Early Trading: What to expect if Rangers miss playoffs?

What to expect if Rangers miss playoffs?

GINO REDA: What happened to the Rangers? And what’s going to happen with Ivan Demidov? Hey, let’s get to it.

This time last year, the Rangers were wrapping up an incredible regular season. First overall, they ultimately claimed the Presidents’ Trophy. Now, they’re on the verge of missing the playoffs for the first time in five years.

Pierre LeBrun, what happened, and what happens to the organization now moving forward?

PIERRE LeBRUN: It’s really an incredible fall from grace when you consider the pre-season expectations, a team that a lot of people picked to come out of the East to go to the Stanley Cup final. It really just never got off the ground.

A lot of drama, a lot of trades, and the Rangers hanging on here for dear life as far as still having a chance to make the postseason.

I can tell you that there’s absolutely no word out of the Rangers, themselves. Very tight-lipped about what might transpire here over the next week, or so.

But in talking to other people around the league, the low-hanging fruit, the expectations from a lot of people I’ve talked to is that Peter Laviolette could get fired.

He’s got another year on his deal, so certainly not a sure thing. But when you look at the body language and the performance of the team over the last month, again, when I’ve talked to other people around the league, that’s probably the easiest conclusion, and so, we’ll see whether or not that happens.

If it does happen, I think it’s important to know this is not about… well, it was "all" about coaching. Let’s be real, there are other issues here in New York. I go back to the way Barclay Goodrow was waived and his exit from New York last summer. I know that didn’t sit well with some Rangers players, and then how Jacob Trouba, the captain, got dealt earlier this season.

I think that there’s some players in that Rangers dressing room that have been upset with the way things have been handled, and it’s led to this malaise that has hung around that team all year long. They’ve just been off.

All of which leads to the next question, Gino, and I’ll ask it for you, which is: What about GM Chris Drury?

My sense there is that he should be okay. I think there’s a lot of loyalty from Jim Dolan, the owner. Chris Drury was pretty busy out of the trade deadline, too, really kind of setting up his off-season with a lot of moves he made. I think Chris Drury plans to be aggressive in trying to retool the Rangers again here this summer.

So again, not a lot of hard answers here, but a lot of people around the league waiting to see what shoe will drop in what has been one of the bigger disappointments in  a long time in the NHL from Presidents’ Trophy winners likely missing the playoffs one year later.

How did Demidov join Habs so soon?

REDA: At the other end of the scale, one of the teams likely to make the playoffs at the Rangers’ expense is the Montreal Canadiens. And if a postseason berth isn’t already enough to get the Habs fans buzzing, how about the fact that last year’s fifth-overall pick, Ivan Demidov, is on his way.

He’s joining the team a lot sooner than most would have thought, Pierre. How did this all come together faster than expected?

LeBRUN: Yeah, and it sure did. As late as last week, I think the expectations of the Montreal Canadiens was that they still didn’t have any hard answers, and it was still looking more likely that they would have to wait until next year for him to join them.
But in chatting with Dan Milstein, the agent for Demidov, yesterday, one of the things he said is this was always his plan, it’s just that he couldn’t guarantee it to anyone. The plan being to get him out of his deal early at the end of the KHL season and bring him over to Montreal.

He couldn’t guarantee it because things are hard to predict when it comes to dealing with KHL teams and getting players out of Russia, but as Milstein said, he planted the seed in last June after the draft.

SKA wanted to sign Demidov to an extension last summer and the answer was a firm no from the player and the agent, which was difficult to digest, for sure, for the team. But they got over it, and actually, as Milstein said, treated the player well this year, they helped his development, and it all led to this early exit from his contract.

One thing I should point out, too, is that it’s my understanding that Kent Hughes, the GM of the Habs, obviously had a hand in this as well.

He reached out to SKA before the KHL playoffs and simply said, “Hey, if your season ends, if you guys are eliminated while our season is still going, is there any chance that we can get him released early from his contract?” So the Habs had, obviously, a hand in this.

The agent, Dan Milstein, who has a lot of Russian clients, everyone, pretty elated. As for the last-minute update as we speak here, Gino, on Thursday morning, the logistics in terms of getting Demidov to Montreal, getting to North America, still in flux is what I’m told.

Still trying to work out Canadian immigration and a work visa and all of that stuff, so still not clear exactly how that’s going to play out at this moment in time. But I still think Monday against Chicago at the Bell Centre seems like the earliest window for him to play his first game, but we’ll see how the next couple days play out.

REDA: You realize, Pierre, as soon as you throw out the possibility of Monday, Habs fans are like, “Oh my God, that would be amazing to get him in a couple of regular-season games before the playoffs begin,” because it certainly looks like the Habs are playoff bound.

From what you’ve heard from his agent, Dan Milstein, from what you’ve heard from Kent Hughes, from the Habs’ side of things, what’s the expectation from this kid for what he could actually bring to this team sooner rather than later.

LeBRUN: Well, it’s interesting. In terms of Dan Milstein, he’s had a lot of clients over the years, a lot of high-profile Russian clients. One thing that he told me yesterday was that he met Ivan Demidov’s family and Demidov when he was 12 years old, and he’s been with him ever since.

He says this kid is going to be unbelievable. Obviously, he’s his agent. He’s not going to put a low bar on it, but the way in which he talked about what this kid has meant to him and what he believes this kid can do in the NHL, I think we’ll be looking back already at that 2024 draft and wondering how he went fifth overall. I think that’s the tone here.  

But I do think there will be an adjustment period. Smaller ice, etc. I know that the Habs don’t want to be putting too much on his plate right away, want to be careful here. It’s such an important player for this team, so we’ll see how it goes. I think the sky is the limit.

REDA: There’s certainly a huge buzz right now.

That’s the early edition of IT, the full version of Insider Trading with Pierre and C.J. is coming up on the early edition of SportsCentre.