New York Rangers' Jeff Gorton Deserves Credit for Brandon Pirri
Brandon Pirri’s New York Rangers career has been a disappointment. Pirri signed a one year deal with the Rangers in the off-season, hoping to contribute to the team’s new-found depth. Jeff Gorton gave Pirri the chance, and Pirri has been unable to capitalize. Rather than criticizing Gorton for this, we should be praising the General Manager.
The New York Rangers need more from Brandon Pirri. It’s no secret that the power-play specialist has been a disaster for New York. Pirri was signed for three reasons: to add depth, provide a sniper’s mentality, and aid the struggling power-play.
Pirri technically has added depth, but his defensive game is severely lacking. For the most part Pirri’s existence is a positive for depth only in that he prevents players like Tanner Glass from entering the lineup. Yet Pirri does not provide any abilities that others cannot, serving instead as an expensive flyer gone wrong.
Offensively, Pirri’s sniper’s mentality has deserted him. The former Cy Young winner (a lot of goals and few assists) has stopped shooting in high volumes, instead becoming a passive player who misses the shot far too much when he does finally unload. On the power-play, Pirri’s shots are easy to follow and easily predictable in terms of when they are coming.
The former Florida Panther and Anaheim Duck lacks the quick thinking abilities of Kevin Hayes or the shot of Chris Kreider, making him an outsider on the man advantage when the team is healthy. Now that the team is healthy, Pirri’s time with the Rangers is coming to an end.
It would be easy to blame Jeff Gorton for Pirri’s tenure in New York failing to work out with the Rangers, but instead we should be praising Gorton. See, Pirri did not work out, but the logic was sound. Escaping from Glen Sather’s insistence that an enforcer must be in the lineup at all times is a huge leap forward for the Rangers, even if Pirri does not represent a massive upgrade.
Sure Pirri did not work out this time, but the next flyer Gorton takes could be better. We already blamed Gorton for choosing Gagner over Pirri, but he now has proven that he understands which type of player should help the Rangers if all goes well. Pirri did not work out, but there was no downside to the move. An inexpensive one year flyer on a player with plenty of untapped potential will always be a wise move.
Perhaps Pirri will untap that potential elsewhere, or maybe he will even eventually figure things out here in New York. Regardless, Gorton’s process in signing Pirri was wise and a welcomed change. Gorton identified lack of depth as a roster weakness, searched the market for a player with strong shooting abilities, and signed him for cheap.
New York did not attach themselves to an expensive player they did not need, nor did they misunderstand their weakness and place a wrong style of player on the roster. Gorton deserves to be lauded for his attempt at filling the roster weakness, even if it did not work.
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