Not only do the Rangers have a few free agents they need to resign this year, over the next two years several guys they will want to keep will have their entry level deals expire… including Stepan, McDonagh, and Kreider. All of them are going to need huge raises, and the Rangers will need the cap space to make it happen.

Besides, the Rangers will have Kreider this year. He might not be a super star on level with Nash or Praise in his first year… but he sure as hell proved he can play and score at a pro level already. Imagine what he will do with a full training camp and better integration into the Rangers system… not to mention an 82 game season at the NHL level. He very well might be a found 20-30 goal scorer at a fraction the cost.

Now between Nash and Parise… Parise is clearly the better player, and would be much smoother for the Ragners to pick up (if he does leave the Devils) since they could just sign him as a free agent. To get Nash, the Rangers would have to deal with the laughably high demands of Columbus… and I don’t know if the Rangers will be willing to give up enough to make Columbus happy.

Would Mark Staal, Dubinsky, 1st round pick and pick to be named later get the deal done?

As for Gabby, the injury clearly made some difference, but fact is Torts cracks the whip pretty hard on these guys in terms of what he expects them to do every. single. shift. and Gaborik is just not the kind of guy who can hold up to that sort of play for 100+ games a season. Can’t use it as too much of an excuse, I think he was simply worn down, and that’s the reason for lack of production. Burst with his legs just wasn’t there.