After last season ended with a game 6 loss in the Eastern Finals at New Jersey, things were looking up for the Rangers. The team that had finished in 8th place and was out in five in the playoffs in 2011 had rebounded to top the conference in 2012, and made it 2 wins away from the teams first finals appearance since 1994. Glen Sather felt the need for more offense, which is okay and all. Rick Nash is a superstar, so it made sense on paper. To make the deal, Sather had to give up valuable depth in Dubinsky, Anisimov and Erixon. Depth still wasn’t even close to being an issue, until Prust, Fedotenko and Mitchell were allowed to walk via free agency. That’s six NHL players for one if you do the math. I don’t care how good Nash is, if you knew that by making the trade that you wouldn’t be able to resign Prust, Fedotenko and Mitchell, plus lose those other three in the trade, you don’t make it if you’re Sather. You just don’t. Even after that, the team looked solid on paper, but once again, the game isn’t played on paper.

The 2012-13 season ended far earlier than the Rangers or the fans had expected. A 3-1 Game 5 loss at Boston ended the blueshirts season in just the second round. The Rangers actually scored first, a powerplay goal (because apparently that’s what you’re supposed to do on powerplays) but couldn’t score one more goal in the game. This is a too common of a theme for Rangers fans come playoff time, the team scoring between zero and two goals in an elimination game. This was the 7th time in the last 9 elimination games for the Rangers where they’ve failed to score more than two goals (game 6 vs Washington & game 4 vs Boston this year). This marks another year of the Henrik Lundqvist prime era without a cup, or even a cup finals appearance. The Rangers simply have too much talent and way too good of a goaltender to let this happen repeatedly.

The offseason got off to a quick start when Torts was let go. Whether you loved him or hated him, you can’t argue against the fact that the guy is a hell of a coach, and he got this team to develop faster than most of us had predicted. He certainly didn’t get any favors from Sather at the end of last season. The guy had taken an 8th place team to 1st over one season and two games away from the finals, only to see it dismantled in July. He also wasn’t helped this year by Richards struggles, Staal’s injury, Clowe’s injury, etc. Looking back on it, if he really didn’t have control over that locker room, he really needed to be let go. I was a Torts fan myself, but when as a coach you lose your players, you’re done.

It’s time to look forward as to who the new Rangers coach will be. I feel that this process needs to move as fast as humanly possible, saying there are other teams looking for coaches now as well. Some of the names thrown out there include Alain Vigneault (VAN), Dave Tippett (PHX), Dallas Eakins (TOR, AHL), Guy Boucher (TB) and even Mark Messier. I’ll go on record right now saying that Messier would be a TERRIBLE decision by all those involved. Wayne Gretzky showed all of us that just because you’re a great player doesn’t mean that you’re a great coach. As much as we all love Mess, he has never coached, anywhere. You can’t just hire a guy like that and I don’t suspect Sather will even consider him.

As for the legit candidates, everyone has their upside. My two favorites out of this list are definitely Guy Boucher and Alain Vigneault. Boucher busted on the scene with the Lightning in 2011. He took what most people thought was a very under-skilled team (especially on defense) and got them one game away from the finals. His trademark 1-3-1 shocked a lot of teams out there, including the Flyers. We all remember that one. His teams were also known for their quick transition offense and a great powerplay. Those two things would be welcomed additions for the Rangers this season by all. Boucher would inherit less superstar power (Stamkos, St. Louis compared to Nash, Stepan) but would more than make up for that in defensemen and goalies. Victor Hedman and Dwayne Roloson were his go-to in Tampa, just wait to see what he could do with McDonagh, Girardi, Staal and Lundqvist. His powerplay often revolved around side to side puck movement on the umbrella and one timers across the ice, and was one of the top powerplays in the NHL during his time there.

