For the second straight year, the New York Rangers find themselves in a precarious situation with one of their most important players. Last season, amidst contract negotiations, Rangers’ captain Ryan Callahan was shipped out to the Tampa Bay Lightning, while Martin St. Louis came to New York and helped the Rangers to their first Stanley Cup Final in 20 years.

This year, Mats Zuccarello is the player in the contract negotiations, and he there is a strong possibility that Zuccarello is not in the Rangers lineup tomorrow night, or for the rest of the NHL season for that matter.

Trading Zuccarello would be a horrendous mistake for the Rangers, as they would be hurting their chances to win the cup this year.

Zuccarello is a fan favorite, but unlike most fan favorites, Zuccarello can play and has all the stats to back him up. His SAT%, which is what we will be calling Corsi% from now on thanks to NHL.com, is by far the best out of any Rangers’ forward this season at 53.68%. Furthermore, he is averaging 2.06 P/60, which ranks seventh on the team. He still has 35 points this season, which is clearly not as much as he had last year, but it is still a nice number for a player in a top-six role. He plays in all situations for the Rangers, and, as the smallest guy on the ice, is easily the Rangers’ toughest player.

Zuccarello has also shown to be a great locker room presence, and has great chemistry with his teammates. With Derick Brassard, Zuccarello’s line-mate for the past two seasons, locked up for the next five years, it would make sense to keep those two together, as their chemistry has been unbelievable. Those two were big reasons why the Rangers made it so far last season, and it would be a mistake to split them up. Also, Rangers’ head coach Alain Vigneault has admitted publicly that he is a huge fan of Zuccarello and would hate to lose him.

The Rangers cap situation is horrible, as they have tied up big money to a small amount of players. There are obviously going to be tough choices to make this offseason, as players like Derek Stepan, Martin St. Louis and Carl Hagelin are all up for new deals. The Rangers won’t have a lot of money to work with, even if the cap does extend above $70 million. Glen Sather has done this to himself by giving questionable contracts to Dan Girardi and Marc Staal, and now he is about to feel the consequences of those deals.

Sather has tough decisions to make, but trading Zuccarello is going to hurt the Rangers this year, a year when they seem to have a legitimate shot to win the cup. With Henrik Lundqvist getting older, now is the time to go for it, and in order to go for it, the Rangers have to keep Zuccarello.