hello, canada, and hockey fans from the united states!
with the pandemic currently going on, i've decided to look back on a hockey team that i've always found fascinating. a team that the NHL and new york sports fans wouldn't shut up about.
of course, I'm talking about the 90s new york rangers.
what fascinates me with this team is that, as good as that 94 team was, they could've been even better throighout the decade and the next if they didn't do some of the most bone-headed moves i've ever seen.
now, of course, most of what i'm about to say is armed with hindsight and knowledge of the present, and i'm aware that, at that time, the rangers were that desperate to end their stanley cup drought. i understand that.
but still, you trade future studs like doug weight, alex kovalev, sergei zubov (who, let me remind you, was statistically the best player on that 93-94 team!) and tony amonte as well as a consistent veteran goalscorer in mike gartner for the old boys club at edmonton, stephane matteau and luc robitaille and a past his prime ulf samuelsson? i mean, really?
so yeah, i've decided to redo this team, keeping the young core intact, while still trying to acquire tikkanen and matteau without giving up our future.
1991
our first year of me taking over GM duties for the rangers starts at the 1991 NHL Draft, where eric lindros would unfortunately go to the philadelphia flyers thanks to the arbitrator choosing them over us. thank god it didnt happen, cause IOTL, they were willing to give up pretty much the enitre future of the franchise to the nordiques!
anyways, the 1991 draft starts and we still select alex kovalev with the 15th overall pick, as he would be a key part of our team in the future. other changes are as follow:
2nd round: C yanic perreault #37
5th round : D marius czerkawski
6th round: dmitri mironov
the rest stays the same.
now, obviously, the biggest moment of the rangers's season IOTL was the acquisition of mark messier and jeff beukeboom for bernie nicholls, steven rice and other prospects. messier would become a legend with rangers, and beukeboom turned into a top quality defenseman at new york, so, yeah, this trade obviously still happens. as wpuld the signing of adam graves,the heart and soul of the franchise in the 90s.
this meant that the opening day roster for the 91-92 rangers is as follows:
however, the key change to this season I'm gonna make concerns our beloved stephane matteau. in december 1991, matteau was traded by the calgary flames to the chicago blackhawks for trent yawney, a decent defenceman who was solid, nothing more, nothing less.
knowing that Chicago got a clutch bottom sixer for basically nothing, we can do the same here, and avoid sending a key piece of our future in tony amonte like OTL. so, instead of sending randy moller to bufallo, we do this trade instead:
To calgary:
- D randy moller
To New York rangers:
-F stephane matteau
as president's trophy winners, the rangers obviously make the playoffs. IOTL, after making short work of the new jersey devils in the first round, they would lose a surprisingly tight 6-game series against the eventual stanley cup champions, lemieux and jagr's pittsburgh penguins. the rangers could even have had a 3-1 series lead over the pens if they won game 4 in overtime.
now, however, they have stephane matteau on the third line along with turcotte and ogrodnick. and, knowing how clutch matteau was, i wouldnt be surprised if he scored the winning goal in OT in game 4 to make it 3-1 rangers in the series.
could the rangers have pulled off a huge upset and send the pens home in 5 games, causing huge butterflies throughout the 1992 NHL playoffs?
personally, i don't really know. they could've been motivated as hell heading into game 5, as they were seen as the underdogs against a prime pens team comtaining the likes of lemieux, jagr, francis, recchi, larry murphy, ulf samuelsson, paul coffey and tom barasso. to have them on the ropes like that, messier could've very well led his troops to perhaps one of the biggest upsets in NHL History. there's no denying that team's lack of playoff experience outside of the first line, however, and that could've been the decisive factor, as a motivated pens team is very likely to have taken advantage of the rangers's lack of experience and come back from a 3-1 deficit to win the series in game 7. whatever happens, i don't see the rangers go all the way and win the cup, as aside from messier, graves, beukeboom and gartner, they are too inexperienced. if they do beat the pens in 5, they would most likely lose to the boston bruins of prime ray bourque, adam oates, glen wesley and cam neely in the eastern conference finals in 6 games.
overall, it would be a really successful season regardless. messier is the leader that the team needed, mike gartner found the fountain of youth and the young guns are proving that they can hang with the best,and tjey have perhaps the best goalie tandem in the league. surely, they could go even further the next year, right?
before we find out, let's head to the 1992 off-season and the draft.
