The New York Rangers are not contenders to win the Stanley Cup this year. Full stop. There is no scenario in which they make a magical run, there are no questions of whether this could be the year. Still, the Rangers are not out of the playoff race, clinging onto hope that they may be able to grab a wild card spot. In doing so, rumors about the Rangers considering Kiefer Sherwood have come up. If they do miraculously get a wild card spot, I suppose there could be the logic that defeating Igor Shesterkin in a seven-game series is a tough task. But he’s hurt, and one player is not going to fix this team.

Still, again, the Rangers are not Stanley Cup contenders.

Then why on earth is the rumor that Chris Drury and the Rangers are pushing hard to acquire Kiefer Sherwood? 

Reading the tea leaves, it appears the Rangers believe a top-nine forward would help the team a lot. Honestly, that’s a fair assessment. The issue is not that Sherwood wouldn’t help. He’s a great checker, defensively responsible, and is going to potentially score 30 goals this season. The Rangers could absolutely use a player like that.

The issue is two-fold. 

One, the Rangers would almost certainly be giving up a first round pick for Sherwood. In a vacuum, there’s no way Sherwood is worth a first-round pick unless your team is truly a winger away from a Cup. Sherwood is on an expiring contract and is a prime candidate to get wildly overpaid in free agency. 

Second, the Rangers have no business adding at all, better yet a rental. In the best case scenario, the Rangers squeak into the playoffs and are swiftly sent home. In the worst case scenario, they are a lottery team. Does that sound like a team that should be adding?

Unfortunately, this is not a particularly surprising development for Chris Drury and co. in the front office. While Drury has made some positive transactions in his tenure, he has majorly lacked any kind of overarching plan, and has continued to seemingly make transactions in vacuums rather than understanding the context of his decisions. 

I suppose it would be fitting to see the Rangers acquire a rental in a year they should be trading their own rentals. Things are never made easy on the fans by the front office, who may as well trade Artemi Panarin for a haul, then quickly realize they wasted a first round pick on a different player. 

We have gotten used to the seemingly changed at random roster. The next addition may be the most foolish of all. Trading a boatload for a player who has no future with the team in a rebuilding year is catastrophic for a team trying to retool on the fly. Even worse, re-signing Sherwood to a long-term contract would almost certainly lock in a problem contract for the future.

At least the one potential silver lining is that maybe Drury won’t make it to the end of any long-term contracts he agrees to any time soon. Hopefully the one direction he can find is out of New York.

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