Rangers rebuild begins with five stockpiling trades

The New York Rangers delivered on their promise to trade the present for the future in advance of the 2018 NHL Trade Deadline on Monday.
How they manage all the assets they acquired in the five trades they made in the past week will ultimately determine the significance of this titanic shift in philosophy.

"As an organization, we felt like we went to a certain point and we had to look in the mirror and find out what was next," Rangers general manager Jeff Gorton said. "This is part of that. Is it daring? I don't know. I think we'd argue that we're doing what we think is the right thing."
RELATED: [McDonagh, Miller traded to Lightning by Rangers | 2017-18 NHL Trade Tracker]
The Rangers announced in a letter to their fans and at a press conference Feb. 8 that they would be trading popular players to turn their focus to next season and beyond. The totality of what they sacrificed to put that plan into motion is massive and jarring and not all that surprising.
Ryan McDonagh and J.T. Miller were traded to the Tampa Bay Lightning on Monday for a first-round pick in the 2018 NHL Draft, a conditional first-round pick in the 2019 NHL Draft, center Vladislav Namestnikov, and prospects Brett Howden and Libor Hajek.
McDonagh, 28, had been New York's captain since Oct. 6, 2014 and its best defenseman for longer. Miller, 24, was the Rangers' second-leading scorer this season with 40 points (13 goals, 27 assists) at forward, and since 2015-16 with 139 points (57 goals, 82 assists).
It might seem like a wild idea to trade two significant players younger than 30 for one current NHL player and a bunch of futures, but the Rangers are trying to do things differently, and that comes with some measure of risk.

Considering the plan, it wasn't risky to trade Rick Nash, New York's leading goal-scorer with 145 since the 2012-13 season, to the Boston Bruins on Sunday for forwards Ryan Spooner and
Matt Beleskey
, defenseman prospect Ryan Lindgren, a first-round pick in 2018 and a seventh-round pick in 2019.
That was a return the Rangers couldn't turn down, especially considering Nash can be an unrestricted free agent after this season. At 33 years old, he doesn't fit in the plans for next season and beyond.
The same might also be said for forward Michael Grabner, 30, the Rangers' leading goal-scorer with 52 since the start of last season, who was traded to the New Jersey Devils last Thursday for a second-round pick in 2018 and defenseman prospect Yegor Rykov. Grabner can be a UFA after this season too.
So can Nick Holden, 30, who was playing top-pair minutes with McDonagh. The defenseman was traded to the Bruins last Tuesday for a third-round pick in 2018 and defenseman Rob O'Gara.
And Ryan Graves, a 22-year-old defenseman prospect who never panned out, was traded to the Colorado Avalanche for 23-year-old defenseman Chris Bigras.

That's a lot to digest if you're a Rangers fan who has watched them be so successful in the past decade, but not only did they tell you they were going to do this, the writing was on the wall more than eight months ago.
The plan first came into focus June 14, when they bought out defenseman Dan Girardi's contract. Nine days later, they traded center Derek Stepan and goalie Antti Raanta to the Arizona Coyotes for the No. 7 pick in the 2017 NHL Draft and defenseman Tony DeAngelo.
"There's a lot of opportunity for players here as we move forward," Gorton said.
Immediately, that starts with Namestnikov and Spooner.
Namestnikov, a 25-year-old center, has the potential to compete with Mika Zibanejad and Kevin Hayes for a top-six role. Namestnikov already has NHL career highs across the board this season, with 20 goals, 24 assists and 44 points in 62 games.

Spooner, 26, is a versatile player who can play all three forward positions and excels on the power play. He had two assists in his Rangers debut Sunday.
Arguably more important than the NHL players they got, the Rangers beefed up the quantity and quality of their draft picks. They have 10 in the 2018 draft, including three in the first round, one that is likely going to be a lottery pick; two in the second and two in the third.
New York also picked twice in the first-round last season, selecting Sweden center Lias Andersson at No. 7 after acquiring that choice in the trade with Arizona, and Czech Republic center Filip Chytil at No. 21.
Considering the Rangers didn't pick in the first round from 2013-16, having the potential for five first-round picks in back-to-back drafts gives them a chance to restock their prospect pool with high-end players who could arrive in New York soon and be difference-makers quickly.

The Rangers also feel they beefed up their prospect pool with forward Howden, and defensemen Hajek, Rykov and Lindgren.
"We're just trying to take it all in now," Gorton said.
There could be more trades in the offseason (forward Mats Zuccarello) and another possible contract buyout (defenseman Marc Staal).
Even though the objective was to get younger, faster and to collect draft picks, don't rule out the possibility of the Rangers pursuing free agents to try to accelerate the rebuild by using the NHL salary cap space they've already cleared or will move out.
"We're adding these assets and doing all these things, but there's a lot of work to be done," Gorton said. "There's a lot of players we need to be out there watching, find out what's going on in the draft, free agency. There's a lot of opportunity here to grow as a team and make our team better.
"I feel like we're just starting."