From Vince article: Some new info on 2021 Gorton, Drury and Dolan
January 23, 2026
From Vince article: Some new info on 2021 Gorton, Drury and Dolan
24 comments
Excuse me, I’m going to just go hang myself.
On Quinn I actually agree with Dolan for once.
Eichel trade would’ve been huge for the Rangers but let’s not pretend he was a 100% known quantity back in 2021. He had that whole shoulder surgery saga going on and I remember some fans were hesitant to give up on Kakko Laf and Chytil for him if he wasn’t going to be full health ever again. Hindsight is 20/20 ofc and it would’ve been an amazing trade even if it took two of the three (and perhaps all three even) so that sucks but it wasn’t a complete slam dunk at the time…though fuckin hell you’d imagine they win the cup in 2023 or 2024 if they had Eichel
Hindsight is 20/20, offering Kakko or Laf for Eichel in 2021 would have been clowned to no end by this sub
Thanks for kicking me in the balls several times, Vince
We’re being run like NY Jets aren’t we
This isn’t news. Could probably have these bullet points for every team
“GM tried to draft better players but they were already drafted”
“GM tried to trade for better players but they weren’t traded”
fucking libor hajek, eugh.
They really don’t resemble anything of 8 years ago, either.
That team scored huge in free agency with Panarin & already had Shesty/Kreider/Zibanejad. You had guys like Miller and Fox just show up & gift themselves to the org. They won the lottery twice and got nothing for it.
Now with this reset, they have guys that are older and under contract with NMCs along with no farm system.
and they want to call it a “retool” and coddle the vets on NMCs. This is the early 00s all over again. We haven’t seen rock bottom yet.
Oh man this one’s gonna cause a shitstorm in here isn’t it lol.
All this boils down to is ‘GM wanted to draft/trade for a player but then that player was off the board so tough shit for GM’
It’s not like any serious moves were made to acquire Pettersson/Makar/Tkachuk. They just got scouted and were on the draft board until they weren’t.
I feel like Gorton probably should’ve pivoted unless there were no other takers. I have a hard time believing that considering how highly thought of McDonagh was though.
Lias being a panic pick because they were convinced EP40 would make it to them has been out there for years
Looking forward to Day 11 of Drury photo.
It’s all hindsight and Gorton made his fair share of huge and bad mistakes but Gorton undeniably had an eye for talent in a way that Drury doesn’t.
Let me just start by saying that we probably all agree that Drury is a nightmare of a GM. Now that we have that out of the way, he is not the problem. The problem is with Dolan. So while I appreciate the work that went into this, we need to hold Dolan accountable.
Why are there no posts/articles about what he’s done/doing to this franchise? Why does it seem like I am alone in calling for a boycott of games at MSG and merch?
So sick of hearing that Drury wanted more hard nosed players.
All he has done is create a toxic shit show that has lost locker room (multiple times) and alienated fan base.
If Eichel comes to the Rangers we all know he gets crossed-checked in the neck and dies like 20 games in anyway
Vince has reported before that the Rangers had a done deal for Eichel and that the Buffalo owners killed it. I don’t think including Kakko or Laf in the deal would’ve changed a damn thing.
This is just click bait. Vince is throwing in names of good players to get engagement. He has no idea if any of this is true.
I’m not a Gorton fan by a mile but there is no world where Gorton thought Brady Tkachuk was falling to 9th in the draft.
Given the way the last two seasons went, we may have been better off if just rode out the Trouba, Kreider contracts than getting Miller / Gavrikov.
Trouba (31) is in last year of a contract that has a $8M hit vs cap. Kreider (34) has one more year left at a $6.5M hit. Had they remained, these contracts would have come off books, opening $8M in cap space in 26 / 27 season and $14.5M in cap space in 27 / 28.
With JT (33 in few weeks) signed for 4 more years at $8M and Gavrikov (30) for 6 more years at $7M, we’re now locked into more NMC contracts for 30+ year old players. At a stage, when this team isn’t near making playoffs and needs speedy, skilled, scorers more than anything else.
Hindsight and all that jazz but holy **** is #1 rough. Hey I targeted all these elite / grade A players anddd ended up with absolute 🗑️
24 comments
Excuse me, I’m going to just go hang myself.
