Alexis Lafreniere lottery stunner shouldn’t nix Rangers plan

Monday became a glorious day in Rangerstown. First-overall pick to Edmonton in 2010. First-overall pick to Edmonton in 2011. First-overall pick to Edmonton in 2012. Seventh-overall pick to Edmonton in 2013. Third-overall pick to Edmonton in 2014. First-overall pick to Edmonton in 2015. Fourth-overall pick to Edmonton in 2016. And Edmonton has won 1 playoff round over these past 11 years, and that is with the player who might have the most complete offensive skill set in National Hockey League (NHL) history.

There is no reason to rain on the Blueshirts’ parade following the stunning lottery victory in which the 12.5 percent chance the team had to land the first-overall pick in the entry draft turned into a 100 percent shot at adding projected franchise winger Alexis Lafreniere to a stable of upper-echelon up-and-comers with the first-overall pick in October’s draft. This was a stunner. The Rangers somehow wound up 16th overall in 2005 when they entered the lottery as one of the four teams with the best odds of grabbing the No. 1 and the right to select Sidney Crosby.

The league instituted a retroactive cap-recapture component to the collective bargaining agreement following the 2012-13 lockout meant to punish the Blueshirts for the front-loaded free-agent signing of Brad Richards. The Rangers are going to be able to add a big-time talent in Lafreniere, who in time should be an important piece of a Stanley Cup contender. The Blueshirts do not figure to be in that position next year and an attempt to short-circuit the rebuild process that is just two years old because of the result of the lottery drawing would be a terrible mistake.

Rangers President John Davidson who has overseen rebuilds in St. Louis and Columbus, and general manager Jeff Gorton understand that there are no short cuts to becoming a perennial contender.

That is the objective. If the Rangers had just wanted to be a playoff team, there would have been no Letter in February of 2018. There is no doubt that adding a talent such as Lafreniere accelerates the process just as incorporating Adam Fox, Kaapo Kakko, Ryan Lindgren, and Igor Sheshterkin to the mix did this past season. But there is still heavy lifting to do to become a perennial contender.

There is still final analysis to be done on the Rangers’ frightful performance in their three-game qualifying-round sweep by Carolina. Gorton indicated that he and the deciders were placing a significant amount of weight on the team’s performance under the bubble as opposed to the work accomplished over the 37-28-5 regular season that ended five months ago. The team is still trying to get through that one, but it is fairly significant.

Even though it was three games, the way Rangers lost, it has to consider a lot of things it could do differently as it moves forward to be a harder team to play against. The team is looking at that. It does not want to dismiss the 70 games and how far it came as a team and where it was prior to the pause. It was in a good spot, it was winning a lot of games, a lot of young guys were doing a lot of good things, there were so many good things that were happening.

The Rangers moved into 2020-21 essentially the moment the team received its eviction notice to leave the bubble.

But, even with this lottery victory and the delicious prospect of adding the universally recognized top prospect to the mix, this offseason cannot be about 2020-21. It has to be about 2021-22, 2022-23, and 2023-24. There are no short cuts to sustained success. The Penguins with Marc-Andre Fleury No. 1 in 2003, Evgeni Malkin No. 2 in 2004, and Sidney Crosby first overall in 2005 did not make the playoffs until 2007.

And it would be a dreadful mistake for the hierarchy to act otherwise. The Rangers has talents, and it has the first pick in the 2020 draft. A very bright future indeed. But it is one that New York management must not mistake for next year, for good things come to those who wait.