Arthur Staple of The Athletic reports that the 4 other teams besides the Isles in the battle for Tavares are the Leafs, Sharks, Stars, and the Bruins.
- RangerSaver

and:

Arthur Staple
‏Verified account
@StapeAthletic
11h11 hours ago

Sounds like Tampa and/or Nashville could round out Tavares’ list of visitors starting Monday. Might end up being six teams instead of five, plus #Isles.

and:

Arthur Staple
‏Verified account
@StapeAthletic
11h11 hours ago

Sounds like Tampa and/or Nashville could round out Tavares’ list of visitors starting Monday. Might end up being six teams instead of five, plus #Isles.
- eichiefs9

All to just re-sign with the Islanders.

All to just re-sign with the Islanders.

- Pete V

It really is like car shopping. You know what you want, you know approximately what it costs, and you know that you're most likely going to get it..but it's still stupid not to shop around just to make sure there isn't some home-run deal out there.

All to just re-sign with the Islanders.

- Pete V

Exactly! LOL

Hey Chiefs, if the Isles sign him for $11 they will have about 22 million to sign the rest of their team. They have a LOT of spots left to fill and that defense and goaltending is not very good. What's the plan to improve that?

It really is like car shopping. You know what you want, you know approximately what it costs, and you know that you're most likely going to get it..but it's still stupid not to shop around just to make sure there isn't some home-run deal out there.
- eichiefs9

The only risk is that once you let someone go shopping on the open market, there is always the risk that they find something that they like better.

But, I do think that he just stays put. I just don't see him as the type of guy that would leave.

Exactly! LOL

Hey Chiefs, if the Isles sign him for $11 they will have about 22 million to sign the rest of their team. They have a LOT of spots left to fill and that defense and goaltending is not very good. What's the plan to improve that?
- TheMessiah94

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

There's a lot of work to be done. New regime is interested in signing de Haan, too...who has something like 10 teams after him. Nobody knows what Lou is gonna do, so your guess is as good as mine.

edit: I do think Anderson is a target to play goal and I have to think they'd send Greiss the other way to offset the salary to nearly a wash. I wonder if they don't try to find somewhere to dump Clutterbuck, too. Or if they try and package Greiss/Clutterbuck together and cough up a valuable asset (I'm thinking Kieffer Bellows, who's expendable with the addition of Wahlstrom) and send them to OTT for Anderson.

and:

Arthur Staple
‏Verified account
@StapeAthletic
11h11 hours ago

Sounds like Tampa and/or Nashville could round out Tavares’ list of visitors starting Monday. Might end up being six teams instead of five, plus #Isles.
- eichiefs9

... along with Montreal and Vegas being out of the running now.

The only risk is that once you let someone go shopping on the open market, there is always the risk that they find something that they like better.

But, I do think that he just stays put. I just don't see him as the type of guy that would leave.
- Pete V

Yeah I don't think there's any "guarantee" that he comes back, but at no point in the last year did I ever think he was not going to take opportunity to meet with teams in this UFA interview window. He'd be stupid not to. I'm also not overly nervous because, according to Staple, the Kings were allegedly his #1 non-Isles destination and they took themselves out of the running by signing Kovalchuk.

There's definitely some nerves, but I'm still pretty confident that he's coming back.

... along with Montreal and Vegas being out of the running now.
- RangerSaver

I don't think Montreal was ever a serious consideration. They're further away from competing for a Cup than the Islanders are and they're still being run by a moron.

I did think Vegas had a shot there, but I guess he wasn't interested.

In the interest of fairness, I've posted plenty of negative stuff from Pronman here in the past...so here's him talking some of you guys off the ledge a little with his draft grade for the NYR

New York Rangers
Grade: B

If there were picks the Rangers made where I thought “damn, that could work out well,” it was their very first pick in Vitali Kravtsov at No. 9, and their very last pick Riley Hughes at No. 216. In between that, we got a mixture of solid to decent prospect. K’Andre Miller is very good. I didn’t love him in top 20, but he has potential. Nils Lundkvist at No. 29 was high for me, as was the goalie Olof Lindbom at No. 38, despite the fact I thought he was a top tier goalie prospect in the class. I didn’t have Joey Keane on my board, but I heavily considered him and didn’t mind that pick or the Nico Gross one. I give the Rangers a good grade, because at the end of the day, Kravtsov is a hell of a player, Miller a very good one, and they got talent on Day 2, but I think they could have gotten more at the same time.

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

There's a lot of work to be done. New regime is interested in signing de Haan, too...who has something like 10 teams after him. Nobody knows what Lou is gonna do, so your guess is as good as mine.
- eichiefs9

Sign Marty and Daneyko out of retirement???
One thing Lou won't do for sure this time, is to fire his head coach in the last week or two of the season, to take over the reigns the remainder of the way himself.

