So in the end, the Rangers felt rightfully so that it would be more beneficial to re-sign Brady Skjei at age 24 for 6 years at an AAV of $5.25M during a rebuild, than it would have been to re-sign long term, their former #1 d'man, but also of greater games' wear & tear's worth in Ryan McDonagh, prior to July 1st of next summer at a then age of 30. They utilized McDonagh's trade value well to become younger, as opposed to having to ink him for 6 years at an earlier expected minimum AAV of $6.5M to $7M, under a then likely partial rebuild/retool mode instead.
This Rangers $5.25M contract given to Skjei, as opposed to, for them, McDonagh's $4.7M bargain contract he accepted a few years back when the NHL's cap was lower, proves how high they value Skjei's potential. It also depicts why last summer, they would not include Skjei in any trade to acquire Jacob Trouba, despite him being a Right Handed back liner that was desperately needed, especially prior to not knowing they would win the Shatty sweepstakes.
Now we also know why they would not part with Skjei in any trade this off season as well, in sticking to their rebuild mode. But some more experience is still necessary, because as Maloney and Daneyko discussed two days ago, the Devils weren't expected to have a shot at reaching the 2018 postseason after last summer had ended. That starts first with re-signing Kevin Hayes right now.
- RangerSaver
I was listening to XM on Friday, and I think it was Russ Cohen that was on, and he intimated that part of the reason the Rangers traded McDonagh was that they weren't totally sure that they could re-sign him this summer. Cohen intimated that apart from hockey, McDonagh & his family weren't totally in love with living in NYC, and he may have moved on anyway. If that's the case, the Rangers got a very good haul for him, knowing that they may have lost him for nothing in the offseason.
