I believe that is their goal. I don't think making the playoffs and rebuilding are contradicting ideas.
I think the process of trying to make the playoffs will be contradictory towards rebuilding.
I think this off-season they are likely to sign some UFAs, which is fine if the idea is to shelter and support what is coming up. However coaches usually turn that into trying to win so the vets end up being used in almost all the important situations. That to me is not really sheltering, it's playing to win but how does that help develop the kids if they are not getting that on ice experience.
Once that turns to winning, and maybe making the playoffs, management has choices to make. Like we discussed above, are they really not going to try to help the team/Lundqvist be as good as they can be at that point? If that includes renting that goes against "rebuilding"
If they do rent, even if say they sell off some of those before signed players or some of their own to regain some picks, like how they turned Brassard into Zbad plus a 2nd only to use that 2nd and a 3rd to trade for Smith, that is not really rebuilding as they lost one of their own picks and as it turns out a pretty coveted 2nd round pick they received from Ottawa.
So onto the following season, the youth maybe some of them did get used enough to gain some good experience, yet some of those vets are still there, or newly imported ones are brought in yet again. They expect to get playing time. For example if Kovalchuk is still there should they sign him, is he going to be happy about not getting power play time should one of the kids need it in order to develop?
Rinse repeat the deadline moves should they be in position, and how many picks did they lose?
Where does that leave the Rangers after two season from now? With some kids who came up yet are still playing behind vets, likely for two reasons, they are kids and they were not drafted at the top of their classes so they are likely lesser talents, it leaves the Rangers with some vets who are still enjoying their playing time, but overall is that team a Cup contender or building towards it? They did not get any top of the draft class prospects as they were making the playoffs, they still have mostly a team full of players who are good but not really good. And the whole time they lessened their chances of getting draft lucky by doing the rental thing. (we hear that every year too, it's only a 2nd or 3rd rounder)
Now I am not trying to say everything goes as such, we do not know that yet, but from what I am hearing Gorton say, from what the team has currently, stuff they did not sell and stuff they brought in, some of the prospects who are likely to move up, what they have in cap space, it sure looks like to me that will be the basic outline.
Something along the lines of being pretty good, hope they can find some gems later on in the draft, and in the best case scenario they end up with something like the current Bruins, or even the past Rangers, yet they still end up continually having to bring in the next UFA, and it leaves them as sort of what they already were, a good team that in the playoffs would need everything to go right for them to have a Cinderella shot at winning a Cup. In the lesser good scenarios, they miss on some drafts, they make poor player evaluations, and they end up something like the Rangers from this past season.
The chances of them attaining really top notch players by trying to be good, winning, are just not very good. They can make the playoffs, half the teams pretty much do, but to win 4 series in a row against teams who have those top notch skaters? I just don't see that happening unless they themselves have some top notch skaters.
