This was an equitable exchange of centers with the Rangers getting younger, bigger and grittier with the acquisition of Mika Zibanejad from the Senators and Ottawa acquiring a more well-established and more productive offensive player in Derick Brassard.
It could and should be a win-win.
Which is why it is odd that Ottawa general manager Pierre Dorion has felt the need to spin it to make himself and the Senators look better by saying he stalled on the trade long enough so the Rangers would be on the hook for the $2 million bonus owed and paid to Brassard on July 15.
The Post has learned that is not the way the deal — first hatched in a conversation between Blueshirts GM Jeff Gorton and Dorion on the draft floor in Buffalo on June 25 — went down.
Sources report the Rangers agreed to pay the $2 million only if Ottawa would add a 2018 second-round draft choice into the mix. When the cost-conscious Senators agreed, the deal — though not finalized until Monday morning — was done. The Blueshirts sent a 2018 seventh-rounder the other way to complete the trade.
Zibanejad, introduced to the New York media on a conference call Tuesday morning, said his initial surprise at being dealt from the organization that had made him the sixth-overall selection of the 2011 entry draft — behind Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, Gabriel Landeskog, Jonathan Huberdeau, Adam Larsson and Ryan Strome and directly ahead of Mark Scheifele, Sean Couturier, Dougie Hamilton and Jonas Brodin — had been replaced by feelings of “excitement.”
“I want to prove the Rangers right more than proving the Senators wrong,” said the 23-year-old Swede. “This is a new chapter. I want to establish myself with my new team.
“I’m happy the way things went down. I’m happy to be on a team that believes in me.”
The Rangers coveted Zibanejad’s size, speed and greasy, straight-line, drive-the-net game. They believe the center’s game not only has room to grow, but will grow at the Garden.
BrassardAnthony J. Causi“I feel I skate very well for a bigger guy,” the 6-2, 220-pounder said. “I think I play an all-around solid game, but I know that I can always improve in every aspect, and that’s what I’m working on doing.”
Zibanejad and Derek Stepan, the club’s top two centers in reverse order, are both righties. That will present a challenge for coach Alain Vigneault, who directed offensive zone line changes in order to get a center on for a faceoff on his strong side. It was not unusual to see units centered by Stepan and Brassard (a lefty) change for one another (and back again) after 10 to 15 seconds based on the location of the draw.
The Blueshirts — 23rd at 49.2 percent at the dots last year — are weaker in that department with the loss of unrestricted free agent Dom Moore, who led the club at 55.4 percent.
Zibanejad’s faceoff numbers essentially mirror Brassard’s: The new Ranger was at 50.5 percent last year (winning 659 of 1,306), the former Ranger at 50.4 percent (668 of 1,326). Stepan, perennially weak in that department, came in at 46.5 percent, while Kevin Hayes, notoriously deficient in his first two years, was at 35.5 percent.
Even free-agent addition Josh Jooris, probably the leading candidate to open the year as the club’s fourth-line center while Oscar Lindberg rehabs from hip surgery, won just 44.4 percent with the Flames in 2015-16. Lindberg clocked in at 38.4 percent.
So the Blueshirts have much room to grow in that area, just as Zibanejad — who established career highs with 21 goals and 30 assists last season — hopes to raise the ceiling on his performance.
“I’m not happy just yet to have accomplished what I have,” he said. “I’m looking to get better and have more of an impact every year.”
