General managers get an identity based on their tendencies. Peter Chiarelli is known for lopsided trades, Stan Bowman for re-acquiring familiar faces, David Poile for team-savvy contracts and Steve Yzerman (and now Julien BriseBois) for finding skill no matter a player’s draft ranking or size.
In New York, the Rangers’ identity is still closely linked to their last general manager and current president Glen Sather. But this is Jeff Gorton’s team now and it has been since he was promoted from assistant to general manager in July 2015. While he may not have an identity that defines his tenure yet, he is developing tendencies, some of which were reinforced as recently as the 2019 trade deadline.
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Gorton plays the most pivotal role in the Rangers’ rebuild. For even acknowledging the need for a rebuild, instead of trying to bandaid the team’s weaknesses with right-now moves that only deepened the hole they created for themselves, he set himself apart from his predecessor. But how he proceeds as he accumulates talent is crucial, as is finding the right personnel to develop that talent. When there are breakdowns and road blocks that develop, the onus is once again on the general manager to remedy them.
With that in mind, it’s worth looking at Gorton’s time as general manager to assess his progress so far — not just with their rebuild, but since 2015 — to determine the tendencies that have defined his tenure along with some of the strengths and weaknesses he’s developed over the years.
Trades
Gorton’s trade history (his full trade history can be found on CapFriendly) is highlighted by the Mika Zibanejad trade — a deal that brought in an up and coming center at a lower cost, plus a second-rounder that was later used in the Brendan Smith trade. Since the trade, Derick Brassard’s value has trended down, while Zibanejad’s value has skyrocketed as he’s become one of the the Rangers’ best players.
Since taking the reins, Gorton’s only traded for a true deadline once, in acquiring Eric Staal in a deal that clearly didn’t work and cost the Rangers assets that soon became precious. The following deadline, his only notable move was acquiring Smith from the Detroit Red Wings; the trade looked even more reasonable when their rental was actually extended (yes, we’ll get there).
But since 2017, the Rangers have been sellers under Gorton at the deadline, which is something that their previous general manager may not have been as willing to do.
Some of those deadline deals, like the Michael Grabner trade, have been exactly what the team needed. Others, like the Ryan McDonagh/J.T. Miller trade, arguably could have brought back more. The risk of packaging up assets in one trade is that it can diminish what the return is — and maybe they should have learned that months earlier after sending Derek Stepan and Antti Raanta to Arizona for a first-round pick and Tony DeAngelo.
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Generally, Gorton hasn’t been the most aggressive general manager. The Zibanejad deal could be viewed as such since Brassard was still productive in New York and as well with the Stepan deal, especially since neither center needed to be traded. Trading Miller, a pending RFA, was somewhat aggressive since he got ahead of having to deal with two RFAs on expiring bridge-deals in Miller and Kevin Hayes.
Otherwise though, a number of these trades were predictable, especially those involving pending UFAs. Had Chris Kreider been traded at the past deadline (which he should be at the draft if they don’t see a future with him in New York, not at the next deadline), the McDonagh trade to Edmonton taken place years ago, or the Rangers been a little bolder with acquiring overpriced contracts in exchange for extra assets, they’d be pushing the boundaries a bit more.
Signings
On to some of the contract extensions in the Gorton era, one standout is the Chris Kreider deal that was signed after his two-year bridge-deal expired. Kreider’s four-year extension has been excellent, as he’s been one of their best wingers throughout the life of the deal.
Another highlight is once again a transaction including Zibanejad. The then-24-year-old center was also coming off a two-year bridge deal and his next contract was reasonable for a second-line center, which he was the previous season, and outstanding for a first-line center that he was already tapped to become after the Stepan trade.
With Smith, Gorton also had a player coming off a two-year contract. At the time, considering his play in New York and Detroit, an extension seemed like the right move. Unfortunately, they didn’t anticipate such a step back in the first year of a contract that’s looked questionable ever since.
Speaking of two-year deals, there was the decision to sign Miller and Hayes to similar bridge deals in the same offseason instead of taking the risk on a low-cost, long-term extension on at least one. Instead, it put the Rangers in the situation where they’d have to choose between the two — and while retaining Hayes over Miller was the right deal, they’re left with neither now since Hayes’ value raised enough for him to ask for a more significant contract than they were willing to sign last summer.
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That’s not to say that a bridge deal is the wrong move. With a player like Jimmy Vesey it was more fitting. With Brady Skjei, also in the 2018 offseason, Gorton instead took the risk and went with a long-term contract that could pay dividends for years to come. If his play sours, there’s still the opportunity to flip him because of his age.
With these contracts, Gorton’s trended away from trade clauses — which may be because of how they’ve burned the team in the past. Between the contracts of Marc Staal, Dan Girardi, Brad Richards and maybe even Stepan (although, he really shouldn’t be grouped with the rest), there’s reason for him to want to stay away from the inclusion of those terms, particularly throughout the life of the contract. Kreider’s contract features a modified no-trade clause in the second half, while Zibanejad’s has a no-move clause that activates July 1. Only Kevin Shattenkirk was signed to a contract with a no-movement clause throughout.
Where Gorton’s really done well is his depth signings, from Raanta’s cost-effective two-year extension to both of Jesper Fast’s contracts.
