the rebuild that there was an actual effort to acquire/draft.

Gorton doesn't get credit for Fox, Lafreniere and Kakko as those 3 players fell into his lap, we could have had a 5 year old as GM and those 3 players still would have been here.

The McDonagh trade is the most egregious of them all. It was so clear that the run was over as soon as the Ottawa series was blown. Which was probably the worst coached series I've ever seen and the fact it didn't result in AV's immediate firing is another massive mark against Gorton.

Not only that, but he trades Stepan-- then signs Shattenkirk a week later? What kinda contradictory bullshit is that?

Worst of all, by not trading McDonagh on the spot, by the time the trade deadline rolled around, Tampa was the only dance partner for us... while the best defenseman in the league was also on the trade market. Of course we got absolutely obliterated in that trade.

I mean, why was McDonagh even traded in the 1st place? One, because his game, just like every single player on the roster except for Hayes, completely regressed under AV. Two- we didn't want to have to pay an aging defenseman $8 million while we were still "rebuilding".

Except the rebuild ended a whole year later by signing Panarin.

Except they traded a serviceable defenseman and 1st round pick for the pleasure to sign a far worse defenseman to a far worse contract.

Except McDonagh's game instantly rebounded as soon as he got the AV stink off of him.

Except we are now a "contender" and McDonagh is still a high end defenseman. He'd sure as hell be perfect as Fox's partner.

That was the idea when Shattenkirk was signed anyway.

The trade with Tampa is undoubtedly the worst trade any team has made in this decade. There is nothing anyone can do to change my mind.

You can say what you want about what is going down in Vancouver, but its a serious concern that Miller blossomed into a 90 point forward outside of NY.

Just like it was a serious concern that Gaborik smoked us in the 2014 SCF, Callahan and friends celebrated with the ECF trophy on our home ice in 2015, Hagelin skated circles around us alongside Kessel in 2016, Brassard scored the series changing goal in 2017, McDonagh went on to back bone a back to back Cup winner, then eliminated us in the ECF.

Now Jesper Fast is playing Conn Smythe level hockey and alongside Skjei and Stepan, might have his name on the Cup in a month.

Jesus how could I forgot that Brad Richards and Kevin Shattenkirk both won Stanley Cups immediately after being bought out.

Is there anyone else that I missed?

Reading this made me sad.

My hope now with the Rangers is that they hire Knoblauch and stop trying to make big splashes. There are a lot of young guys here and coming through the system. Prioritize their development and dont give up on them after a couple seasons, because look what happens when we do...

 

[rangerlp]

They both have been in salary cap hell which has curtailed what they really want to do...

 

[McRanger92]

They both have been in salary cap hell which has curtailed what they really want to do...

Gorton left salary cap hell for half a season then decided to jump back in at his first opportunity

 

[Machinehead]

Gorton left salary cap hell for half a season then decided to jump back in at his first opportunity

And the excuse that's sometimes given for that is lame. "Oh we didn't know covid was gonna happen and we thought the cap was gonna go up to 69 bajillion dollars.

The cap started stagnating during Ebola.

 

[McRanger92]

And the excuse that's sometimes given for that is lame. "Oh we didn't know covid was gonna happen and we thought the cap was gonna go up to 69 bajillion dollars.

The cap started stagnating during Ebola.

We've been paying for the Panarin & Trouba contracts since the day they were signed.

I really feel like this season was the culmination of Gorton's terrible rebuild plan. In what world did committing to a rebuild then paying 2 mercenaries who had never played a game with the organization to be the faces of it make sense? Clearly the idea was to have a Cup contending team built around these 2 guys by now, hence the star power added (at a discounted rate) at the deadline. And I was into it, but it didnt work. Now we need to see what Drury has got.

Despite the "win now" stuff, the team is still so young and while the young players have been a bit disappointing overall, it's time to commit to them. Fox, Lindgren, Chytil, Kakko, Lafreniere, Miller, Schneider are all 24 or under(some by a lot). Jones, Robertson, Cuylle, Othmann are all guys who wouldve been the Rangers top prospect during the Lundqvist era and they are all knocking on the door. Interesting players like Sykora, Berard, Garand can all marinate for a bit and we still have a 1st this year in a deep draft. Hire Knoblauch. Make being a homegrown Ranger mean something again like it did under Torts. We've been chasing the "big move" too long and all we have is disappointment.

Drury grew up here, captained the team, GM'd the AHL squad and NHL squad. If he doesnt feel the need to make changes to the shit culture that has taken hold of the organization, we may be doomed. But i dont think we are.

 

[Vitto79]

Both have done a good job honestly

 

[Oscar Lindberg]

Gorton left salary cap hell for half a season then decided to jump back in at his first opportunity

idk, when one of the best players in the league says they want to come play for you, you take that opportunity every time.

