Seasons change, the Rangers’ 2015-16 sure has, and you need not wonder why general manager Jeff Gorton’s obligation approaching the Feb. 29 deadline is different than it was a month ago.
He is going to go for it just as his team is going to go for it in what will be the Last Ride for this core that has been in place since the 2013 playoffs.
The organizational ethos, if not its mandate, was articulated Tuesday by Alain Vigneault, whose team is 8-3-1 over the last month following Wednesday’s bitter 5-3 defeat at the Garden by the defending Cup champion Blackhawks, who hold the belt for which the Blueshirts yearn.
“The pressure — I don’t think so, I know we want that pressure,” the head coach said. “We want to be one of the teams that people say can win the Cup.
“There’s no doubt we believe in this group. But at some point, we have to deliver, you know?”
And now, with the Rangers at least as good as anybody in the East other than the runaway Capitals — to whom bad things have happened annually in the playoffs, many of them inflicted by the Blueshirts — the spotlight will be trained on Gorton to see if he can deliver the piece that has been missing since the Broadway revival began in 2011-12.
Glen Sather, now the president, sure tried to deliver it, sacrificing (four) first-rounders plus Artem Anisimov, Brandon Dubinsky, Anthony Duclair and a couple of months of Ryan Callahan over three successive years in trading for Rick Nash, Marty St. Louis and Keith Yandle. None proved — or yet has proved — to be the answer.
A month ago, Yandle was the Rangers’ chip to play at the deadline to recoup a first-rounder. But not anymore in the wake of the impending free agent’s wholly positive response to the increased responsibility he inherited in the absence of Ryan McDonagh, who returned against Chicago after being sidelined for four games with a concussion.
So, no, the Rangers won’t be diminishing their back end in order to replenish. Once again, it is late February, the Blueshirts are a contender (Zed Who?) and Henrik Lundqvist, who both early and lately has been at the peak of his game, will turn 34 two days after the deadline.
Rather, Gorton has the duty to bolster his team if he can. The Rangers may be fifth in the league in goals per game and 13th in goals against average (the latter stat skewed by dreadful penalty killing), but their biggest need remains the same as it was through the last two springtimes. They need a formidable, physical top-six winger who will bring a presence to the down-low, grinding game and to the power play.
And Eric Staal is that player.
Staal is an impending free agent whose future in Carolina is unclear. The 31-year-old has a no-move clause, but if GM Ron Francis is not willing to commit to him as the franchise’s ongoing standard-bearer, there would seem more than just a chance Eric would waive it in order to join younger brother Marc on Broadway. Know this: The Rangers have talked about Eric Staal before.
The Candy Canes are on the outskirts of the playoff race after seven straight misses, so maybe they won’t be willing to send their captain out of town. And Staal is having a very good season, third in the NHL among forwards in 5-on-5 Corsi while playing for a very strong possession team.
But realistically, the future isn’t going to be now for Carolina. So what would it take to get him? What will it take in a market that will be directed by Eric’s willingness to waive his no-move?
The Rangers have either this year’s or next year’s first-rounder available, depending on which pick they opt to send Arizona to complete the Yandle deal. Trading the other one would keep the Blueshirts out of the first round for five straight years. But the team hasn’t won the Cup for 21 years, the window is closing, and the makeover can be postponed until the summer.
Pavel Buchnevich and Brady Skjei have to be off-limits. But Oscar Lindberg probably is not. The Hurricanes likely would have to agree to retain 50 percent of the cap charge, with the Blueshirts up against it, and unable to gain Long-Term Injury relief for Rick Nash unless it should come to No. 61 being ruled out for the remainder of the regular season.
It doesn’t appear as if there is much else out there for the Rangers. Andrew Ladd will be the subject of a bidding war that will drive up his price. Teddy Purcell, an alternate option, is a bottom-six guy. It seems as if there is one impact rental out there, only one worthy of even considering sacrificing a first-rounder, and it is Eric Staal.
And with this season having changed, expect Gorton to go for him, and for it.