the 1992 draft is gonna see few changes for the new york rangers's choices as , aside from mattias nordstrom, a solid bottom pairing defenseman whom they would eventually trade away, it was a miss. here's my new draft:
1st round: F valeri bure #30
2nd round: D mattias nordstrom #60
3rd round: D robert svehla #90
rest of the draft is same as OTL.
the opening day 1992 roster for the rangers looks like this:
while the NHL Was concentrated on both the new franchises in ottawa and tampa bay was well as the much-hyped arrival of "the next ome" eric lindros with the philadelphia flyers, the rangers sees the much anticipated debut of their young russian prospects sergei zubov and alex kovalev, while doug weight gets moved to the #2 center spot, relegating sergei nemchinov on the 3rd line left wing spot alongside darren turcotte amd stephane matteau. in real life, despite zubov's great rookie year and the weight-kovalev-amonte showing alot of promise, the rangers had an awful year, missing out on the playoffs and finishing last in their division, with roger neilson being sacked mid-season and losing our future top center doug weight in a trade for esa tikkanen, another key piece to the 93-94 cup win, as well as trading john vanbiesbrouck for nothing in return.
now, obviously, we not only show faith in roger neilson and keep him behind the bench for the season, but we also still trade for esa tikkanen for a much better deal: we know that the oilers are having a firesale for quite a while now, and, unlike OTL, we have another promising-looking young center apart from weight that we could trade: during the 92-93 AHL Season, yanic perreault was lighting up the stats sheets, scoring 49 goals and providing 62 assists, making all other GMs believe that the rangers managed to pull off a huge steal in the 1991 draft. it would be no surprise that edmonton would be interested in a player that looked like he had the potential to be a stud at center. plus, they were desperate to shed payroll and rebuild, so its a no brainer.
To Edmonton:
-C yannic perreault
to new york rangers:
- F Esa tikkanen
i also do the OTL trade of semding a 1993 third round pick and a prospect for kevin lowe to add depth to our d-men corps.
after the trade deadline deal for tikkanen, the team looks like this:
my opinion? yes, i believe so, although it will be by the skin of their teeth, as buffalo really became good in the second half of the season, and that form continued well into the playoff, with their famous upset of #1 seeded pittsburgh penguins. had the rangers pulled off a miracle rally and steal the #8 seed from the sabres, i dont really see them losing to the pens, even without paul coffey and mark recchi, especially if they manage to beat pittsburgh in 5 during the 92 playoffs, since mario and jagr would have revenge in their minds. truth is, the rangers were simply not as good as they were the year before, and an early playoff exit seems the most likely outcome...if they, somehow, miraculously make it in the first place.
now, we're off to the 1993 off-season, and we are looking at an interesting opportunity: during the 93-94 season, the quebec nordiques's 27 year-old top d-man steve duchesne, fresh from the best season of his career, entered a long holdout to have a better contract, which the nords simply couldnt give him. in real life, the holdout would last until the winter of 1994, where duchesne would finally be traded to the st. louis blues for garth butcher, ron sutter and bob bassen. the nords also traded away starting goalie ron hextall to the islander in june 1993, thinking that jocelyn thibault and stephane fiset were ready to mind the net for them.
seeing that i have an established starting goalie of very good quality in john vanbiesbrouck, a pretty good offensive D-man in dmitri mironov and a promising-looking winger in valeri bure (who is pavel's brother, if that means anything...), who registered 147 points last season in the juniors, i think the nords would be tempted by this offer, and duchesne always had a underrated defensive game, too. plus, this is new york, money is never short on supply!
To Quebec:
- G john vanbiesbrouck
- D Dmitri Mironov
- F valeri bure
To new york rangers:
- D Steve Duchesne
- Rights to F denis chassé
and now, it's time for the 1993 NHL Draft!
since our top 6 lines are pretty much set for the future with kovy, weight, turcotte, graves and amonte, i am looking to strengthen our bottom six and i am also looking for a defensive defenseman.
due to our poor record, regardless of whenever we make the playoffs or not, we have thw 8th overall pick,selecting nicklas sundstrom of MODO Hockey. while hes not as talented as his linesmates peter forsberg and markus naslund, sundstrom's got grit and physicality in his game as well as decent amount of skills, perfect for our bottom six.
in the second round, i want a defensive defenseman. the best one available is one bryan McCabe, whom scouts says that he could be ready for the NHL in only a year or two. however, i had my eye on a defenseman from michigan who is turning heads in college with his stellar play: young 20 year-old brian rafalski. he will soon enter his senior years at his college,and i feel that he could become one of the best defensive defenseman in the league. when we announced our choice, many NHL experts were surprised, since many of them never heard of rafalski. but i was confident that we made the right choice, and we will allow brian to attend his last two years in college before he jumps into the big leagues.
