The Rangers announced their draft party on Twitter yesterday, putting 3,500 tickets on sale. Two hours later, the party was sold out. Now maybe people do know the difference between Rasmus Dahlin and Salvador Dail or maybe it’s just an event to attend where five of the team’s top 6-7 prospects will be in the house. But regardless of the reason, the Theater at Madison Square Garden will be the place to be Friday, June 22, the night of the draft’s first round.
To: Our Twitter followers
— New York Rangers (@NYRangers) May 30, 2018
From: #NYR
Where: @HuluTheaterMSG
When: Friday, 6/22
Who: Lias Andersson, Filip Chytil, Brett Howden, Libor Hajek, Ryan Lindgren and Rangers fans!
🎟 RSVP: https://t.co/hJSYLzteUn
Act 💨 limited availability pic.twitter.com/NIlLNI4kfn
What’s not yet clear is if new coach David Quinn will be in attendance, but that would be a smart place to have him interact with the fans. A casual setting where lots of interest exists and likely little downside. Add in the intrigue if the Rangers will keep all three first round picks - 9, 26 and 28 - or if they will make a deal along with the potential bolstering of the system, and maybe not that surprisingly that the event sold out in two hours.
On the notion of if New York would make a deal, one main idea that keeps coming up is dealing Mats Zuccarello. Forever Blueshirts had a sports reporter from Norway, who has known Zuccarello since he was a teenager and has covered him in New York the past few seasons (updated to more accurately reflect the relationship between the two), on their podcast and wrote in a blog that Zucc himself is not sure if he wants to stay, as that is dependent on the team’s direction in terms of length of the rebuild. If Zucc remains, a strong possibility exists that he will be named the next captain of the team, and even if not, he is an associate captain and one of the leaders on the team.
My view on Zucc is well known, especially since I was one of those beating the drums to bring him back years ago. But it’s no secret that his play tailed off last season, especially compared to the prior season. His assist total dropped dramatically, partially impacted by his line mates. However a larger determinant might have been the team’s issues and whether Zucc can handle a rebuild and with a year left at $4.5 million, is a piece for the future.
That latter point is a key to moving forward. Do you keep Zucc, at least to start the year, as a young leader for a young team or do you potentially accelerate the rebuild by dealing Zucc for additional young assets? I will add to that question by querying how much does the return matter? The first question gets into moving Zucc and one of the first round picks to slide up in the draft, possibly to four or five, enabling New York to select a higher-rated prospect. The second is if the Rangers let’s say decided to make a run at JT and Kovy and Carlson and needed to make additional room, would dealing Zucc be the smart option to maximize the cap space?
The former is more likely while in the second option, that’s a situation where keeping Zucc is the wiser course of action. If Zucc is kept, his staying power will all depend on how well New York plays. If the rebuild is quick and the team is contending, Zucc should remain all season. If not, then he is a trade deadline chip to deal.
What say you? Would you deal Zucc? Would you only deal Zucc to move up in the draft? How far up in the draft would the Rangers have to move and would you deal the 9th pick with him to slide up to 4 or 5 it is that too much?
Braden Holtby had the save of the playoffs last night in Game 2, moving the two Marc-Andre Fleury made on Mark Scheifele to a distant second place. If Washington wins the series, that save will be talked about as the spark. Maybe Alex Tuch should have lifted the rolling pick but just enjoy Holtby’s quick reaction and save.
YOU KIDDING, HOLTBY 😵😵😵 pic.twitter.com/lKbKs8IjWu
— NHL on NBC (@NHLonNBCSports) May 31, 2018