Besides contract extensions to depth players, it’s where Gorton has excelled with free agents, from Viktor Stalberg to Michael Grabner and Fredrik Claesson.
Plus, he’s signed a number of low-risk contracts to younger players, including John Gilmour, Neal Pionk, and Ville Meskanen. Each of these signings addressed something the Rangers were clearly lacking both at the NHL and prospect level. While the Rangers were struggling defensively, Gorton addressed it with free-agent signings that although they didn’t help the team at the time, would help in the future. The same can be said for the Meskanen signing, as they could use depth on the wings both now and in the future.
The problem at times has been how long it has taken to address certain areas — the defense needed changes sooner and their NHL-level center depth should have been replenished sooner into the 2017-18 season.
What’s surprisingly missing from the Rangers’ history under Gorton, is the lack of major signings. There’s really only two big-name players on this list — Vesey, who was a highly touted college free agent, and Kevin Shattenkirk. The latter is the particularly interesting one, as his is the only significant free agent contract of Gorton’s tenure, and that deal is very reasonable compared to what teams offer to sway a player to sign with them.
The Rangers have been known to add via free agency, but that strategy hasn’t come without risks because players that hit the open market are often already towards the end of their prime and those contracts frequently carry into less productive years at a significant cap hit.
Along with trades and signings, there’s drafting. As the Rangers have traded players away over the last two seasons, they’ve accumulated draft picks to replenish a depleted prospect pipeline.
What they do with those picks is a key part of the rebuilding process. With a number of these picks, it’s too soon to truly know what they’ll do in the NHL, but there are encouraging signs, like the fact that Gorton and his scouting staff have found value in later rounds with picks like Morgan Barron and they’ve gone with high-upside picks in Chytil, Vitali Kravtsov, K’Andre Miller, and Nils Lundkvist in the first round the last two years.
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But they’ve also looked for the appearance of NHL readiness, character, and need, as they did with the seventh overall pick in 2017 with Andersson. While he could still develop into a key player for the Rangers, it’s the strategy that’s flawed.
Coaching
Alain Vigneault was a Glen Sather hire, but he could have been a Gorton fire sooner — really, after any of their failed playoff appearances. Instead, midway through the 2016-17 season, he was extended through 2019-20 even though he still had a year and a half until his five-year contract expired. He was fired just after that first contract would have expired after the 2017-18 season.
With Vigneault, a number of players that Gorton (and Sather) had acquired were misused, including Keith Yandle, Eric Staal, and Smith. While the general manager may not have wanted to micromanage the day to day, allowing the situation to continue as long as it did doesn’t reflect well.
Retaining Lindy Ruff is another questionable decision after last year’s disastrous defense, from both the personnel choices and their execution of the system. While the skill level, especially after the deadline, has to be factored in, it still doesn’t excuse it. Yet some of those decisions have continued throughout this season.
Then again, how Gorton evaluates defense in general may be a weakness. Acquiring Ryan Lindgren and Adam McQuaid both pose the same questions: how much was character considered over skill since both are fairly one-dimensional backs. Even with the Brendan Lemieux trade (which is not to suggest that he isn’t a solid add), it could be asked how much his character and grit attracted them to him, rather than a skilled prospect — is this front office blinded by intangibles?
Moreover with the defense, there’s the question of why an eighth defensemen was added to the mix for Ruff to deal with, which meant benching at least two a game (unless seven were dressed). Even after the deadline when one was finally moved (McQuaid, for less than what they acquired him for), Gorton got the Rangers right back into that situation by promoting Hajek when there technically wasn’t the space for another.
On the other hand, there’s the David Quinn hiring. In Quinn, the Rangers gained a head coach known for his communication and working with younger players, which is exactly what a rebuilding team needs. Plus, there’s the fact that Gorton opted not to go with any former NHL head coaches that would likely just continue to recycle the same ideas that led to their previous dismissal.
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More than anything, to this point, Gorton is known for his decision to change the franchise’s direction and rebuild. While it’s a decision that could have come sooner, it was a necessary choice that marked a major change for the Rangers.
To this point, he deserves credit for committing to the rebuilding and sticking to it thus far, even though some of his transactions to this point haven’t been as aggressive for a rebuilding team. But nothing Gorton’s done has truly set him apart from other teams that went through this process; he hasn’t set a model with the salary cap, drafting, or even looking outside the draft, although there’s still time for that to change.
That’s if Gorton doesn’t move the Rangers back into a direction they’re more familiar with, especially with this year’s tempting free agency class that may be headlined by Artemi Panarin and Erik Karlsson. It would go against his tendency to focus on low-risk free agent signings and some of the team-savvy contracts he’s signed players to and change the salary cap landscape that he was tasked with cleaning up, but it would be more in line with what’s expected of this team.
Thats a direction that Gorton hasn’t been as familiar with since being named general manager. While his actions at his first trade deadline were motivated by a win-now mentality, everything since has been either split between present and future, or solely focused on the future. The 2019 deadline only reinforces that.
Moving forward, Gorton’s tenure will likely be defined by the rebuilding process, whether it ends with the Rangers evolving into a bonafide contender or falling into a lengthy process that he isn’t around to finish.
(Top photo by Geoff Burke-USA TODAY Sports)