Round 1: F nicklas sundstrom
Round 2: D Brian rafalski
Round 6: todd marchant
our opening day 1993 roster looks like this:
can this team win the cup?
it depends on a lot of things. including the coach.
what should i do? should i keep roger neilson? should i hore mike keenan,who volatile as hell, but has the reputation of being a winner? or should i hit for the home run and hire the best coach in hockey, scotty bowman, who is available?
a hard choice awaits me...
A/N: so yeah, here's part of the script for a series of youtube vids I'm planning to make, and i would like to test it here, hopefully getting feedback from all hardcore sports fans here on AH.com. feel free to suggests me any idea on how to make this series more realistic and give me your opinions on whether or not the moves im making and my reasoning behind them makes sense or not. it would be very appreciated!
with the pandemic currently going on, i've decided to look back on a hockey team that i've always found fascinating. a team that the NHL and new york sports fans wouldn't shut up about.
of course, I'm talking about the 90s new york rangers.
what fascinates me with this team is that, as good as that 94 team was, they could've been even better throighout the decade and the next if they didn't do some of the most bone-headed moves i've ever seen.
now, of course, most of what i'm about to say is armed with hindsight and knowledge of the present, and i'm aware that, at that time, the rangers were that desperate to end their stanley cup drought. i understand that.
but still, you trade future studs like doug weight, alex kovalev, sergei zubov (who, let me remind you, was statistically the best player on that 93-94 team!) and tony amonte as well as a consistent veteran goalscorer in mike gartner for the old boys club at edmonton, stephane matteau and luc robitaille and a past his prime ulf samuelsson? i mean, really?
so yeah, i've decided to redo this team, keeping the young core intact, while still trying to acquire tikkanen and matteau without giving up our future.
1991
our first year of me taking over GM duties for the rangers starts at the 1991 NHL Draft, where eric lindros would unfortunately go to the philadelphia flyers thanks to the arbitrator choosing them over us. thank god it didnt happen, cause IOTL, they were willing to give up pretty much the enitre future of the franchise to the nordiques!
anyways, the 1991 draft starts and we still select alex kovalev with the 15th overall pick, as he would be a key part of our team in the future. other changes are as follow:
2nd round: C yanic perreault #37
5th round : D marius czerkawski
6th round: dmitri mironov
the rest stays the same.
now, obviously, the biggest moment of the rangers's season IOTL was the acquisition of mark messier and jeff beukeboom for bernie nicholls, steven rice and other prospects. messier would become a legend with rangers, and beukeboom turned into a top quality defenseman at new york, so, yeah, this trade obviously still happens. as wpuld the signing of adam graves,the heart and soul of the franchise in the 90s.
this meant that the opening day roster for the 91-92 rangers is as follows:
Graves-Messier-gartner
weight-nemchinov-amonte
ogrodnick-turcotte-P. Broten
king-zamuner-kocur/domi
Leetch-beukeboom
moller-patrick
hardy-shaw
Vanbiesbrouck
Richter
This team, on paper, is actually better than i thought it would look. and, checking the 91-92 season stats, they actually became the president's trophy winners, with mike gartner scoring 40 goals, leetch racking up the points and messier showing how good he was. tramsactions made during the season was randy moller going to buffalo in exchange for jay wells. makes sense, since we already have enough offensive defensemen.weight-nemchinov-amonte
ogrodnick-turcotte-P. Broten
king-zamuner-kocur/domi
Leetch-beukeboom
moller-patrick
hardy-shaw
Vanbiesbrouck
Richter
however, the key change to this season I'm gonna make concerns our beloved stephane matteau. in december 1991, matteau was traded by the calgary flames to the chicago blackhawks for trent yawney, a decent defenceman who was solid, nothing more, nothing less.
knowing that Chicago got a clutch bottom sixer for basically nothing, we can do the same here, and avoid sending a key piece of our future in tony amonte like OTL. so, instead of sending randy moller to bufallo, we do this trade instead:
To calgary:
- D randy moller
To New York rangers:
-F stephane matteau
as president's trophy winners, the rangers obviously make the playoffs. IOTL, after making short work of the new jersey devils in the first round, they would lose a surprisingly tight 6-game series against the eventual stanley cup champions, lemieux and jagr's pittsburgh penguins. the rangers could even have had a 3-1 series lead over the pens if they won game 4 in overtime.
