On the italic, it seems to me that the retool was going to go one of two ways:
1) it would keep the team competitive while piling up talent and then the rangers would come out a good team later in the year or beginning of next season
2) the retool would not keep the team competitive and turn into a rebuild.
I remember reading a post on here like a year ago when people were saying how this retool could possibly be a "stealth rebuild", and it looks like they were right. Right now the only move that makes no sense to me is the Girardi buyout coupled with the Smith signing. Not that Girardi is any good but if the Rangers were going to use this year as transition year, then I am not sure why they bought out Girardi and signed smith--unless they saw an upgrade to smith.
Long and short, I think a lot of the quick fixes didn't work:
Andersson couldn't just step into the NHL
McDonagh never got his partner
Smith regressed
Girardi showed no signs of rebounding especially since he was already given a shot to rebound with the "long offseason" the year before (remember all that chatter?)
Skjei hit a major sophomore slump
DeAngelo couldn't play out of the gate (this one is all on AV unfortunately... As if Kampfer was ever actually better than DeAngelo)
Shattenkirk with a long term injury
Kreider with a long term injury
Zibanejad Concussion hampered him
Just about everything that could go wrong for this team, this year, did... The only things that went right were:
Hayes looked good in his "Stepan role"... While he's only playing at a pace for 35 points, he's also had a glob of wingers, no actual chemistry with anyone, and this system is a joke.
DeAngelo has progressed well and is looking like a main stay on the team
AV's system has proven to be awful, and this year there is no excuse for it--the team has actually looked like trash since day one and was carried by a good powerplay--again not that the latter is a bad thing, but this coach has gone so stale, that it's a blessing that this has happened at this point. He should be fired.
I don't know if the plan was ever for this to be a massive rebuild, but I think both missed calculations, the coach losing the team, the long term injuries, and the lack of cohesiveness as a unit constitutes that the Rangers can't just band-aid this team anymore. I don't think starting with the "retool" was a bad idea--on the contrary, starting your season with "blowing it up" is horrible for morale, and we made some moves that theoretically should have had us in the 1st round of the playoffs.
Rebuilds aren't bad though in this day and age--if this is done right, the rangers are average next year but will play like a hungry team. The year after, when Chytil and Andersson make their way through, they'll start to look like a contender. Rangers did good by not pulling these guys in too quickly and not ruining their ELC slides for a wasted season. DeAngelo got some needed experience.
Add in THREE 1st round picks this year along with the two 1st round picks last year, plus a good core of:
Kreider
Shattenkirk
Hayes
Lundqvist
The suck we are seeing right now is going to be well worth it.