The NY Rangers may have been the best team in the league throughout the regular 2023-24 regular season and one of the more formidable groups in the playoffs, but that doesn’t make them immune to criticism for what they did this offseason. No, the Rangers didn’t need to light up the league with a blockbuster move; they only needed to get better so they could find a way past teams like the Florida Panthers.
Overall, the Rangers made sensible moves in bringing back Kaapo Kakko so he could remain in the lineup as a depth forward or as a trade chip, trading for Reilly Smith, signing Sam Carrick, and keeping Braden Schneider around. While it’s true these moves are neither head-turning nor jaw-dropping, they were necessary ones that make the Blueshirts a deeper team.
So why would anyone believe the Rangers didn’t enjoy a strong offseason? If you ask Joe Yerdon of Bleacher Report, it had to do with the failed Jacob Trouba trade, which, at this point, doesn’t look like it will happen in any capacity.
Something Yerdon wrote that jumped out at me was this: “Everyone can spend the summer allowing cooler heads to prevail and try to win the Stanley Cup with a very good roster once again. But players are human and the fact the Rangers attempted to trade Trouba while he has fully embraced being in Manhattan is tough to handle. At the very least, everyone knows where they stand…at least they should.”
Had this attempted trade occurred in September rather than earlier this summer, I would agree with Joe Yerdon 1,000 percent. It definitely would have created a rift with less than a month before the season. But at this point, with the season-opening puck drop just under three months away, there’s more than enough time for this mishap or whatever you want to call it to blow over.
Yerdon also points this out in the first part of what was quoted above before speculating otherwise. So, if you’re a Rangers fan and if you’re concerned about whether this will affect the team going forward, you don’t need to worry too much about it yet.
This is a team that’s going to go out with one collective goal in mind, and it’s to bring the Stanley Cup back to Manhattan for the first time in over three decades. Being unable to trade Trouba is the first of many potential bumps in the rough road to the Cup, and the Rangers won’t be the only franchise hitting them.
In fact, I would even count it as a blessing in disguise that this attempted trade occurred earlier and not later in the summer. Get the mishaps out of the way in the short term so in the long run, you can come together as an organization and finally win that elusive Stanley Cup.
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Publish date : 2024-07-18 12:00:00
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