What if the Rangers actually hired an analytics person in 2017

Team: 2019-20 Custom Team

Initial Creation Date: Jul. 28, 2020

Published: Jul. 29, 2020

Salary Cap Mode: Basic

Essentially this team is what the Rangers would look like with a more analytically inclined front office for the Rangers.
A few things would happen.
1) The "Ryan McDonagh trade" simply becomes
Ryan McDonagh for a 2018 1st, conditional 2019 2nd and Anthony Cirelli.

Cirelli was one of the rumored pieces available at the deadline in Tampa (unlike Foote and Sergachev) and obviously a more analytically inclined front office would choose Cirelli over Howden at the time and wouldn't throw in JT Miller for scraps.

JT Miller is kept and resigned to the contract he was hoping he'd sign with the Rangers, that he eventually ended up signing with Tampa.

2) Ryan Spooner is dealt over the 2018 offseason. This seemed like an obvious move to the analytics community at the time. Spooner was coming off a 57 point pace and had put up 16 points over his last 20 games. His trade value was around a 2nd/3rd or so that offseason. Made sense to deal him.

3) Kevin Hayes is extended long term during the 2018 offseason. - Rumored ask from Hayes was 5.5 mil x 6 years. Let's say the Rangers went with that as well as the Miller contract that same summer.

4) Rangers hold Ryan Graves - Seemed like a very unnecessary trade at the time, still does now.

5) Rangers buyout Marc Staal instead of Kevin Shattenkirk - Pretty no-brainer move when you look at the numbers. Was even more-so at the time.

6) Buch and Deangelo are extended long term last offseason - This is what the analytics guys were asking for. Used the salary estimates from EW last year. Both were willing to sign long term.

So those are the moves themselves, but it's also what the moves imply. Keeping Shattenkirk and Hayes means no Trouba trade. Trading Spooner as an RFA means no Strome.

It also means Pionk is probably dealt in a different deal. Most likely for picks. It also doesn't affect Panarin or Fox, both of whom made particular efforts to come to the Rangers despite better offers elsewhere.

This roster is for the start of the 2019-20 season. Given the layout, the team is most likely to have dealt both Kreider and Fast at the deadline. And Shattenkirk's expiring contract next season naturally gives way to Lundkvist.