Ottawa's getting a 1st one way or another

Why would anyone want to pay a 2nd for Jones?

Honestly doubt it. If he didn't have NTC and they could ship him wherever they wanted, I bet they'd find someone who'd pay a 1st. But he gets to choose where he ends up, which means that team has the leverage

He's a very good, young, offensive dman.

The leverage is that Ottawa is perfectly fine with re-signing him so you have to make it worthwhile for us to even trade him in the first place.

They're asking him to waive his NTC. They're not re signing him

Depth players don't typically return what you're asking, even if they're young and are perceived to have NHL potential. I'd imagine the most they could get for Brodzinski and Jones are a 4th and 3rd, respectively.

Then why doesn’t he play?

Because the Rangers have better options in Lindgren, K'Andre Miller, and Gustafsson. Although to me some of those are either questionable or shouldn't be in the Rangers' long term future plans.

The GM literally just said that they're open to signing him. And they never asked him to waive his NTC.

I unserstand his position, but why wouldn't Tarasenko test FA? For the money he wants, can Ottawa afford him longer term? Wouldn't they be better off taking what they can (likely a 2nd and maybe a player) than obstinately holding out for a 1st and potentially losing him in FA for nothing?

A 2nd doesn't really do anything for us in the short or long term. We'd rather take our chances with signing him.

Ok. Let's say that they don't ask him to waive and want to re-sign him.

Is there a reason you think Tarasenko is open to staying?

To me it's always looked like Vlad signed there for 2 reasons. A, it was a one-year prove it deal until the cap went up, and 5m was the best offer he got. B, Ottawa was supposed to make the jump to the playoffs this year given how close they got to a WC spot last year.

Now I'm not dissing the Senators by saying this. Just being truthful. It does not appear like they are going to make the playoffs this year. And I would venture a guess that the contending window is farther away than most people thought.

Has Tarasenko said or done something that = he wants to stay? I can understand Giroux wanting to be a Sen for the rest of his career given his ties to the area. But Tarasenko doesn't have those same ties. And IMO Tarasenko would rather ring/cup chase around the league for the next 3+ years.

IMO he gets moved to a contender. Whether that's the Rangers, LA, Florida, probably not Carolina given the stuff over the summer, Boston, I could go on. I'm not even saying this is guaranteed to be a NYR specific thing (although he did want to stay last year, we just had no $). But I without a doubt think he'll get traded to a contender.

You could get the 2nd and still take your chances on resigning him as a UFA, while giving him a shot at a cup.

Who is "we"? If Tarasenko made it clear to the GM that he's not going to re-sign because he wants to chase a Cup, they would definitely take a 2nd rather than nothing

Except he hasn't done that and by all accounts loves being in Ottawa.

No

We will see. I bet he's a Ranger within 30 days

And I bet your 1st round pick will be owned by Ottawa.

Well, it won't. Because the entire point is that if Vlad chooses NYR and NYR only they have no reason to give that up. ESPECIALLY if Ottawa doesn't retain anything, which they don't have to at this point....

Ottawa would have no problem retaining. I literally said that Tarasenko would like to stay in Ottawa, he never said he wants to go to New York.

This is delusional. Tarasenko would rather be on a team that has a chance to win a cup than a team that's done playing in mid-April. Whether it's the Rangers or somewhere else. Like the other commenter said, they can trade him at the deadline and get something, and then re-sign him over the summer if they want.

Also no professional is going to ever outwardly say they hate playing in the city they're in, and that they want to go to another specific city. Tarasenko isn't a locker room plague like that. Why does Tarasenko want to stay in Ottawa according to your sources?

Because he and his wife are enjoying the city and his kids are playing for the local junior hockey teams and they're doing well there.

NSH declines. If this is all NSH would get for Novak, they would likely rather just sign him. Only Korzack would be interesting as he is still developing, but I don't think Edstrom makes it out the AHL, even with NSH's lack of center strength.