now, however, they have stephane matteau on the third line along with turcotte and ogrodnick. and, knowing how clutch matteau was, i wouldnt be surprised if he scored the winning goal in OT in game 4 to make it 3-1 rangers in the series.
could the rangers have pulled off a huge upset and send the pens home in 5 games, causing huge butterflies throughout the 1992 NHL playoffs?
personally, i don't really know. they could've been motivated as hell heading into game 5, as they were seen as the underdogs against a prime pens team comtaining the likes of lemieux, jagr, francis, recchi, larry murphy, ulf samuelsson, paul coffey and tom barasso. to have them on the ropes like that, messier could've very well led his troops to perhaps one of the biggest upsets in NHL History. there's no denying that team's lack of playoff experience outside of the first line, however, and that could've been the decisive factor, as a motivated pens team is very likely to have taken advantage of the rangers's lack of experience and come back from a 3-1 deficit to win the series in game 7. whatever happens, i don't see the rangers go all the way and win the cup, as aside from messier, graves, beukeboom and gartner, they are too inexperienced. if they do beat the pens in 5, they would most likely lose to the boston bruins of prime ray bourque, adam oates, glen wesley and cam neely in the eastern conference finals in 6 games.
overall, it would be a really successful season regardless. messier is the leader that the team needed, mike gartner found the fountain of youth and the young guns are proving that they can hang with the best,and tjey have perhaps the best goalie tandem in the league. surely, they could go even further the next year, right?
before we find out, let's head to the 1992 off-season and the draft.
the 1992 draft is gonna see few changes for the new york rangers's choices as , aside from mattias nordstrom, a solid bottom pairing defenseman whom they would eventually trade away, it was a miss. here's my new draft:
1st round: F valeri bure #30
2nd round: D mattias nordstrom #60
3rd round: D robert svehla #90
rest of the draft is same as OTL.
the opening day 1992 roster for the rangers looks like this:
Graves-Messier-gartner
kovalev-weight-amonte
nemchinov-turcotte-matteau
king-zamuner-domi
Leetch-beukeboom
zubov-mironov
patrick-shaw
Vanbiesbrouck
Richter
kovalev-weight-amonte
nemchinov-turcotte-matteau
king-zamuner-domi
Leetch-beukeboom
zubov-mironov
patrick-shaw
Vanbiesbrouck
Richter
while the NHL Was concentrated on both the new franchises in ottawa and tampa bay was well as the much-hyped arrival of "the next ome" eric lindros with the philadelphia flyers, the rangers sees the much anticipated debut of their young russian prospects sergei zubov and alex kovalev, while doug weight gets moved to the #2 center spot, relegating sergei nemchinov on the 3rd line left wing spot alongside darren turcotte amd stephane matteau. in real life, despite zubov's great rookie year and the weight-kovalev-amonte showing alot of promise, the rangers had an awful year, missing out on the playoffs and finishing last in their division, with roger neilson being sacked mid-season and losing our future top center doug weight in a trade for esa tikkanen, another key piece to the 93-94 cup win, as well as trading john vanbiesbrouck for nothing in return.
now, obviously, we not only show faith in roger neilson and keep him behind the bench for the season, but we also still trade for esa tikkanen for a much better deal: we know that the oilers are having a firesale for quite a while now, and, unlike OTL, we have another promising-looking young center apart from weight that we could trade: during the 92-93 AHL Season, yanic perreault was lighting up the stats sheets, scoring 49 goals and providing 62 assists, making all other GMs believe that the rangers managed to pull off a huge steal in the 1991 draft. it would be no surprise that edmonton would be interested in a player that looked like he had the potential to be a stud at center. plus, they were desperate to shed payroll and rebuild, so its a no brainer.
