[Mercogliano] Fox, Shesterkin, Gavrikov, Zibanejad, and Miller want to stay
January 16, 2026
[Mercogliano] Fox, Shesterkin, Gavrikov, Zibanejad, and Miller want to stay
43 comments
apart from JT these are realistically our best players. without counting the rookies
It actually surprises me any of them would want to, but Zib especially because the fans are brutal toward that guy lol.
Ugh miller…
Mika just bought a huge new apartment so no surprise there.
It would be humiliating for Miller to get traded only a year after he got here.
I’m happy Shesty wants to stay, I would not blame him one bit if he wanted to go to a contender. He’s like 6 years younger than Hank was when they started the rebuild back in 2018, so I suppose he has more time to win a Cup than Hank did.
I’m genuinely fine and happy with this core. But it should not be Drury “retooling” around it
Good. My winter classic Mika jersey hasn’t arrived yet
Everyone wants to be in NY but no one wants to PLAY FUCKING HOCKEY!
Trocheck not on the list. Edit: forgot his contract flipped to a modified NTC a season ago. Be interested to see who’s on that list.
They are going to wait out drury.
Getting elite players is the end-goal for any rebuild/retool/whatever, so keeping Fox and Igor is obvious. Gav is on a great contract and should continue to give us a rock solid pairing with Fox.
Miller isn’t going anywhere anytime soon, hate him all you like but I do think he legitimately wants to make it work here as the captain. Mika’s been resurgent this season, and with some luck he’ll be able to take fellow Swede Ivar Stenberg under his proverbial wing while having him as his wing on the ice.
pls no Mika slander, he’s actually been far from the problem and one of the most consistent performers this season
Think we could get something like Chytil, Mancini and a first for Miller?
Guys this is my fault I got a Trocheck jersey for Christmas
F*** my f***ing chungus life
Part of the reason they’re not going to say they’ll waive NTCs is that we keep lying to them and to ourselves about rebuilding and retooling. It’s like you’re kicking them out of a party all their friends are still at.
It seemed like they sent the right message to Panarin today. That should go to several others too. Fox and Shesty are young, everything else can be purged.
Drury has been on course to blow this team up since last year, maybe longer
Miller is here to stay baby
No, thank you.
I really love Mika so I’m selfishly thankful he’s on the list. 🙏
Gav/Fox and Igor are essential for a retool. I can’t imagine a team without these guys. Especially Adam Fox. He makes us so much better instantaneously.
Miller is ppg when healthy and sniped some OT winners for us. I won’t complain much on that one but I get why some people are frustrated given his interview responses and such
We gotta get older
Mika has found his way out of that 2 year funk and has shown growth in the form of real leadership from what I can see. If he continues on that path we could do worse than having a guy who struggled mightily and worked his way through it (all under the NY microscope) to mentor young players that will hopefully be the next wave in 3-5 years.
I do t blame miller for being the wrong guy that they hitched their wagon too that’s not his fault. Thats drury’s. But drury has forced out players who wanted to be here for pennies on the dollar at every chance bc they either criticized him or just weren’t who he wanted them to be.
I’m still of the belief that we haven’t seen a healthy JT all year. We gave Fox all the benefit in the world when he was on his down year last season with his knee injury, I’m inclined to give Miller the same leash.
Mika I would love to unload elsewhere, but I can also recognize the short term benefit to keeping him around. Somebody has to play with Gabe to help grow his game.
If the players are so unsettled why can’t Drury just f*** off instead ?
Trade everyone but Mika
I am not a Mika fan but will say he is having a bounce back year. I still would like to see him waive. Maybe during the offseason? He’s a one trick pony in my eyes. I realize this is not a popular opinion.
I like 4/5 of those guys, and if he’s serious I’ll give Miller another chance against my better judgement. Realistically our path back to contention will run through them, and ideally an elite level youngster or two we can add via draft or trade.
Keep this list except JT
Great. I don’t want to be here to watch this disaster tho 🤣
Do championship teams send out fucking “letters” every 5-10 years? No, they fucking don’t. They build winners and don’t mask their failures with words. Only in NY do you get this overly dramatic nothingburger bullshit.
