The New York Rangers finally did something creative that has the potential to shake the foundation of the current roster.
The only issue is they traded away a player who actually committed to the cause, Derick Brassard.
Mika Zibanejad – file photo by Brent Clark
Brassard has been a solid piece of the Rangers side but the club gets younger without losing much productivity in the trade with the Ottawa Senators who sent Mika Zibanejad to the Rangers for Brassard.
“I think the potential is there for more upside,” New York general manager Jeff Gorton said on NHL.com. “He’s just scratching the surface at age 23. There’s not a lot of guys that have done what he’s done as far as score 20 before that age. He kills penalties. He’s really emerged on the draws. Since he’s come in, he’s gotten better every year, and I think we’re just scratching the surface. … This is a trade where we felt like we’re getting younger, we’re getting a player that has upside, and we really like the way he’s trending.”
The other issue that made the trade almost necessary was the reduction in cap hit the Rangers will face this season. Zibanejad carries a $2.625 million for one year versus an estimated $5 million AAV for three years for Brassard.
“You can say it’s cap space if that’s the way you want to look at it,” Gorton said. “But for us, this is a younger player that is almost six years younger that’s coming off two 20-goal seasons that we think is heading to the prime of his career. The ability to get him, to get a younger player, to get a guy that’s fast, big (6-foot-2, 222 pounds), plays real well in his own zone, can do a lot of things for us, that’s the exciting piece. The fact that we have salary-cap space is good and we’ll look at everything now.”
There have certainly been rumors of the Rangers seeking trading partners for the likes of Rick Nash and others. So the move of Brassard may be seen as the club’s inability to broker a deal for Nash and Brassard’s value on ice is still high.
The Rangers have been getting a bit younger this off season but they have also gotten much faster than the last season when they looked old and haggard in the defensive zone and no longer had the push to breakout and pressure the offensive zone.
Zibanejad may help reverse that trend.
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