I posted Pronman, Chris Peters and CBS Sportsline rankings as part of the blog yesterday. Pronman and Sportsline gave the Rangers a B, Peters a B+. Added in the views of Scott Wheeler from the Athletic and Steve Kournianos @thedraftanalyst to the blog comments. Wheeler had the Rangers as one of his draft losers while Kournianos gave them a D.

The only risk is that once you let someone go shopping on the open market, there is always the risk that they find something that they like better.

But, I do think that he just stays put. I just don't see him as the type of guy that would leave.
- Pete V

Watch he chooses Vegas & lives it up on the strip!

You know the crazy thing, if Zadina slipped to 9 in the draft, I don't think the Rangers would have drafted him. I think they still would have went to Kravtsov. And then the board really would have exploded.

I posted Pronman, Chris Peters and CBS Sportsline rankings as part of the blog yesterday. Pronman and Sportsline gave the Rangers a B, Peters a B+. Added in the views of Scott Wheeler from the Athletic and Steve Kournianos @thedraftanalyst to the blog comments. Wheeler had the Rangers as one of his draft losers while Kournianos gave them a D.
- airjan23

I bet RangerDanger would give Kournianos the D in return

Watch he chooses Vegas & lives it up on the strip!
- TheMessiah94

I think any other personality, I would think Toronto would be a major, major player. The chance to go home. Play with some star players. Bring the Cup to your hometown team that hasn't won it, forever.

But, I just don't think he is that type of personality.

I also think he's like the Anti-Vegas personality.

You know the crazy thing, if Zadina slipped to 9 in the draft, I don't think the Rangers would have drafted him. I think they still would have went to Kravtsov. And then the board really would have exploded.
- Pete V

I agree, reports were that they thought Kravtsov was the second best forward in the draft behind Svechnikov.

It is kinda strange that they haven't drafted Canadian players with their high picks recently. Seems it's always a European player.

You know the crazy thing, if Zadina slipped to 9 in the draft, I don't think the Rangers would have drafted him. I think they still would have went to Kravtsov. And then the board really would have exploded.
- Pete V

I think you are correct

I agree, reports were that they thought Kravtsov was the second best forward in the draft behind Svechnikov.

It is kinda strange that they haven't drafted Canadian players with their high picks recently. Seems it's always a European player.
- TheMessiah94

I don't even think they scout the CHL at this point

I don't even think they scout the CHL at this point
- jimbro83

Seems like there might be a NYR Embassy in Russia and Sweden

I posted Pronman, Chris Peters and CBS Sportsline rankings as part of the blog yesterday. Pronman and Sportsline gave the Rangers a B, Peters a B+. Added in the views of Scott Wheeler from the Athletic and Steve Kournianos @thedraftanalyst to the blog comments. Wheeler had the Rangers as one of his draft losers while Kournianos gave them a D.
- airjan23

All due to "what were the Rangers thinking on day two of the draft", beginning with that horrible decision of selecting "not the best available" goalie in Lindbom with their very first pick Saturday in Round Two at #39 overall. The they topped that by adding to their already stockpile of d'men prospects from the February trade deadline, by selecting 4 more for a total of 6 d'men drafted of their 10 picks, including Friday's 1st Round selections that were fine in Lundkvist and Miller.
That, when knowing going into the draft, their depth shortage for the future at wing, in after selecting Kravtsov with the #9 overall pick, not selecting their next two wingers until pick #132 and their late acquired final draft pick in #216. If they were so desperate for d'men, then why not sign Dobson with the #9 pick, as one of the two players most expected? That's in all why I graded them a "B", due to a poor Day Two beginning with the 2nd Round.

I agree, reports were that they thought Kravtsov was the second best forward in the draft behind Svechnikov.

It is kinda strange that they haven't drafted Canadian players with their high picks recently. Seems it's always a European player.
- TheMessiah94

I heard something a little surprising on NHL radio the past week (forgot who said it) that some people think that Canada has lost their way a little with player development. That there is too much focus on winning at the early ages, and the US is actually doing a better job developing their young players.

It seems bizarre to me that there would be anything to this, but I am wondering whether anyone else has heard something similar.

It was kind of a shocking take.

Seems like there might be a NYR Embassy in Russia and Sweden
- eichiefs9

Seems like there might be a NYR Embassy in Russia and Sweden
- eichiefs9

And the Islanders have an embassy at the Home for Troubled But Talented Hockey Prospects.

- jimbro83

That's only one of tj's daily mail delivery stops on his Long Island route.