Regarding the Rangers, who go into the NHL’s most civilized three-day holiday hiatus eight points behind second wild-card qualifier Carolina, which is twice as far as they are ahead of 29th-place overall Los Angeles:
1. Believe me, I would have posed this question even before Monday’s 5-1 loss at Philadelphia, in which Kevin Hayes scored twice.
But here it is: Would the Rangers be better off if they’d signed Hayes to the five-year deal, worth between the $5.75 million-$6 million, for which they could have had him during summer 2018 rather than trading him to Winnipeg at the deadline for Brendan Lemieux and that first-rounder the Blueshirts then sent back to the Jets with Neal Pionk in exchange for Jacob Trouba?