Breakaway Takeaways – April 23rd

[custom_headline type=”left” level=”h4″ looks_like=”h4″ accent=”true” id=”” class=”” style=””]Desharnais Heads To Russia[/custom_headline][image type=”circle” float=”none” alt=”” href=”” title=”” info_content=”” lightbox_caption=”” id=”” class=”aligncenter” style=”” src=”2477″][text_output]To nobody’s surprise, it appears David Desharnais’s one year run with the New York Rangers is officially over.

A report emerged from over the weekend indicating that Desharnais is preparing to sign a contract with a team in the KHL.[/text_output]

[text_output]We don’t need to spend a lot of time on Desharnais’s tenure with the Rangers, but this signing does clear up a couple questions for us.

A common questions asked by us on the podcast and by many others was: why didn’t the Rangers move Desharnais at the trade deadline?

Well, it appears there just wasn’t any interest in his services. A player who doesn’t have any ties to Russia signing with a Russian team this early in the off-season gives us the impression that there wasn’t a North American market for him, at least not at the NHL level. We’ve seen players linger on the open market for a while before signing European contracts once it becomes clear their demands aren’t going to be met in North America. But this early in the off-season? His agent must already know the opportunity isn’t there and wants to lock into something sooner rather than later.

And yet, Alain Vigneault kept him in his line-up on a nightly basis. The sad thing is I would’ve loved to have Desharnais in the line-up every night over Cody McLeod, who serves no purpose on any hockey team at any competitive level.

You could make a case that Jeff Gorton should’ve simply jettisoned Desharnais once he was unable to trade him, allowing an open roster spot for one of Boo Nieves or Vinni Lettieri to showcase their talents. It certainly would’ve helped the team determine if either could’ve played a role on the Rangers this upcoming season, but how much it would’ve helped is a question mark. As long as Alain Vigneault was behind the bench and deploying players as he saw fit, I’m not sure anything meaningful could’ve been drawn from their performances. Honestly, that might be why both players were kept in Hartford for the end of the year.

David Desharnais’s shortcomings as a Ranger were never his fault. Had he been asked to simply do what we all thought he was signed for (an upside scoring center to live on your fourth line), he would’ve met those standards. Instead, he was deployed questionably throughout the season by AV, most notably on a power play unit and as a constant fill-in for Mika Zibanejad on the top line when Zibanejad missed time for injury.

I don’t know if it’s fair to Desharnais for anyone to be angry with his performance as a Ranger. I’m not sure what else you could’ve expected. It would’ve been awfully nice if he was used properly while he was in New York, but that can be said about almost everyone on the Rangers roster over the last two years under Vigneault.[/text_output]