The Rangers got back to winning ways Monday against the Penguins with a 3-1 victory. Tony DeAngelo's market may be more robust than expected. New York grants permission for Chris Drury to interview for the Penguins' open GM job.
Very quickly on the win. Fairly solid defensively but not elite. Playing with five d-men after losing Brendan Smith in the first period while dressing Anthony Bitetto was not how you would draw it up on paper. A brilliant game-saving, possibly season-saving play, by K'Andre Miller, blocking a shot with Igor Shesterkin down on the ice. Adam Fox with the head fake left, clearing space, and shot, deflected by Chris Kreider, aka Frank Zappa. Much better by Igor, who needs to start Thursday against Pittsburgh.
Much already has been written on DeAngelo. Unsure I can add much. We don't know and likely won't know what fully precipitated this decision. Clearly, events occurred in the past leading to this decision. If you want to argue that the comment he made to Alexandar Georgiev wasn't enough to tip the balance, that's in your right. But GM Jeff Gorton told him that one more incident would result in him getting waived, then he needed to follow through on that decision. If not, and if this was known by members of the team, then all credibility would be lost and the members of the team would know that his word was not his bond and that anarchy can reign.
Darren Dreger reported tonight that interest is heavy in DeAngelo. New York could eat up to 50% of his current deal, so $2.4 million a year, to facilitate a trade. Another option is to acquire a bad contract to offset ADA's deal. But if interest is as high as reported by Dreger, who is in pretty good with Pat Brisson, ADA's agent, so some of this has to be taken with a grain of salt, maybe NY can partially address an area of need. As discussed, talent will get you so far. If you want to argue that if DeAngelo was playing well and scoring as he did last year if that post-game event would have resulted in a similar end result, that too is in your right and impossible to answer.
31 Thoughts: Enjoy! https://t.co/djR4z09vAg
— Elliotte Friedman (@FriedgeHNIC) February 2, 2021
Friedman discusses DeAngelo and also Drury, though his column was before Frank Seravalli confirmed that the Rangers have granted Pittsburgh permission to interview him. New York declined Buffalo's and Minnesota's similar requests in the past two years, but clearly have decided they should not block Drury, who is their assistant GM and GM of Hartford, any more. That is likely a pretty good indication that GM Jeff Gorton is not going anywhere soon, as Drury is believed to be one of the favorites for the role.
Noah Hanifin and Chris Tanev have played 110:51 together at five-on-five. No goals against. That’s best in class so far. Adam Fox and Ryan Lindgren (Rangers) are at 94:55. Carson Soucy and newly acquired Ian Cole were above 60 minutes in Minnesota, but the Avalanche ruined that.
I know the advanced metrics and many believe that Fox is carrying Lindgren, which may very be the case. But I think we also discount Lindgren because of how good Fox is, similar to Leetch and Beukeboom and McDonagh and Girardi. If you want to argue his future contract should be haircut because of his role and also potential to wear down, no argument. But happy to have this combination.