To Edmonton:
-C yannic perreault
to new york rangers:
- F Esa tikkanen
i also do the OTL trade of semding a 1993 third round pick and a prospect for kevin lowe to add depth to our d-men corps.
after the trade deadline deal for tikkanen, the team looks like this:
Graves-Messier-gartner
weight-nemchinov-amonte
tikkanen-turcotte-kovalev
matteau-zamuner-kocur/domi
Leetch-beukeboom
zubov-mironov
lowe-patrick
Richter
vanbiesbrouck
with that roster and roger neilson being happy that management has faith in him for once, can the rangers turn it around and make the playoffs?weight-nemchinov-amonte
tikkanen-turcotte-kovalev
matteau-zamuner-kocur/domi
Leetch-beukeboom
zubov-mironov
lowe-patrick
Richter
vanbiesbrouck
my opinion? yes, i believe so, although it will be by the skin of their teeth, as buffalo really became good in the second half of the season, and that form continued well into the playoff, with their famous upset of #1 seeded pittsburgh penguins. had the rangers pulled off a miracle rally and steal the #8 seed from the sabres, i dont really see them losing to the pens, even without paul coffey and mark recchi, especially if they manage to beat pittsburgh in 5 during the 92 playoffs, since mario and jagr would have revenge in their minds. truth is, the rangers were simply not as good as they were the year before, and an early playoff exit seems the most likely outcome...if they, somehow, miraculously make it in the first place.
now, we're off to the 1993 off-season, and we are looking at an interesting opportunity: during the 93-94 season, the quebec nordiques's 27 year-old top d-man steve duchesne, fresh from the best season of his career, entered a long holdout to have a better contract, which the nords simply couldnt give him. in real life, the holdout would last until the winter of 1994, where duchesne would finally be traded to the st. louis blues for garth butcher, ron sutter and bob bassen. the nords also traded away starting goalie ron hextall to the islander in june 1993, thinking that jocelyn thibault and stephane fiset were ready to mind the net for them.
seeing that i have an established starting goalie of very good quality in john vanbiesbrouck, a pretty good offensive D-man in dmitri mironov and a promising-looking winger in valeri bure (who is pavel's brother, if that means anything...), who registered 147 points last season in the juniors, i think the nords would be tempted by this offer, and duchesne always had a underrated defensive game, too. plus, this is new york, money is never short on supply!
To Quebec:
- G john vanbiesbrouck
- D Dmitri Mironov
- F valeri bure
To new york rangers:
- D Steve Duchesne
- Rights to F denis chassé
and now, it's time for the 1993 NHL Draft!
since our top 6 lines are pretty much set for the future with kovy, weight, turcotte, graves and amonte, i am looking to strengthen our bottom six and i am also looking for a defensive defenseman.
due to our poor record, regardless of whenever we make the playoffs or not, we have thw 8th overall pick,selecting nicklas sundstrom of MODO Hockey. while hes not as talented as his linesmates peter forsberg and markus naslund, sundstrom's got grit and physicality in his game as well as decent amount of skills, perfect for our bottom six.
in the second round, i want a defensive defenseman. the best one available is one bryan McCabe, whom scouts says that he could be ready for the NHL in only a year or two. however, i had my eye on a defenseman from michigan who is turning heads in college with his stellar play: young 20 year-old brian rafalski. he will soon enter his senior years at his college,and i feel that he could become one of the best defensive defenseman in the league. when we announced our choice, many NHL experts were surprised, since many of them never heard of rafalski. but i was confident that we made the right choice, and we will allow brian to attend his last two years in college before he jumps into the big leagues.
Round 1: F nicklas sundstrom
Round 2: D Brian rafalski
Round 6: todd marchant
our opening day 1993 roster looks like this:
Graves-Messier-gartner
Kovalev-weight-amonte
nemchinov-turcotte-tikkanen
Domi-zamuner-Matteau
Leetch-Beukeboom
Zubov-Duchesne
Lowe-Patrick
Richter
hirsch
honestly, this lineup is as close to perfect.its got everything: size, speed, skills, grit, young, battle-hardened guns looking to prove that they are winners, savvy vets, a true general in mark messier, hard workers and tough guys like tikkanen, domi and graves, not to mention two really good d-men pairing and a reliable bottom pair, as well as a really good goalie in his prime.Kovalev-weight-amonte
nemchinov-turcotte-tikkanen
Domi-zamuner-Matteau
Leetch-Beukeboom
Zubov-Duchesne
Lowe-Patrick
Richter
hirsch
can this team win the cup?
it depends on a lot of things. including the coach.
what should i do? should i keep roger neilson? should i hore mike keenan,who volatile as hell, but has the reputation of being a winner? or should i hit for the home run and hire the best coach in hockey, scotty bowman, who is available?
a hard choice awaits me...
A/N: so yeah, here's part of the script for a series of youtube vids I'm planning to make, and i would like to test it here, hopefully getting feedback from all hardcore sports fans here on AH.com. feel free to suggests me any idea on how to make this series more realistic and give me your opinions on whether or not the moves im making and my reasoning behind them makes sense or not. it would be very appreciated!
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