We’d be killing them if they didn’t sign him

And no one thought Trouba was going to decline as much as he has.

 

[McRanger92]

idk, when one of the best players in the league says they want to come play for you, you take that opportunity every time.

We’d be killing them if they didn’t sign him

And no one thought Trouba was going to decline as much as he has.

No one had a gun to their head. The fanbase was Ok with the rebuild. The mixed signals those moves sent were the problem.

 

[mas0764]

I’m partial to what Gorton was trying to achieve, so I don’t know how he would have accomplished the later stages, but I hate what Drury has tried to do. Not that he’s been bad at doing it (not great either), but I’m saying the direction I just despise. They weren’t ready to move towards competition.

 

[Oscar Lindberg]

No one had a gun to their head. The fanbase was Ok with the rebuild. The mixed signals those moves sent were the problem.

Sure

I also have to imagine the owner plays a part of this. I can’t see a scenario where one of the best in the league wants to play here and Gorton says “no thanks” goes over well with Dolan

 

[Crease]

Not to be fatalist, but I don't think the GM matters much while Dolan remains in charge, if championships are what matters. Dolan is simply not a good sports owner. Between the Knicks and the Rangers, 60 seasons, two finals, zero championships. He is not a shareholder or silent partner. He is the guy. He hires the guys who hire the guys. He's good at generating profits. He's not good at winning championships. He's a good business man. He's not a good sports owner. What has Glen Sather done to warrant his permanent presence as first chair of the Rangers?

 

[GoAwayPanarin]

I’m partial to what Gorton was trying to achieve, so I don’t know how he would have accomplished the later stages, but I hate what Drury has tried to do. Not that he’s been bad at doing it (not great either), but I’m saying the direction I just despise. They weren’t ready to move towards competition.

That movement STARTED with Gorton.

You don't need to engage in mental gymnastics to try to justify the Panarin signing because you were behind it. Shelling out massive dollars to him (and Trouba, and Kreider not to long after) are very much "lets move towards competition!" moves. Whether or not they were JD approved (they were) or you think that Dolan meddled (he didn't) doesn't really matter, these were ultimately his decisions to make.

I could have gotten behind Kreider's extension if the others didn't happen. You don't tie up over a quarter of the cap in 3 players (on guys who were either heading towards or just in UFA) 2 years removed from announcing that you're going to tear it down if you aren't trying to move towards competition.

 

[McRanger92]

Sure

I also have to imagine the owner plays a part of this. I can’t see a scenario where one of the best in the league wants to play here and Gorton says “no thanks” goes over well with Dolan

Weren't we told Davidson was going to be a buffer between Hockey Ops and Dolan/Sather? So much for that.

 

[Foxy]

We've been paying for the Panarin & Trouba contracts since the day they were signed.

I really feel like this season was the culmination of Gorton's terrible rebuild plan. In what world did committing to a rebuild then paying 2 mercenaries who had never played a game with the organization to be the faces of it make sense? Clearly the idea was to have a Cup contending team built around these 2 guys by now, hence the star power added (at a discounted rate) at the deadline. And I was into it, but it didnt work. Now we need to see what Drury has got.

Despite the "win now" stuff, the team is still so young and while the young players have been a bit disappointing overall, it's time to commit to them. Fox, Lindgren, Chytil, Kakko, Lafreniere, Miller, Schneider are all 24 or under(some by a lot). Jones, Robertson, Cuylle, Othmann are all guys who wouldve been the Rangers top prospect during the Lundqvist era and they are all knocking on the door. Interesting players like Sykora, Berard, Garand can all marinate for a bit and we still have a 1st this year in a deep draft. Hire Knoblauch. Make being a homegrown Ranger mean something again like it did under Torts. We've been chasing the "big move" too long and all we have is disappointment.

Drury grew up here, captained the team, GM'd the AHL squad and NHL squad. If he doesnt feel the need to make changes to the shit culture that has taken hold of the organization, we may be doomed. But i dont think we are.

This is what I'm hoping for too and I think Drurys hands are kind of tied into doing it, at least for the short term. Kakko (if he plays like we all hope) and Lindgren are due for raises next summer while Kreider and Trouba move from full-NTC to 15team-NTC, it makes sense to start moving out vets to make room and get younger. If you don't move any vets, at some point, maybe next year, maybe in 5 years, the vets play will fall off a cliff and we'll end up picking in the top 10 again.

My only worry with this, is that we didn't get our superstar or even all star forward when we bottomed out like most contenders do. It might come back to bite us and we end up with the 2010-11 Rangers for the next 5-10 years. Also it might be too tempting not to go out and buy one again, especially if we have space when one of Oilers duo hits the market.

