mats zuccarello

At last season’s trade deadline, the Rangers played chicken with their captain. Ryan Callahan was demanding a relatively outrageous contract extension that the Rangers were extremely hesitant to hand out. He was looking for top line dollars to play a well rounded, third line game. Down in Tampa, the Bolts’ long-time captain wasn’t feeling the love anymore. A first-ballot Hall of Famer left off the Olympic roster by his own GM. It was a recipe for bad blood.

Glen Sather was forced to make a choice between a legitimate top 6 upgrade or letting a homegrown, valuable player walk for nothing if his contract demands did not back down into reasonable territory. Ultimately, I still believe that Sather gave up too much ancillary value in the form of two first round picks, but such is life. The point is, it was appropriate for Sather to make that call in the middle of a competitive run. Upgrades are upgrades. Draft picks can be sorted out later.

This season has a similar situation evolving, however the context is much different. There was legitimate debate about Callahan’s long-term value and cap obligation. There were those in favor of letting him seek the greener (ha!) pastures in Buffalo. Mats Zuccarello, on the other hand, its a pretty much unanimous choice to keep on the roster long-term, just how well does his contract fit into a tight cap situation.

The rumored parameters of a Zuccarello deal are pretty much in line with an objective market analysis, $500-750k per year here, 1 additional season, there. Everyone is at least in the ballpark. Additionally, he is an integral part of the Rangers top six, and would be very difficult to replace on the roster.

Since there is no Marty St. Louis waiting in the wings this season (no, Tyler Bozak does not count), if Sather were to take the position “if you don’t sign an extension before the deadline, I’m going to recoup value through a trade”, I firmly believe he needs to hang on to Zucc and roll the dice on either a Stanley Cup or an extension before July.

Honestly, what team is going to give up a comparable winger at a reasonable cap hit for multiple seasons for a rental? The value doesn’t line up unless the Rangers start throwing in JT Millers, Brady Skjeis or more draft picks they don’t have. All this for the illusory concept that value needs to be recouped before he walks? How about the value of signing Zucc as an afterthought out of Norway and getting several productive seasons and this years stretch run out of him? How is that not value from the player?

I suppose there is a possibility that you could get a team willing to give up top prospects or picks for Zucc, but isn’t that robbing Peter to pay Paul, a little? Sure, you might be able to mitigate the loss in July a bit, but you would be crippling the depth of the scoring forwards and significantly weakening the current roster in the short-term. This team is looking to win now, while Lundqvist is in his prime. This type of trade could potentially look defensible down the road, but this is the time to go for it.

There are only 72 hours until the trade deadline, and at this point, it’s a mine field. Most of the productive players are off the board and the Rangers should be in search of incremental upgrades to the fringes of the roster. I am with Dave in beating the Patrick Wiercioch and Erik Condra drum. If you are going to move Zuccarello, it needs to be a legitimate long-term upgrade. Since I don’t see one of those available, Sather needs to ride this scoring group (who is 4th in the NHL in GF) into the playoffs. We can sort out Zucc’s contract extension later.

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