Drury with a masterful job of betting on Chytil to play an amount of games to help the Rangers. He has good game and would be a huge boost to the third line if healthy. Drury’s ridiculous bet on Chytil being in the lineup by playoffs let alone play in the playoffs, is fine for a scrub team, but FFS the Rangers Cup window is this year and maybe next. Just a totally asinine move potentially putting the Rangers in a situation where Johnny B is the third line Center for 3/4’ers of the season. And then scrambling at the trade deadline to bring someone else in.
Top it off with your most physical defenceman probably going to be a boat anchor and a midget slotted in as the sixth defenceman.
Not impressed.
I think his inability to move Trouba screwed his plans up, well that and the cost of some of these contracts. The challenge Drury has is he's got to resign/replace Shesterkin, Lafreniere, Miller, Kakko, Smith, Edstrom, Cuylle, Rempe, Vesey, Lindgren, Jones, Ruhwedel and Quick next Summer.
If the cap goes up to $92M next season, then that' $34M to resign/sign 11-13 players. Of course moving Trouba will help some too, although whatever they have to retain and the cost of his replacement will also factor into that.
With that said, I hear you on Chytil, and it's a big gamble. The upside his high, but the risk is incredibly high too. I think if they moved on from him, then they'd be looking at the same sort of price for guys in the Wennberg mould, and I don't think that that's better. The issue there is the demand for Centers is much higher than many other positions.
On defense I certainly think there could have been an improvement, but that Trouba contract is a big barrier to making improvements there.
Some of this is his own making for sure with Drury setting up the timeline for all these contracts to become due at the same time, and perhaps not drafting as aggressively in the center spot.
Pretty much this line-up minus Chytil and Smith won the Presidents trophy and lost 4-2 in the Eastern Conference final...it does feel like that there's a possibility they're only a player or two away from going the next step, so definitely feel like Drury could have been a bit more aggressive this off-season.
he should have bought out Trouba... it still would have been better
Overpaying someone to suck is the perfect formula to screw up a team.
This season may be it for Drury
If they need me to bleed, then I'll bleed for my team
he should have bought out Trouba... it still would have been better
Overpaying someone to suck is the perfect formula to screw up a team.
This season may be it for Drury
Yeah, was an option, although it would have resulted in $4M in dead cap space next year, plus another 2 million for the 2 following years. More impactful next year of course, and you have to balance that against what might have been a retention number if you trade him.