(
)
It’s risky business, breaking up a league-leading team to chase the Stanley Cup. The general manager who did it with the Rangers nearly 18 years ago says dealing Brandon Dubinsky and other regulars for Rick Nash would be even more of a gamble than the roulette he played in 1994.
“When you look at it on the surface, it looks like too big a change, because that player is going to be such an integral part of the team,” Neil Smith said. “It seems like a massive change. With our changes,
although large in numbers, there was nobody was going in and upsetting what had really be the core of the team that got you there. Nobody’s ice-time was drastically affected by what we did.
“When you get a star player like [Nash], you’re going to affect a number of players’ time as the dominoes fall. When you do it in the summer, you have time for adjustment — not just in training camp, but during the months leading up to the playoffs — and everyone adjusts to the world the way it is that season. When you do it at the deadline, that guy goes right into the fire and the team has to adapt around him immediately.”
Egged on by coach Mike Keenan, Smith was the trigger-puller back on March 21, 1994, about the wildest day in Rangers history. The Blueshirts had missed the playoffs the previous season amid the wrenching and controversial firing of Roger Neilson. Keenan had been brought in as coach with strong recommendation from above, and Iron Mike had definite ideas for the team he wanted to chase the Cup.
The Rangers arrived in Calgary having just lost three of four. The Cup drought was nearing 54 years. Losing to the eventual champion Penguins despite winning the Presidents Trophy in 1992 only made the task more urgent. This was the Rangers’ chance, and as history has shown, their last chance.
By the end of that fateful day, Tony Amonte and Matt Oates had gone to Chicago for Brian Noonan and Stephane Matteau; Mike Gartner was shipped to Toronto for Glenn Anderson, Scott Malone and a fourth-round pick; Phil Bourque was headed to Ottawa for future picks; and Todd Marchant was dealt to Edmonton for Craig MacTavish.
“For me, it was, ‘How do we strengthen the team without doing anything to disrupt the core and the chemistry of what got us there — fortifying it, making it stronger,’ ” Smith said. “We needed a guy who was good on faceoffs and could play that penalty-killer, third- and fourth-line role, and that was MacT (Craig MacTavish). And we needed
some good third line, playoff-type worker bees like Noonan and Matteau.
“And Glenn Anderson was just a better proven playoff player than Mike Gartner when they were about the same age.”
Yet, no one could know. No one knows now if the team, as it looked on March 20, would have won the Cup.
“I was concerned, very concerned that we were doing the right thing,” Smith said. “My biggest concern was in the long-term, trading Tony Amonte. I didn’t like that trade because I’m a scout at heart, and a builder. I’m not a rental guy. That bothered me that we were trading a guy I knew had a real bright future.
“But when you win the Cup, everything you’ve done is right. I really believe that. But you wish you could have done it without giving away your future.”
They had quick results. The Rangers went 8-2-2 the rest of the way, but needed seventh-game victories over the Devils and Canucks to capture their only Cup in the last 72 years.
“The first night Matteau came in and scored two goals in Calgary, and that helped,” Smith said. “Glenn Anderson was one of [Mark Messier’s] best buddies, so you didn’t have to worry about him. MacT was a captain and a senior guy, and we didn’t have centers. Noonan was just a guy who was quiet and fit in.
“I don’t think there was any fitting in. They just basically took the spots of the guys that were gone.”
Smith, who runs the Greenville (S.C.) Road Warriors of the ECHL, said such a massive overhaul couldn’t happen again.
“You wouldn’t be able to do it in today’s NHL,” Smith said. “ But in the same circumstances, you’d sure do it all over again.
“Even though you don’t like the one trade long-term, knowing it’s the key to the Cup, you have to do it.”
mark.everson@nypost.com