1990-91 Rangers got knocked out of the playoffs. I went to the Caps series clinching win in game 6 in Landover,Maryland. What a dump. That annoying horn when the Caps scored a goal. Those annoying white pom poms.
The Rangers signed Tony Amonte out of BU and Doug Weight out of Lake Superior State when they were finished with their college seasons. The Rangers played them in the Caps series. Bernie Nicholls didn't play in game 6.
Smith was furious.
The team captain Kelly Kisio was not protected in the expansion draft.
Nemchinov joined the Rangers in 1991.
Graves was as a signed a group I in 1991. Smith had a comparable in Mallette. The arbitrator ruled in favor of the Rangers. Sather wanted Rice and DeBrusk. The Rangers had Amonte,Weight,Kovalev,Rice and DeBrusk as their top forward prospects. Kovalev had just been drafted that June.
Messier was acquired a month after Graves signed. Rice and DeBrusk went to Edmonton in the trade along with Nicholls who didn't get along with Neilson. Paramount also included $8M-$10M in the deal. Dave Shaw was sent to EDM for Jeff Beukeboom a few weeks after the Messier trade. It apparently was part of the Messier trade but it was completed a month after the Messier trade. Edmonton played at the Garden after the Messier trade and before the Beukeboom deal. Edmonton won the game. I remember sitting with my cousin at the game wondering what it would cost to get Buekeboom or Manson from Edmonton.
Messier,Graves,Beukeboom,Amonte,Nemchinov and Weight were not part of the previous season Rangers. Weight was a 4th line center on the Rangers. The other 5 players were key parts of the team. Graves-Messier-Amonte was the Rangers #1 line. That would be like Kreider and Richards forming the Rangers top line with another player not on the roster right now.
Zubov didn't come over until the following season. 92-93. He had an up and down season. Smith wanted Zubov and Kovalev to play in the AHL playoffs in 1993 but they wanted to play in the World Championships. Growing pains.