Chris Kreider’s Rangers career is over, as the veteran has greenlit a trade that will send him across the continent to the Ducks to signify a shakeup of New York’s core following a monumentally disappointing season.
Kreider was a big part of the Blueshirts becoming just the fourth team ever to miss the playoffs after winning the Presidents Trophy the year before, as he saw significant drop-offs in production while battling injury. But for his Rangers career, that was the outlier, and fans should look back on his career with fondness based on what Kreider gave to the organization, and all the playoff goals he piled up from his very first NHL tally.
As Kreider leaves, the debate begins over how his tenure should be remembered in Gotham. Some have criticized the homegrown Ranger for disappearing for long spurts of time in big series, while others point to his place in the franchise record books and the manner in which he handled himself along the way.
If the Rangers were smart, they would listen to the latter argument and raise Kreider’s No. 20 to the rafters at Madison Square Garden.
There is a solid chance Kreider’s number becomes the 12th to be retired by the Rangers, and it would certainly be justified. Sure, he leaves without the coveted Cup, but the former first-round pick departs with the third-most goals in team history, tied for the most power play goals, second in game-winning goals, top 10 in points and games played, and of course, is the team’s all-time leader with 48 playoff goals, beginning with his first goal ever in the NHL against Ottawa in the 2012 playoffs.
The criticisms regarding Kreider’s struggles at times in the postseason overlook all of the big moments he provided on the biggest stage. His first-ever goal proved to be the game winner in 2012, sending the Rangers on their way to winning the series against the Senators. His game-tying goal three years later against the Capitals with less than two minutes on the clock saved New York’s season and sparked a comeback that erased a 3-1 series deficit. His otherworldly third period against Carolina last year sent the Rangers to the Eastern Conference Final, and marked just the second playoff hat trick in league history in which all three goals were tallied in the third period. The only other to accomplish that feat? Mark Messier in 1994.
Sure, his playoff heroics never led to winning a Cup, but he was still part of the only Rangers team to reach a Cup Final since winning it in 1994, and the franchise has retired numbers of players that never hoisted the Cup multiple times in the past. Ed Giaccomin, Harry Howell, Rod Gilbert, Andy Bathgate, and Henrik Lundqvist are just some of the names. Granted, those players are in the Hall of Fame, but Vic Hadfield’s No. 11 hangs in the rafters alongside Messier’s 11, and he is not a Hall of Famer.
Retiring numbers are not just about honoring the player. It is also about paying respect to the era of that team’s history that the player represented, and even if it didn’t include a championship, Kreider embodied an era of Rangers hockey in which they were consistently in the playoffs and in the hunt for a title. But the way he carried himself for 13 years warrants this honor as much as what he did on the ice, and should the Rangers decide to raise No. 20 to the rafters, it is a decision that should be celebrated.