Vigneault was behind Vancouver’s bench and led them to the finals in 2011. That team just lost their mojo as of late and it was decided the bench boss was to blame. Vigneault is an interesting guy to take a look at just because he’s been deep into the playoffs on multiple occasions. His style revolves more around puck possession, which this Rangers group could definitely do. Vancouver was often criticized for being “too soft” in the playoffs, which I definitely feel has to do more with the personnel than the coach. With this group of players, he wouldn’t have to worry about them getting pushed around. Vigneault would inherit more defensive depth than he had in Vancouver, and he would never have to deal with the goaltending questions in New York that he had to deal with in Vancouver. He also ran a top-notch powerplay which was often set up behind the net. I feel like Brassard, Hagelin and Richards (if he comes back) would fit his powerplay style perfectly.

Moving on from the coach, Sather has a lot of decisions to make involving players. Right at the top of that list is the potential buyout of Brad Richards (who thought that we would be saying this one year ago?). Richards had what was seemingly the worst season of his career. If you do out the math, his season would equal to about 60 points in a full season, still not completely terrible. The problem here is his contract. With the new CBA, the Rangers really can’t afford to keep that current contract because if he retires before it’s expired, there are heavy cap penalties to pay.

There’s the off-ice side. The on-ice side is a lot different, Brad Richards is a hell of a player. I gave him the benefit of the doubt all year long being an odd shortened season and all. I’d like to bring him back if we can. However, I agree that we can’t keep his current contract in play. This is a huge gamble either way. On one hand, if we keep him and he continues to struggle, we can still buy him out next year. I’m not really going to go over the possibility of a serious injury because the chances of that are so low, but if that were to happen he can’t be bought out. I feel that this guy is going to bounce back in a huge way next year. Maybe he was injured and it just hasn’t gone public. Maybe he was just that out of shape coming into the shortened season. I’d like to bring him back if we can fit him in the now-lowered cap. I want him back. Whether it was the coach, the shortened season, or just a slump that he couldn’t get out of, I’d like to give him a year without Tortorella and most likely a more offensive system to break out of it. There is no way that this guy doesn’t bounce back next year, write it down.

There’s also the matter of some key RFA’s. Stepan, McDonagh, Hagelin and Zuccarello will all look for new deals. The Rangers have a policy of signing guys off their entry-level deals to these two to four year “bridge-deals” before signing them to long-term contracts. I have no reason to expect anything different for these guys. I’m seeing that Stepan will get around 4 mil or so. You gotta remember, if he was an RFA after last season, he would probably be getting an offer somewhere in the 2.5 range. Oh, how one year can make a huge difference. McDonagh will likely get a number similar so Staal and it will likely be in the mid 3’s. Hagelin won’t be getting the same kind of money, and he’ll probably get offered somewhere in the 2’s, and Zuccarello will likely get the same as Hagelin.

That will leave the Rangers with roughly 3 million in cap space (give or take). This also assumes that guys that will become UFA’s after next season such as Dan Girardi, Ryan Callahan and  (gulp) Henrik Lundqvist don’t sign extensions this summer. This puts 14 forwards and six defensemen signed. Those numbers also don’t include players who ended the season not in the NHL (JT Miller, etc). That is not too bad. That also leaves out Clowe. I just don’t see Clowe coming back with how the cap is. He made 3.6 million last year, and if he wants a similar number, I just can’t see the Rangers fitting him in. One guy out there who could potentially replace him for cheaper is Brian Bickell of the Chicago Blackhawks. His cap hit would be around 2 mil most likely. I’ll get much deeper into the free agent pool in a later article.

Rangers fans will have to be prepared for no big offseason free agent signing this year. What we should be looking forward to are getting our RFA’s signed, getting a new coach, and the Richards dilemma. The other reason that we don’t need to sign many UFA’s this summer is that we have a lot of NHL ready players down in the minors. JT Miller, Dylan McIlrath, Connor Allen, Ryan Bourque, Oscar Lindberg, and Christian Thomas should make some impact in the NHL next year, lessening the need for free agents right away. The depth is there, not in free agency.

The cap space is going to make this a tricky offseason for Sather & co, but if he can play this out right, the Rangers should have Stepan, McDonagh, Hagelin, Zuccarello, Richards, and a whole cast of prospects as well as a new head coach ready to start fresh come October. Get ready Rangers fans, the best is yet to come.