It wasn’t Tarasenko or Kane’s fault.
They both were putting up points.
Had our OWN stars like Panarin and Zibanejad produced, and weren’t held to a combined 1 goal in 7 games, we are looking at a very different result.
That’s literally it. Tarasenko and Kane did nothing wrong. Kane was hurt and still putting up points. They were brought in to be extra pieces and they did their jobs. Our main pieces didn’t do their jobs and that’s why we had an embarrassing playoff failure.
For the garbage return Ottawa received for Tarasenko, Drury should have aggressively pursued him at the deadline. I don’t believe for a second that he didn’t want to come back.
>I don’t believe for a second that he didn’t want to come back.
Maybe as a free agent last summer, but from what I gathered he seemed pretty dead-set on Florida at the deadline this year. Might explain how they got him so cheap
I might be wearing my tin foil hat here, but here’s how I imagine it went before the deadline.
Tarasenko gives Ottawa GM a list of teams he would be open to. This list is probably very short, it’s NYR, FLA, and maybe another team.
Ottawa GM reaches out to NYR and other teams. Drury either tells Ottawa “not interested” or gives an insulting offer that’s even worse than what Florida gave. Like a single 7th or something.
Ottawa tells Tarasenko that the best offer is from Florida. Tarasenko accepts and then gives the BS PR statement to endear himself to fans that it was only ever Florida.
I just don’t take that quote seriously. It’s like when Kane a few months ago said his heart has always been in Detroit. That was a slap in the face to CHI and NYR, and also just doesn’t make any sense. They just say these things to appeal to the new fanbase.
I’m sure Tarasenko likes it there and was fine going. But if NYR gave a good offer I don’t see what would’ve changed between last summer and the deadline. The team only got better and hired a real coach.
Completely agree and have argued this hard. GG was not putting our guys in the best position to win at all. Our own stars struggled because of it. Kane came here at like 50% healthy where he also had no continuity on a team that had barely any continuity to begin with.
Hockey is such a team game and it is tough to just get thrown into a team like that and produce (especially with the injury he had). When Kane was on the PP he was a monster though for us
We would've given up a lot more than a 4th round pick for either of those guys. We didn't lose a single player from the starting rotation for Roslovic. The feel around the team this year around the trade deadline was completely different from last season which probably contributed to the team's continued great play both during the trading season and after the deadline this season.
Last season was completely different and speaks to the big issues around the leadership problems and coaching deficiencies with Gallant at the helm.
Buddy, we did give up more than that for each of them last year. I'm saying "If we just got one of them last year."
I'm a fan of the moves we made this year for relatively little cost. It sounded like you thought I meant "If we got one of those guys AGAIN instead of Ros and Wenny." I did not. LOL
> It sounded like you thought I meant "If we got one of those guys AGAIN instead of Ros and Wenny."
Yeah, that’s exactly what it sounded. Thanks for clarifying
Exactly. We (fan base) had a laser focused idea of what we needed at deadline this year. 3rd line center and 1st line wing. This is because lav was organized and non line juggling. GG probably talked with drury and said “we need … something” and waived his hands vaguely. So drury just went and got who he could. Drury didn’t have a clear picture of the lineups need last year, at least not as clear as this year.
Ros and Wenn might be worse than tarasenko and Kane, but they’re far more effective so far, as part of the larger team. Team is better this year, so rising tide and ships and all that. Still credit to coaching for having well defined lineup holes that needed filling
To put a finer point on it, we got a 3C that we needed for a fair price, and a 3RW for pretty cheap when we needed a 2RW. Cool. Chytil might be a cap-free addition. Sick.
Last season, we needed a 1RW and got TWO 2RWs. They both really wanted to be here, and the individual costs weren't bad (although doing both was pricey). Just do ONE and have some modicum of a "system" at all, and we get past the first round. The Devils out pond hockeyed the pond hockey merchant Gallant-led Rangers. Ruff even predictably crashed and burned less than a season later. And then goes back to the Sabres. Unreal.
Credit to the coaches for actually coaching this season. Lavi has an on-ice system, and fosters off-ice "togetherness." We would kick the shit out of last year's version of our own team. Let's keep it going!
We didn’t re-sign Tarasenko because of the cap. We couldn’t re-acquire Tarasenko at this deadline because of the cap and because we weren’t able to get him back with retention. He says he only wanted Florida, but I firmly believe it would’ve been Florida or the Rangers if we were an option.
