Larry Brooks

Larry Brooks

NHL

Patrick Kane must be Rangers’ top target if they’re truly ready for next step

The Rangers selected six players from the second through sixth rounds Friday in the conclusion to the entry draft. Let me ask this: Would you consider it good news or bad news if any of them are on the next Blueshirts team to win the Stanley Cup? 

General manager Chris Drury and his staff left Montreal essentially in the same position as they arrived on Monday other than taking care of the Alexandar Georgiev situation. The Rangers are still in desperate need of a second-line center through either a trade or a free-agent signing. 

But maybe that’s not exactly how to frame it. 

Perhaps it is more accurate to suggest that Drury’s priority is to create a top-six that can score in the later rounds of the playoffs as his team seeks to take the next — and largest — step of them all in going from contender to champion. 

Getting a formidable 2C would seem the most purposeful way to fulfill that objective, but what if instead that would entail getting a powerhouse right wing to play across from Artemi Panarin? 

The question I am posing is this: If Drury believes this team is close enough to winning a Cup in 2023 to pay big for a one-year rental, would it make more sense to go as far in as possible for Patrick Kane instead of J.T. Miller? 

I started talking about Kane last year and probably won’t stop until the right winger, who has won three Cups with Chicago and is probably Panarin’s all-time favorite linemate, either goes somewhere else or pledges his undying loyalty to the Blackhawks, who are fast on their way to becoming the NHL’s version of the Oakland Athletics. 

Patrick Kane
Patrick Kane should be the Rangers’ top priority, The Post’s Larry Brooks writes. NHLI via Getty Images

Kane, who will turn 34 in November, has a full no-move clause on a contract that has one year to go while carrying a $10.5 million cap hit. Kane thus has control over his next destination. He could steer himself to Broadway. If the Blackhawks would absorb 50 percent of the contract, Kane would carry the same $5.25 million cap hit as Miller, who also has one year to go on his deal. 

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tRY IT NOW

Who would you rather have in your lineup for the first game of the 2023 first round, Kane or Miller? Who would you rather have in the lineup for the 82-game marathon, Kane or Miller? There is a Choice C, of course, that would be, “None of the above.” 

None of the math has changed since it went 2-1 the wrong way in Game 6 of the conference finals in Tampa on June 11. The Blueshirts cannot afford a long-term commitment to a veteran blue chip center. That knocks them out of the running for impending free agent Nazem Kadri. That eliminates the option of obtaining and then extending Miller. Winnipeg’s Mark Scheifele has two years remaining on his contract at an annual $6.125 million cap hit that would push the envelope to the max. 

Chris Drury
Chris Drury Getty Images

The Rangers scored at the lowest 60:00, five-on-five rate of any playoff team that won at least one round. They were 21st overall in that category during the season. That, of course, was with Ryan Strome, who is on his way to the free agent market. And just about the last quarter of the season included top-sixers Andrew Copp and Frank Vatrano, also on their way out of the door. 

The Rangers are going on 29 years again as if Sam Rosen’s, “This one will last a lifetime,” were a sentence rather than just a sentence, if you know what I mean. There are all sorts of interweaving timetables at work here involving veterans with no-move clauses and kids coming up on second contracts, but one Stanley Cup in 81 years creates urgency. 

You know what else does or should? The fact that Igor Shesterkin can become an unrestricted free agent in three years. 

Tony Amonte recorded 717 points (332 goals, 385 assists) after he was traded at the 1994 deadline while Stephane Matteau and Brian Noonan combined for 69 points (35-34) wearing the Blueshirt following their acquisitions. Doug Weight posted 963 points (255-708) after leaving New York at the 1993 deadline while Esa Tikkanen put up 61 points (24-37) in his first stay on Broadway. Does anyone care? 

If Drury believes the Rangers are within rental range of a Cup, then he walls off Shesterkin, Adam Fox, Alexis Lafreniere, K’Andre Miller, Braden Schneider, Ryan Lindgren, Brennan Othmann and Will Cuylle and adds no-move guys Panarin, Chris Kreider, Mika Zibanejad and Jacob Trouba to the list. 

And then he barters. 

First question: Are the Rangers close enough to rent a blue chip property? 

And the second: If so, shouldn’t Patrick Kane be Target 1?