These guys are too old and not good enough to be a difference for next core
Average age of Stanley Cup finalists in recent years, as weighted by TOI (per Hockey Reference):
– 2025: Panthers (29.6), Oilers (30.4)
– 2024: Panthers: (29.5), Oilers (29.4)
– 2023: VGK (29.1), Panthers (28.7)
– 2022: Avalanche (28.2), Lightning (29.6)
– 2021: Lightning (28.4), Canadiens (28.9)
There hasn’t been a young team (average age < 28) to win the cup in 5 years. In the current era of physical playoff hockey, age and experience trumps speed and youth. You can’t just build a team with youth and expect to make it deep in the playoffs. Last years youngest playoff team (Canadiens) was soundly trounced in the 1st round by the Caps and lost that series 4-1. You need a solid core of veterans to lead the team when time and space is no longer available on the ice during the playoffs.
Foxy, Gav, Zbad, Shesty, and Miller can be the veteran core that we retool around to make our next run at the cup. There is no need to tear it all down to the roots.
I’m trading Mika & Panarin & Laffey & JT – keeping those guys is certainly no shake up and tear down – we’ve lost with them, we can continue to lose without them – it’s time for the Kids.
If Mika stays the rebuild is basically pointless. We need a completely brand new core and to free up cap space as well. We can’t be having an 8.5 million dollar first center that disappears when a playoff series is do or die like how he vanished against the Devils in 2023 and the Panthers in 2024. Only problem is he has that NMC.
When will Mika get the hint
And this ladies and gents is why we can’t rebuild until 2030 which means we are stuck in hell the rest of the decade.
The coddled vets with NMCs won’t leave.
May as well start finding your secondary teams to cheer for unless you’ll enjoy a bunch of Bottom 3-8 finishes every year
They can get something for Zibby, ship him out.
Cuylle?
I would say you would want to build around him as well. We need his physicality and skill.
Well they sure aren’t playing like it
Edit: I lied. Mika lowkey been playing really well and scoring a lot more than last season
Shut JT Miller down for the season. Let him heal and we will continue to tank. Trade Panarin for an absolute haul and then try to resign him in the offseason if possible. Hopefully we get 1OA in this draft and they aren’t a bust like Laff. Hopefully whatever we get for Panarin is legit and ready for next season or the year after.
Naaa. Trade them ALL. This isn’t supposed to be a soft rebuild. Mika has been the problem for years now.
Why wouldn’t they want to stay? They make a ridiculous amount of money and don’t have to put in any effort.
What a terrible core…. Everybody on this list is on the decline. Shesty is the only guy I would keep
![[Mercogliano] Fox, Shesterkin, Gavrikov, Zibanejad, and Miller want to stay](https://www.rawchili.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/qpg5yvrjurdg1-1260x1024.jpeg)
43 comments
apart from JT these are realistically our best players. without counting the rookies
It actually surprises me any of them would want to, but Zib especially because the fans are brutal toward that guy lol.
Ugh miller…
Mika just bought a huge new apartment so no surprise there.
It would be humiliating for Miller to get traded only a year after he got here.
I’m happy Shesty wants to stay, I would not blame him one bit if he wanted to go to a contender. He’s like 6 years younger than Hank was when they started the rebuild back in 2018, so I suppose he has more time to win a Cup than Hank did.
I’m genuinely fine and happy with this core. But it should not be Drury “retooling” around it
Good. My winter classic Mika jersey hasn’t arrived yet
Everyone wants to be in NY but no one wants to PLAY FUCKING HOCKEY!
Trocheck not on the list. Edit: forgot his contract flipped to a modified NTC a season ago. Be interested to see who’s on that list.
They are going to wait out drury.
Getting elite players is the end-goal for any rebuild/retool/whatever, so keeping Fox and Igor is obvious. Gav is on a great contract and should continue to give us a rock solid pairing with Fox.
Miller isn’t going anywhere anytime soon, hate him all you like but I do think he legitimately wants to make it work here as the captain. Mika’s been resurgent this season, and with some luck he’ll be able to take fellow Swede Ivar Stenberg under his proverbial wing while having him as his wing on the ice.
pls no Mika slander, he’s actually been far from the problem and one of the most consistent performers this season
Think we could get something like Chytil, Mancini and a first for Miller?
Guys this is my fault I got a Trocheck jersey for Christmas
F*** my f***ing chungus life
Part of the reason they’re not going to say they’ll waive NTCs is that we keep lying to them and to ourselves about rebuilding and retooling. It’s like you’re kicking them out of a party all their friends are still at.
It seemed like they sent the right message to Panarin today. That should go to several others too. Fox and Shesty are young, everything else can be purged.
Drury has been on course to blow this team up since last year, maybe longer
Miller is here to stay baby
No, thank you.