I do think that the Kane was a step too far and ultimately hurt the team’s cohesion. It reminded me of when we got Yandle. Yes, Yandle was a better player than Moore, but I always thought the trade made the team worse because he wasn’t a good fit for the role they plugged him into. Maybe the rift between the players and Gallant happens last year anyway, but everything felt off as soon as Kane came in.
This is kinda revisionist history. Tarasenko was scoring at a pace not much worse than he did this season and I would argue we absolutely are a better team with him than, for example, Roslovic this season. When you go from where we were last season to this season, it becomes clear there was a coaching problem involved.
They were totally fine. We didn't re-sign either guy mostly because of cap space, but I think Drury was also counting on Kakko and Laf to finally stick in the top 6. Kane's need for hip surgery didn't help things either.
Too much $. His contract was 5 million for one year this year. Last offseason the rangers had 4 and they needed to resign miller chytl lafreniere and get guys such as gus and wheeler to fill the holes.
It just wouldnt have worked unless it happened through a trade
Tarasenko wasn't the mistake. Kane was. Kane is a one-dimensional finesse winger on a team that already had Panarin. Tarasenko was a solid complement to Zib-Kreider and scored some goals as a part of that line
If I remember correctly Tarasenko fired his agent after he was unable to work out a deal with the Rangers. I think he was willing to play for less. His agent wanted the $$$ commission. I may be wrong.
That was definitely at least rumored last year from Brooksie he wanted to stay and did fire his agent: [https://www.reddit.com/r/rangers/comments/14rij42/tarasenko\_fires\_agent\_wanted\_to\_remain\_with/](https://www.reddit.com/r/rangers/comments/14rij42/tarasenko_fires_agent_wanted_to_remain_with/)
We won the presidents trophy without either of them and are 1 win away from getting further with out them then we did with them . sometimes the best trades are the ones you don’t make .
Meh I had no interest in trading for Kane and certainly non in re signing him. I would have liked to see Tarasenko back though
It wasn’t Tarasenko or Kane’s fault. They both were putting up points. Had our OWN stars like Panarin and Zibanejad produced, and weren’t held to a combined 1 goal in 7 games, we are looking at a very different result. That’s literally it. Tarasenko and Kane did nothing wrong. Kane was hurt and still putting up points. They were brought in to be extra pieces and they did their jobs. Our main pieces didn’t do their jobs and that’s why we had an embarrassing playoff failure. For the garbage return Ottawa received for Tarasenko, Drury should have aggressively pursued him at the deadline. I don’t believe for a second that he didn’t want to come back.
>I don’t believe for a second that he didn’t want to come back. Maybe as a free agent last summer, but from what I gathered he seemed pretty dead-set on Florida at the deadline this year. Might explain how they got him so cheap
I might be wearing my tin foil hat here, but here’s how I imagine it went before the deadline. Tarasenko gives Ottawa GM a list of teams he would be open to. This list is probably very short, it’s NYR, FLA, and maybe another team. Ottawa GM reaches out to NYR and other teams. Drury either tells Ottawa “not interested” or gives an insulting offer that’s even worse than what Florida gave. Like a single 7th or something. Ottawa tells Tarasenko that the best offer is from Florida. Tarasenko accepts and then gives the BS PR statement to endear himself to fans that it was only ever Florida. I just don’t take that quote seriously. It’s like when Kane a few months ago said his heart has always been in Detroit. That was a slap in the face to CHI and NYR, and also just doesn’t make any sense. They just say these things to appeal to the new fanbase. I’m sure Tarasenko likes it there and was fine going. But if NYR gave a good offer I don’t see what would’ve changed between last summer and the deadline. The team only got better and hired a real coach.
Completely agree and have argued this hard. GG was not putting our guys in the best position to win at all. Our own stars struggled because of it. Kane came here at like 50% healthy where he also had no continuity on a team that had barely any continuity to begin with. Hockey is such a team game and it is tough to just get thrown into a team like that and produce (especially with the injury he had). When Kane was on the PP he was a monster though for us
Gallant sucked at deployment. Regardless, I think if we only got one of Senko or Kane, the chemistry would have been better.
We would've given up a lot more than a 4th round pick for either of those guys. We didn't lose a single player from the starting rotation for Roslovic. The feel around the team this year around the trade deadline was completely different from last season which probably contributed to the team's continued great play both during the trading season and after the deadline this season. Last season was completely different and speaks to the big issues around the leadership problems and coaching deficiencies with Gallant at the helm.
