The Ranger GM is going to have to make a choice, maybe even as soon as this week at the NHL general managers’ convention in Palm Springs.
And what Neil Smith is going to have to decide, with his team only three points out of a playoff spot with 34 games to go in the season but at the same time years away from credible Cup contention, is whether to try to accelerate the reconstruction process at the possible expense of a tournament berth this year.
And so between periods of Saturday’s 3-2 victory in Detroit, the GM was asked by The Post whether he felt as if he were in a virtual no-man’s land, caught between an obligation to this team (and its paying customers) and the future championship hopes of the franchise.
“The answer to that is yes and no,” Smith said. “I’m very definitive in my own mind what I can and can’t do, what I would or would not accept for Player X, Y, Z, and under what circumstances I would make those hypothetical trades. I’ve thought it all out, very carefully. I’m comfortable with what I’ve decided about how far I can go in resolving issues of short-term vs. long-term.
“But where I feel caught in a no-man’s land is not being able to publicly explain where I can go at this point because that would be showing my hand. You can’t reveal your strategy. In a sense that’s unfortunate, because I’d like to be able to explain to our fans what I think we have to do and where I think we should be going.
“To me, that’s the hardest part.”
The Rangers, who climbed back to three games under .500 on the strength of Mike Richter’s outstanding work against the Red Wings, are approaching the most favorable part of their schedule. They face the Caps, who apparently thought that reaching the Finals without winning a game was enough of an accomplishment to rest on this year, tonight at the Garden, and then have the Canucks on Broadway on Thursday. After a match in Boston Sunday afternoon, the Rangers are then off until the following Friday, when they host Carolina on Feb. 12.
It’s certainly not unreasonable to expect the Rangers to do well in the next two weeks; perhaps even to nudge into a playoff berth for the first time since Jan. 20, 1998.
But how would that affect Smith, then, if he’s presented with the opportunity to move some of this team’s most important players for the young, big, fast, physical futures the organization so desperately needs in order to compete for a title? Could he send away, say, Adam Graves, Ulf Samuelsson, John MacLean if the offers are enticing enough? Not to mention Brian Leetch, if a negotiating impasse were to develop.
“Again, I wish I could say where I’m prepared to go with rebuilding, but I can’t,” Smith pleaded. “The thing I have to keep in mind is that no matter which way I go, there’s going to be a segment of our fans and the media that will approve and a segment that will disapprove.
“Some people will think that I’ve gone too far one way, others will think I didn’t go far enough.”
Samuelsson, who has followed his fine 1997-98 with a sturdy season as Leetch’s partner on the defense unit that gets most of the ice against the opposition’s top lines, will almost surely be dealt to a contender. On the cusp of unrestricted free agency, 35 next month, Samuelsson will be one of the prime rental properties available on the market. While Detroit may be the early front-runner, Smith will certainly attempt to strike a competition between contenders, as he did last year at the trade deadline when both Colorado and Dallas wanted Mike Keane.
Graves, too, is a potential Group III, and much sought. As everyone knows, Leetch is eligible to become unrestricted, as well, on July 1. Surely the status of their respective contract negotiations will play into any decision regarding a possible trade. Wouldn’t it?
“I’ve really pledged not to publicly discuss these situations, or negotiations, but if it were the case that either said they were committed to going to July 1, that would make the decision [to trade] pretty simple,” the GM responded. “But that hasn’t happened at all.
“What Adam and Brian have said publicly is the same as they’ve said privately – they want to stay with the Rangers. I’m really not going to go into it any more than that.
“At the end of the day, we’re trying to make the playoffs this year and trying to win the Stanley Cup as soon as possible. I don’t think those are incompatible goals. Hopefully, with whatever moves we do wind up making, our fans will recognize that we’ve done the best we could in regard to both.”
