Rangers Move Ryan McDonagh & JT Miller In Deadline Blockbuster With Tampa Bay

Initial reaction – I fucking hate it. I’ll do some more homework and publish a sane blog later or tomorrow. But right now, I fucking hate it.

The Rangers gave up their captain, an unquestioned top-pair talent with a year & a half to go on a bargain contract, along with 24 year-old JT Miller who’s under team control & on pace for back-to-back 50-point seasons. For what? A first-rounder that’ll almost certainly be in the bottom-three. A conditional second-rounder (that becomes a first if Bolts win a Cup this season or next). A 25 year-old center who’s been less productive than JT (Vladislav Namestnikov) over his career along with the Bolts first & second round picks from 2016 (Brett Howden & Libor Hajek).

That’s it???

Listen, the picks are fine. Howden & Hajek are excellent prospects. Namestnikov is a talented center who’s also an RFA the Rangers can most likely ink for less than what JT is expected to make. But we moved MCDONAGH AND MILLER. Where’s the surefire stud return? Where’s Sergachev? Where’s Point?

It’s a good return. It’s undoubtedly a boost to a rebuild. But how in the world is there not a lock here? Feels like we just accumulated as many pieces as possible & hoping it all works out. I’m not gonna pretend I know a ton about Howden & Hajek, but they’re not the best Tampa Bay had to offer. I feel like this is a return the Rangers could’ve gotten close to from other teams if they moved both players at the draft. Maybe it was my own stupid brain’s fault, but the only reason to move Mac now (let alone JT) was for a stud we could peg as the piece to rebuild the team around. Time will tell how these prospects & picks play out – but right now I’m pretty fucking underwhelmed.