On July 1, 2016 Rangers general manager Jeff Gorton signed Michael Grabner to a two-year, $3.3 million contract. And he’s been laughing about it ever since.
In 2016-17 Grabner scored 27 goals in 76 games. He had as many 5-on-5 goals as Connor McDavid, Patrik Laine, and Filip Forsberg despite having an average ice time of 14:06. Laine, who saw the least amount of total 5-on-5 TOI of that talented trio, still saw 134 more minutes of ice time in that scenario than Grabner in three fewer games.