The New York Rangers‘ season is crashing all around them, losers of six of their last seven games, capped off by an utterly embarrassing 10-2 thrashing at the hands of the Boston Bruins on Saturday.
With that, insider Vincent Mercogliano of The Athletic is calling for the Rangers to “sell, sell, sell.”
Anyone who watched the New York Rangers play on Saturday could reach only one conclusion in regard to the internal roster decisions being weighed.
It’s time to sell, sell, sell.
Whatever happens in the 11 remaining games before the Olympic break is largely irrelevant.
With star goalie Igor Shesterkin and No. 1 defenseman Adam Fox both going down this past week to lengthy injury absences, there’s no reason whatsoever for the Rangers to be thinking anything else, really.
The annihilation at the hands of the Bruins was the last straw.
“That’s as bad as it gets,” captain J.T. Miller said. “I don’t know, man. The only thing that really matters now is this should sting — like, this should suck. This should make you want to puke.”
There are trade targets aplenty that the Rangers could dangle, starting with the player who will undoubtedly be the top man on the totem pole in free agency this summer, Artemi Panarin.
The Bread Man will be one of the top targets around the league at the trade deadline, but he’s not the only Blueshirt who should be available. The names open for discussion could look like this, though it’s probably not an exhaustive list:
Artemi Panarin (UFA)Vincent TrocheckMika ZibanejadAlexis LafreniereBrennan Othmann (RFA)Carson Soucy (UFA)Conor Sheary (UFA)Jonny Brodzinski (UFA)Jonathan Quick (UFA)Panarin and Zibanejad have full no-trades, while Trocheck has a 12-team no-trade list. A source told James Murphy at rg.org that “Drury has tested the market on 32-year-old forwards Mika Zibanejad and Vincent Trocheck before and could do so again.” Lafreniere is only in Year One of a seven-year, $52.15M deal ($7.45M AAV), and is having a dreadful season, with only nine goals and 24 points in 46 games.
As Mercogliano summarized it, “Saturday was a rock-bottom moment, but it’s time to stop pretending this team is anything other than a sinking ship.”
Let the bailing begin.
Photo: © James Guillory-Imagn Images