This was back in 2015 and the Lightning were hard-balling the brilliant Nikita Kucherov into a below-market second contract because the then-22 year-old winger had zero systemic leverage coming off his entry level deal.
Kucherov dismissed his agent. He signed after missing camp. Hard feelings, though, seemed to evaporate. Two Stanley Cups later, No. 86 is enjoying another Hart-worthy season while on his way to the Hockey Hall of Fame.
The Lightning hard-balled Steven Stamkos when he was first coming up on free agency eight years ago and they may be doing it again. They forced Dan Boyle to waive his no-trade clause and accept a move to San Jose under threat of being placed on waivers and being claimed by Atlanta or some such ne’er do well. They pulled the same stunt with Ryan McDonagh two years ago.
The organization has walked the fine line between loyalty and ruthlessness. They have used cap loopholes and the absence of a Florida state income tax to their advantage. They never apologize. The Lightning may qualify as the best team of the cap era.
Sentiment does not win championships. Neither does credit. It is a reality that the Rangers and president/general manager Chris Drury will have to recognize between now and the March 8 trade deadline in the effort to bulk up the roster for a run at the Cup.
Placing Nick Bonino on waivers, as the club did Thursday before their 5-2 loss to the Golden Knights on Friday night, is an indication that Drury and the hierarchy acknowledge that. It could not have been easy for the GM and it could not have been easy for head coach Peter Laviolette, who had Bonino for three years in Nashville.
But the clock had run out on the 35-year-old center, who was pushed into a third-line role he was ill-equipped to handle after Filip Chytil went down in the season’s 10th game. Fortitude was never an issue and neither was courage and character. But speed was and so was the lack of offensive skill. Bonino’s goals-for percentage of 28.57 is the sixth-worst in the league among forwards with at least 425 minutes. His expected goal share of 38.08 percent is the fourth-worst.
Bonino has played a career 868 NHL games. He won back-to-back Cups with the Penguins. He is due respect, but not a guaranteed roster spot because of what he did a long time ago for another organization or two. As the trade deadline approaches, it is not about the past but about what a player can do for the Rangers now.
This, of course, is not unique to Bonino as Drury attempts to navigate the next six weeks. There are other veterans who contributed to the club’s 18-4-1 getaway who could be in jeopardy. That would include Blake Wheeler, the 37-year-old who was given his third shot to nail down the right wing spot alongside Mika Zibanejad and Chris Kreider in Friday’s match at the Garden against Vegas.
Wheeler skated with the BFFs from Games 12 through 22 and from Games 26 through 39. The line has been on for 14 goals scored and 12 against in 228:21 per Natural Stat Trick for a 53.83 percentage. The unit’s expected goal share is just 45.69 percent, however. It has looked underwhelming.
It is about the last thing Drury and management would want to do, but if Wheeler can’t stick it this time, the Blueshirts may have to cut ties with the veteran of 1,165 NHL games who has recorded a sum of 939 (319-620) points, as they did with Bonino.
Bonino and Wheeler were among the best players an investment of $800,000 or $825,000 could buy July 1. And so Drury, facing a cap crisis complicated by the twin restricted free agencies of K’Andre Miller and Alexis Lafreniere, signed Wheeler, Bonino, Jonathan Quick, Erik Gustafsson and Tyler Pitlick out of the overstock bins.
These were veterans who recognized that the free agent market was going to be squeezed in the fourth year under a flat-cap system and sprinted to fill one of the open chairs before the music stopped and the money dried up.
I have been concerned, among several issues, about the team’s age up front since July 1. If Chytil rejoins the roster, he, Will Cuylle, Lafreniere and Kaapo Kakko would be the club’s only forwards under age 30. When I raised the matter over the summer, I was told by folks over social media that these vets were merely place-holders.
The truth, though, is that the veterans are still holding their places because the kids down below such as Brennan Othmann, Brett Berard and Adam Sykora are not deemed ready. So the Rangers have soldiered on with the vets in going 11-11-2 since Dec. 5.
But Thursday, reality bit Bonino. As the deadline approaches, he won’t be alone.
Feelings can’t matter now.