I really love Mika so I’m selfishly thankful he’s on the list. 🙏
Gav/Fox and Igor are essential for a retool. I can’t imagine a team without these guys. Especially Adam Fox. He makes us so much better instantaneously.
Miller is ppg when healthy and sniped some OT winners for us. I won’t complain much on that one but I get why some people are frustrated given his interview responses and such
We gotta get older
Mika has found his way out of that 2 year funk and has shown growth in the form of real leadership from what I can see. If he continues on that path we could do worse than having a guy who struggled mightily and worked his way through it (all under the NY microscope) to mentor young players that will hopefully be the next wave in 3-5 years.
I do t blame miller for being the wrong guy that they hitched their wagon too that’s not his fault. Thats drury’s. But drury has forced out players who wanted to be here for pennies on the dollar at every chance bc they either criticized him or just weren’t who he wanted them to be.
I’m still of the belief that we haven’t seen a healthy JT all year. We gave Fox all the benefit in the world when he was on his down year last season with his knee injury, I’m inclined to give Miller the same leash.
Mika I would love to unload elsewhere, but I can also recognize the short term benefit to keeping him around. Somebody has to play with Gabe to help grow his game.
If the players are so unsettled why can’t Drury just f*** off instead ?
Trade everyone but Mika
I am not a Mika fan but will say he is having a bounce back year. I still would like to see him waive. Maybe during the offseason? He’s a one trick pony in my eyes. I realize this is not a popular opinion.
I like 4/5 of those guys, and if he’s serious I’ll give Miller another chance against my better judgement. Realistically our path back to contention will run through them, and ideally an elite level youngster or two we can add via draft or trade.
Keep this list except JT
Great. I don’t want to be here to watch this disaster tho 🤣
Do championship teams send out fucking “letters” every 5-10 years? No, they fucking don’t. They build winners and don’t mask their failures with words. Only in NY do you get this overly dramatic nothingburger bullshit.
These guys are too old and not good enough to be a difference for next core
Average age of Stanley Cup finalists in recent years, as weighted by TOI (per Hockey Reference):
– 2025: Panthers (29.6), Oilers (30.4)
– 2024: Panthers: (29.5), Oilers (29.4)
– 2023: VGK (29.1), Panthers (28.7)
– 2022: Avalanche (28.2), Lightning (29.6)
– 2021: Lightning (28.4), Canadiens (28.9)
There hasn’t been a young team (average age < 28) to win the cup in 5 years. In the current era of physical playoff hockey, age and experience trumps speed and youth. You can’t just build a team with youth and expect to make it deep in the playoffs. Last years youngest playoff team (Canadiens) was soundly trounced in the 1st round by the Caps and lost that series 4-1. You need a solid core of veterans to lead the team when time and space is no longer available on the ice during the playoffs.
Foxy, Gav, Zbad, Shesty, and Miller can be the veteran core that we retool around to make our next run at the cup. There is no need to tear it all down to the roots.
I’m trading Mika & Panarin & Laffey & JT – keeping those guys is certainly no shake up and tear down – we’ve lost with them, we can continue to lose without them – it’s time for the Kids.
If Mika stays the rebuild is basically pointless. We need a completely brand new core and to free up cap space as well. We can’t be having an 8.5 million dollar first center that disappears when a playoff series is do or die like how he vanished against the Devils in 2023 and the Panthers in 2024. Only problem is he has that NMC.
When will Mika get the hint
And this ladies and gents is why we can’t rebuild until 2030 which means we are stuck in hell the rest of the decade.
The coddled vets with NMCs won’t leave.
May as well start finding your secondary teams to cheer for unless you’ll enjoy a bunch of Bottom 3-8 finishes every year
They can get something for Zibby, ship him out.
Cuylle?
I would say you would want to build around him as well. We need his physicality and skill.
Well they sure aren’t playing like it
Edit: I lied. Mika lowkey been playing really well and scoring a lot more than last season
Shut JT Miller down for the season. Let him heal and we will continue to tank. Trade Panarin for an absolute haul and then try to resign him in the offseason if possible. Hopefully we get 1OA in this draft and they aren’t a bust like Laff. Hopefully whatever we get for Panarin is legit and ready for next season or the year after.
Naaa. Trade them ALL. This isn’t supposed to be a soft rebuild. Mika has been the problem for years now.
Why wouldn’t they want to stay? They make a ridiculous amount of money and don’t have to put in any effort.
What a terrible core…. Everybody on this list is on the decline. Shesty is the only guy I would keep