Everyone is playing armchair GM these days while attempting to fix the New York Rangers. Careful folks, Steven Stamkos would be a mistake.
This is a trap that New York Rangers fans have watched their beloved organization fall into time and time again.A big name unrestricted free agent hits the market and everyone begins to salivate over what could be.
And when it becomes evident that your team will eventually be the destination for this big name player, everyone goes crazy.
The jerseys hit the NHL store, pictures of the brand new player are taken in a Rangers jersey, and expectations sky-rocket.
And sometimes rational thinking is thrown out of the window.
Rick Nash was that player back in 2012, when he was acquired over the summer for Brandon Dubinsky, Artem Anisimov, and prospect Tim Erixon.
Now here we sit four years later, and people cannot wait to run Nash out of town.
Instead of being giddy at Nash’s production, the Rangers’ fan base is excited because Nash supposedly handed the Blueshirt brass a list of teams that he would accept a trade to.
So do we really want the Rangers to make this same mistake again?
The Rangers are in a very, very precarious position this summer. A couple wrong moves by General Manager Jeff Gorton and the Blueshirts could plummet back into the dark ages that we experienced from 1998-2004.
Even with Stamkos hitting the open market this summer, do the Rangers really want to go the veteran route again?
Here are Stamkos’ stats:
Stamkos posted elite numbers from 2009 through the 2013 season. Since 2013 however, it seems as though Stammer has come back to Earth.
Don’t get me wrong, Stamkos’ number over the past three years are certainly not bad. But those are also numbers that Chris Kreider could easily post if he finally breaks through.
But that’s just the problem with these big name players. They post big-time number for a few years, which undoubtedly skyrockets their value and then they spend the rest of their career chasing said numbers.
They rarely find the same level of production but team’s will still pay the big-time salaries.
With the Rangers at a crossroad the last thing Jeff Gorton should do is make the team’s position even more precarious.
Stamkos isn’t playing with his team in the Eastern Conference Finals right now because of a blood clot. Blood clots are not only very serious injuries but they are also wildly unpredictable.
It’s they type of injury that could return without warning and leave the Rangers completely out of options.
Stamkos just shouldn’t be an option for the Rangers right now. If Gorton decides to go down that road, we could be looking at a dark future with many jumping on that “unproductive veteran” bandwagon.