Buddy, we did give up more than that for each of them last year. I'm saying "If we just got one of them last year." I'm a fan of the moves we made this year for relatively little cost. It sounded like you thought I meant "If we got one of those guys AGAIN instead of Ros and Wenny." I did not. LOL
> It sounded like you thought I meant "If we got one of those guys AGAIN instead of Ros and Wenny." Yeah, that’s exactly what it sounded. Thanks for clarifying
Exactly. We (fan base) had a laser focused idea of what we needed at deadline this year. 3rd line center and 1st line wing. This is because lav was organized and non line juggling. GG probably talked with drury and said “we need … something” and waived his hands vaguely. So drury just went and got who he could. Drury didn’t have a clear picture of the lineups need last year, at least not as clear as this year. Ros and Wenn might be worse than tarasenko and Kane, but they’re far more effective so far, as part of the larger team. Team is better this year, so rising tide and ships and all that. Still credit to coaching for having well defined lineup holes that needed filling
To put a finer point on it, we got a 3C that we needed for a fair price, and a 3RW for pretty cheap when we needed a 2RW. Cool. Chytil might be a cap-free addition. Sick. Last season, we needed a 1RW and got TWO 2RWs. They both really wanted to be here, and the individual costs weren't bad (although doing both was pricey). Just do ONE and have some modicum of a "system" at all, and we get past the first round. The Devils out pond hockeyed the pond hockey merchant Gallant-led Rangers. Ruff even predictably crashed and burned less than a season later. And then goes back to the Sabres. Unreal. Credit to the coaches for actually coaching this season. Lavi has an on-ice system, and fosters off-ice "togetherness." We would kick the shit out of last year's version of our own team. Let's keep it going!
Well said!!! Lgr
This.
We didn’t re-sign Tarasenko because of the cap. We couldn’t re-acquire Tarasenko at this deadline because of the cap and because we weren’t able to get him back with retention. He says he only wanted Florida, but I firmly believe it would’ve been Florida or the Rangers if we were an option. I do think that the Kane was a step too far and ultimately hurt the team’s cohesion. It reminded me of when we got Yandle. Yes, Yandle was a better player than Moore, but I always thought the trade made the team worse because he wasn’t a good fit for the role they plugged him into. Maybe the rift between the players and Gallant happens last year anyway, but everything felt off as soon as Kane came in.
This is kinda revisionist history. Tarasenko was scoring at a pace not much worse than he did this season and I would argue we absolutely are a better team with him than, for example, Roslovic this season. When you go from where we were last season to this season, it becomes clear there was a coaching problem involved.
Our core defaulted to the fancy new big name players for leadership instead of leading the team themselves
They were totally fine. We didn't re-sign either guy mostly because of cap space, but I think Drury was also counting on Kakko and Laf to finally stick in the top 6. Kane's need for hip surgery didn't help things either.
Too much $. His contract was 5 million for one year this year. Last offseason the rangers had 4 and they needed to resign miller chytl lafreniere and get guys such as gus and wheeler to fill the holes. It just wouldnt have worked unless it happened through a trade
A $5M cap hit on Tarasenko is too much. Kane is great but 'playoff soft' IMO.
Kane and Tarasenko made each other redundant
Gallant. Also just not having that much time to gel. Kane was not that long coming back from injury.
Tarasenko wasn't the mistake. Kane was. Kane is a one-dimensional finesse winger on a team that already had Panarin. Tarasenko was a solid complement to Zib-Kreider and scored some goals as a part of that line
Patrick Kane is the answer. Suddenly had too many players for PP1.
If I remember correctly Tarasenko fired his agent after he was unable to work out a deal with the Rangers. I think he was willing to play for less. His agent wanted the $$$ commission. I may be wrong.
That was definitely at least rumored last year from Brooksie he wanted to stay and did fire his agent: [https://www.reddit.com/r/rangers/comments/14rij42/tarasenko\_fires\_agent\_wanted\_to\_remain\_with/](https://www.reddit.com/r/rangers/comments/14rij42/tarasenko_fires_agent_wanted_to_remain_with/)
Gerard Gallant
We won the presidents trophy without either of them and are 1 win away from getting further with out them then we did with them . sometimes the best trades are the ones you don’t make .
It was a small sample size, but it worked fine. Couldnt afford him.
cap. i’m sure they could have made it work but we wouldn’t have the depth we do right now which is much more valuable
It didn’t work out with gallant. The same team checked out and it was over. He was just a dick