@RNYRF Staff Report
DRAFT WEEKEND RUMORS: Close But No Cigar
Following Friday and Saturday at the 2016 NHL Draft many "rumors" were squashed concerning possibly trades surrounding the Rangers. Although in trade discussions throughout the 48 hour period with all NHL GM's present at the draft Jeff Gorton could only pull off a small trade bringing defenseman Nick Holland for a 2017 4th Round Draft pick from Colorado.
Rangers fans were teased all day Friday with rumors of the Rangers pursuing trades for Kevin Shattenkirk, Cam Fowler, Matt Dumba and at one point in the day on Saturday even rumors of the Rangers having substantial talks with pending UFA Steven Stamkos. Many Rangers players were involved throughout the day on "Social Media" Rumors including Rick Nash putting in his list of 12 teams he could be traded to. Derek Stepan's name popped up quite frequently along with tales of Gorton shopping both defenseman Dan Girardi and Marc Staal to numerous teams even though they both have no-move clauses in their contracts. The rumors seem to be just that, rumors and disappointment to the Garden Faithful.
UFA RUMORS
Along with the rumblings of talking to Stamkos, the Rangers were linked to a few UFA's this weekend with names such as Thomas Vanek who was bought-out by the Minnesota Wild and Michael Grabner who will be coming off a 3M 5 year contact with Toronto who received him in a trade last season with the Islanders. Come Friday July 1st it might just be an interesting day for the Rangers and their fans if Gorton can clear cap space and pull together enough money to sign their RFA's and bring in some new blood to the "Blueshirts".
SEARCH FOR NEW ASSISTANT COACH COMING TO AN END?
With GM Jeff Gorton saying that the Rangers are close to deciding on a replacement for recently departed Ulf Samuelsson to Charlotte of the AHL. Said to be in the mix are former NY Ranger and current Wolf Pack D-Coach Jeff Beukeboom, and former NHL'er Darryl Sydor. Fan favorite Brian Leetch is reportedly not interested in taking the position alongside Vigeault on the Rangers bench. Gorton did say that the team will take another week or so to make a decision but nothing is imminent.
CLOSING THOUGHTS
Will Jeff Gorton make moves to improve the stale Rangers corps? It's believed he will, although no moves were made to clear cap space in order to sign pending UFAs or trades made to bring in "New Blood" it wasn't for a lack of trying as Gorton was said to be burniing up the phone lines Friday and Saturday along with many discussions with other GMs. It's still early in the race towards July 1st and Gorton does have time to make the "right" moves heading forward. Surely there will be some popular and unpopular deals done but he seems to have a "game plan" in place and is unwilling to make deals just for the sake of making them. Said to be looking for the best deal available and not willing to take "less than what's worth" is not any easy task to endeavor. Improvement take time especially when he came into his first full off season as GM holding onto NMC and NTC Contract clauses with high salary players such as Nash, Girardi and Staal. Gorton will get the job done, just be patient Rangers fans.
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