 

[McRanger92]

This is what I'm hoping for too and I think Drurys hands are kind of tied into doing it, at least for the short term. Kakko (if he plays like we all hope) and Lindgren are due for raises next summer while Kreider and Trouba move from full-NTC to 15team-NTC, it makes sense to start moving out vets to make room and get younger. If you don't move any vets, at some point, maybe next year, maybe in 5 years, the vets play will fall off a cliff and we'll end up picking in the top 10 again.

My only worry with this, is that we didn't get our superstar or even all star forward when we bottomed out like most contenders do. It might come back to bite us and we end up with the 2010-11 Rangers for the next 5-10 years. Also it might be too tempting not to go out and buy one again, especially if we have space when one of Oilers duo hits the market.

Well we did get the superstars we wanted in Igor and Fox. And I have no issue with the team buying a star forward in a few years if none of our guys ever get there. The difference between doing that then and when we signed Panarin, is that we will have a young playoff team with loads of experience, instead of the glorified AHL roster we had when Gorton/JD gave out the huge contracts.

 

[GoAwayPanarin]

This is what I'm hoping for too and I think Drurys hands are kind of tied into doing it, at least for the short term. Kakko (if he plays like we all hope) and Lindgren are due for raises next summer while Kreider and Trouba move from full-NTC to 15team-NTC, it makes sense to start moving out vets to make room and get younger. If you don't move any vets, at some point, maybe next year, maybe in 5 years, the vets play will fall off a cliff and we'll end up picking in the top 10 again.

My only worry with this, is that we didn't get our superstar or even all star forward when we bottomed out like most contenders do. It might come back to bite us and we end up with the 2010-11 Rangers for the next 5-10 years. Also it might be too tempting not to go out and buy one again, especially if we have space when one of Oilers duo hits the market.

If McDavid hits the market you do what you can to make it happen.

Signing players to UFA contracts in their 30's is a bad idea unless we're talking about the elite of the elite.

There is a MASSIVE difference between the likes of Tavares/Panarin and McDavid.

 

[bouds]

Amateur scouting has not been good the last few years, Gorton bombed the draft picks he stocked, jury is still out on Drurys draft. Hopefully they’ve changed enough in that area, amateur scouting, but I doubt it. As for pro personnel moves. Gortons Trouba trade and extension was as bad as Drurys Buch deal, ultimately Drury has more shit on his resume due to a small sample of clear f*** ups. Gorton had length so ended up with some banger moves, too bad they f***ing obliterated the drafts under Gorton his last few years.

 

[mandiblesofdoom]

Gorton is criminally overrated in hindsight but very little Drury has done impressed me. i don’t like either.

Gorton is criminally overrated in hindsight but very little Drury has done impressed

RIght, they both have issues.

 

[blue425]

There are moves missing from the Gorton list

Hagelin+2nd for Etem, 2nd and 6th

Dear lord that move was brutal.

 

[JT Kreider]

Gorton left salary cap hell for half a season then decided to jump back in at his first opportunity

It's highly concerning that just 5 years, the main part of "The Letter" was to prepare fans to say goodbye to our old familiar faces. And by familiar faces, they meant, aging overpaid players.

Here we are, 5 years later, and now we yet again have the majority of our salary cap tied up in aging, overpaid players.

Right back at square one.

 

[Shesterkybomb]

Get rid of Sather and solve a lot of problems. He's Dolan's ear worm that feeds him info when he doesnt agree with the direction of the team. The funny thing is that Gorton, Davidson and Quinn were let go due to the wilson incident and we are currently softer than that team was. Atleast everyone stepped up the next game and challenged that team. We're soft as butter now, we lost to the softest team in the league this playoffs and all we had to do was bully them around, hit them, make life hard. It was way too easy.

 

[mandiblesofdoom]

Don't like either. Must be something in the water at MSG, or the air. Cigar smoke, perhaps.

 

[mandiblesofdoom]

Not to be that guy but people act like every team in the league doesn’t trade for Trouba when Gorton did and gives him the exact same deal

The Rangers RD at that point was DeAngelo, Pionk who stunk and the soon to be bought out Shattenkirk.

Trouba has declined, idk if that’s a natural decline or the inevitable stink that comes with playing for this franchise where seemingly everyone gets worse when they come here

But alottttt revisionist history on that move

The $8 million/yr deal was bad the moment it was signed.

 

[duhmetreE]

How Drury handles this offseason will be very telling.

 

[mandiblesofdoom]

Sure

I also have to imagine the owner plays a part of this. I can’t see a scenario where one of the best in the league wants to play here and Gorton says “no thanks” goes over well with Dolan

this is the real problem