On Quinn I actually agree with Dolan for once.
Eichel trade would’ve been huge for the Rangers but let’s not pretend he was a 100% known quantity back in 2021. He had that whole shoulder surgery saga going on and I remember some fans were hesitant to give up on Kakko Laf and Chytil for him if he wasn’t going to be full health ever again. Hindsight is 20/20 ofc and it would’ve been an amazing trade even if it took two of the three (and perhaps all three even) so that sucks but it wasn’t a complete slam dunk at the time…though fuckin hell you’d imagine they win the cup in 2023 or 2024 if they had Eichel
Hindsight is 20/20, offering Kakko or Laf for Eichel in 2021 would have been clowned to no end by this sub
Thanks for kicking me in the balls several times, Vince
We’re being run like NY Jets aren’t we
This isn’t news. Could probably have these bullet points for every team
“GM tried to draft better players but they were already drafted”
“GM tried to trade for better players but they weren’t traded”
fucking libor hajek, eugh.
They really don’t resemble anything of 8 years ago, either.
That team scored huge in free agency with Panarin & already had Shesty/Kreider/Zibanejad. You had guys like Miller and Fox just show up & gift themselves to the org. They won the lottery twice and got nothing for it.
Now with this reset, they have guys that are older and under contract with NMCs along with no farm system.
and they want to call it a “retool” and coddle the vets on NMCs. This is the early 00s all over again. We haven’t seen rock bottom yet.
Oh man this one’s gonna cause a shitstorm in here isn’t it lol.
All this boils down to is ‘GM wanted to draft/trade for a player but then that player was off the board so tough shit for GM’
It’s not like any serious moves were made to acquire Pettersson/Makar/Tkachuk. They just got scouted and were on the draft board until they weren’t.
I feel like Gorton probably should’ve pivoted unless there were no other takers. I have a hard time believing that considering how highly thought of McDonagh was though.
Lias being a panic pick because they were convinced EP40 would make it to them has been out there for years
Looking forward to Day 11 of Drury photo.
It’s all hindsight and Gorton made his fair share of huge and bad mistakes but Gorton undeniably had an eye for talent in a way that Drury doesn’t.
Let me just start by saying that we probably all agree that Drury is a nightmare of a GM. Now that we have that out of the way, he is not the problem. The problem is with Dolan. So while I appreciate the work that went into this, we need to hold Dolan accountable.
Why are there no posts/articles about what he’s done/doing to this franchise? Why does it seem like I am alone in calling for a boycott of games at MSG and merch?
So sick of hearing that Drury wanted more hard nosed players.
All he has done is create a toxic shit show that has lost locker room (multiple times) and alienated fan base.
If Eichel comes to the Rangers we all know he gets crossed-checked in the neck and dies like 20 games in anyway
Vince has reported before that the Rangers had a done deal for Eichel and that the Buffalo owners killed it. I don’t think including Kakko or Laf in the deal would’ve changed a damn thing.
This is just click bait. Vince is throwing in names of good players to get engagement. He has no idea if any of this is true.
I’m not a Gorton fan by a mile but there is no world where Gorton thought Brady Tkachuk was falling to 9th in the draft.
Given the way the last two seasons went, we may have been better off if just rode out the Trouba, Kreider contracts than getting Miller / Gavrikov.
Trouba (31) is in last year of a contract that has a $8M hit vs cap. Kreider (34) has one more year left at a $6.5M hit. Had they remained, these contracts would have come off books, opening $8M in cap space in 26 / 27 season and $14.5M in cap space in 27 / 28.
With JT (33 in few weeks) signed for 4 more years at $8M and Gavrikov (30) for 6 more years at $7M, we’re now locked into more NMC contracts for 30+ year old players. At a stage, when this team isn’t near making playoffs and needs speedy, skilled, scorers more than anything else.
Hindsight and all that jazz but holy **** is #1 rough. Hey I targeted all these elite / grade A players anddd ended up with absolute 🗑️
What could have been
Oh that eichel line makes my heart weep.
What the fffffff….the first line. Insanity