Why Kane and Tarasenko Should Not be Part of the Rangers Future

The Rangers and Kane Should be Through

Nobody should blame the New York Rangers and their relatively young GM, Chris Drury for picking up Patrick Kane at last year’s deadline. After all, the Rangers traded a second-round pick, Sammy Blais and an American Hockey League player for Kane, a four-time all-star, who has been a point-per-game regular season player throughout his career. But the problem was evident from day one– Kane just couldn’t produce magic, couldn’t wheel and deal and score like he’s 27 when he was with the Rangers for 27 games last season.

Kane’s first game was Mar. 2 against the Ottawa Senators. Ottawa finished well out of the playoff picture last season but were still competitive and outcompeted the star-studded Rangers that night. Yet, under the bright lights at Madison Square Garden, ‘Showtime’ Patty Kane still had his superstar hands but not the killer instinct. Despite playing 20 minutes and having three opportunities on the first power play unit alongside Artemi Panarin he was not on ice for any of the Rangers three goals on the night.

Kane scored 12 points in 19 regular season games with the Rangers last season, which is a far cry from the 92 points he put up in 2021. The clearest evidence against resigning Kane this offseason is that when the Rangers needed a goal in any of the four games which the Rangers lost in their first round playoff series, Showtime didn’t come through.

Now, it’s been reported that the 35-year-old has undergone major Hip Surgery, which will include a four-to-six-month recovery.

The writing is on the wall and it means that the Rangers should not sign Kane to a contract that would have the old yeller stay in New York. He’ll be recovering from the first major surgery of his career, won’t return until at least two months into the 2023-24 regular season. Making the playoffs in a division that saw three teams get to 100 points last season, isn’t a guarantee and to field a team capable of doing this, Drury and the Rangers have priorities other than bringing back an aging superstar. This includes signing two restricted free agents in K’Andre Miller and Alexis Lafreniere who will be due for pay raises as well.

Also, it is possible that either Lafreniere, a former first-overall draft pick or Kaapo Kakko could end up earning a spot inside the top six forward group next year. So, does it make sense to build those players up only to break them down? To have Kane return from injury, uncertain of how well he will play, and take their spots away? Whoever the Rangers new head coach ends up being needs to establish a good relationship with the Rangers ‘Kids’ because they are the future of the team and start using their hunger and growing skills to help the team. Bringing back Kane would show the Kids that the coaches don’t believe in their abilities and stilt their growth.

What to do about Vladdy…

Now that we’ve established that the Rangers front office should not bring back the player who has had the best career of anyone on the team, we turn our attention to another All-Star whom they added at the trade deadline last season and that is Vladimir Tarasenko. In my opinion, the 32-year-old wing’s performance was very strong after joining the Rangers on February 21st. Tarasenko was healthy and didn’t miss a single game of the regular season or playoffs.

The most impressive part of Tarasenko’s game is his discipline. He’s a skilled player, who can score goals largely due to his own intuition, like the one below. But the six-foot-one wing can handle teams who try to wear him down and he will not retaliate. He had zero penalty minutes in 31 games with the Rangers and just eight over the course of 69 games, between them and St. Louis, which shows that he is really the player you want on your team in the heat of battle.

THAT'S GAME! 🗽

Vladimir Tarasenko (@tara9191) caps off a three-point outing with an @Energizer OT winner for the @NYRangers! pic.twitter.com/d3klE2dkbP

— NHL (@NHL) March 2, 2023

So, Tarasenko is a great player but given their current situation, can the Rangers afford him? To re-sign with the Rangers, Tarasenko will have to accept a pay cut from the $7.5 million salary he made last season to probably less than five million. Tarasenko more than capable of getting a contract worth seven per year from a team. He would have to sign for no more than four million, which would leave the Rangers barely enough to devote to three players (two RFAs and a back up goalie).

Add in the fact that Vladdy recently he  healthier than he’s been, but has not played a full regular season since the 2016-17 season and it’s clear his best years are behind him. Letting Tarasenko walk is rough because ideally the Rangers would love to have a player of Tarasenko’s acumen and caliber in their lineup next season but with four players on their roster making more than eight million dollars, it just isn’t possible.

What is the Rangers Offseason Plan?

If there is one thing that a disappointing crash out in the first round of the 2023 Stanley Cup Playoffs should have taught the Rangers, it’s that they need to stick to their guns. Their guns are their youngest players; Laffy, Kakko, Filip Chytil, Miller, and Ryan Lindgren.

They need look no further than their 23-year-old center and former 1st-round pick, Chytil who doubled his career high for points with 45, this past year.

Filip Chytil, Kaapo Kakko and Alexis Lafrenière are the first #NYR trio aged 23 or younger to record a goal and assist each in the same game since Manny Malhotra, Todd Harvey and Marc Savard on November 10th 1998, when the Rangers beat the Lightning 10-2. pic.twitter.com/HkrdhTLy4J

— Stat Boy Steven 🇳🇱 🇮🇪 (@StatBoy_Steven) March 26, 2023

The odd part about the last three years for the Rangers is that it’s been a Roller Coaster. The owner James Dolan fired John Davidson, beloved as a broadcaster for the team in the 1990s and then their Team President, to “speed up the rebuild” but really because their biggest star, Panarin tried to fight Tom Wilson and found out he was ‘in over his head’ when it slammed the ice. However, now Chris Drury is the only person in the front office who has won a Stanley Cup as a player and is the team President and GM. He calls the shots and keeping the team’s young core of K’Andre Miller, Lafreniere, Adam Fox and Igor Shesterkin together has to be his first priority.

The young, first pair defenseman Miller and bottom six winger Lafreniere are both restricted free agents and the Rangers have until July 1 to offer them contracts. They will either accept or decline and after that can negotiate with other teams. Chris, do the right thing, focus on bringing these young bucks back and let Kane and Vladdy who have both ‘been there and done that’, walk.