As I sit here...

[bobbop]

The Rangers are extremely short on experience and even shorter on depth. It’s going to take a while.

The good news is that the Rangers have stars. Those are the toughest pieces to find for any rebuild.

Much more help is on the way. And the payroll mess is one year away from being cleared up.

Remember, the Rangers brought in no reinforcements at the trade deadline. In fact, they moved Brady Skeji out. Look at what of some of the other teams did. Tampa traded two first draft picks to build a third line.

Anything great that happens before 2021-22 is a bonus,

 

[bobbop]

Good thing we’re about to draft the 1st overall pick with the most edge since Ovechkin
Laf has had several game misconducts, suspensions, more PIM than GP throughout his QMJHL career, and loves scoring greasy goals. He is a total asshole and cellies after goals like an asshole too

I like assholes as long as they are our assholes.

 

[TopShelf86]

If the NYR looked like Boston or Tampa they wouldn’t be in the middle of a rebuild they’d be Stanley Cup favorites.

Of course we don’t look like those teams right now.

Not necessarily producing the same but more like their style of hockey

 

[TopShelf86]

Good thing we’re about to draft the 1st overall pick with the most edge since Ovechkin
Laf has had several game misconducts, suspensions, more PIM than GP throughout his QMJHL career, and loves scoring greasy goals. He is a total asshole and cellies after goals like an asshole too

Assholes are winners
I'll take it
They motivate our own too besides screwing with opposing teams

 

[smoneil]

The average age of most of this roster is second trimester. Most teams don't go from "out of the playoffs" to "Contender" in one year. They need to have a taste and get their teeth kicked in first. Hearing about it can't prepare a kid for the difference in the way the game is played after 82. They've had a bit of a taste. The key now is to see what they do now that they KNOW what it takes.

 

[Amazing Kreiderman]

Agreed...TBL and BOS draft like no other my God
From the late 1st round all the way through 4th they find these guys

I know it sounds crazy with how lucky we got with Kakko and Laf
But we gotta start finding guys the way they do

To be fair, both Boston and Tampa suck ass drafting in the 1st round.

Boston had 3 consecutive picks in 2015 and passed on Barzal, Connor and Chabot to pick Zboril, DeBrusk and Shenishyn. Tampa picked Brett Connolly and Slater Koekkoek in the top-10, and Drouin 3rd overall. They also picked Namestnikov in the 1st and were lucky Kucherov was sitting there with their 2nd round pick. Those teams got lucky in later rounds and that's the main reason they are contenders.

I would love to find a guy like Bergeron, Krejci, Kucherov in the 2nd or Marchand, Point, Cirelli in the 3rd but that's just not something you can realistically aim for. If it was easy to find those players, they wouldn't sit there in the later rounds.

I think the Rangers draft well (not great), but the real issue is that they keep committing to the wrong players. Contract management is probably a bigger reason why Tampa and Boston are so dominant

 

[TopShelf86]

To be fair, both Boston and Tampa suck ass drafting in the 1st round.

Boston had 3 consecutive picks in 2015 and passed on Barzal, Connor and Chabot to pick Zboril, DeBrusk and Shenishyn. Tampa picked Brett Connolly and Slater Koekkoek in the top-10, and Drouin 3rd overall. They also picked Namestnikov in the 1st and were lucky Kucherov was sitting there with their 2nd round pick. Those teams got lucky in later rounds and that's the main reason they are contenders.

I would love to find a guy like Bergeron, Krejci, Kucherov in the 2nd or Marchand, Point, Cirelli in the 3rd but that's just not something you can realistically aim for. If it was easy to find those players, they wouldn't sit there in the later rounds.

I think the Rangers draft well (not great), but the real issue is that they keep committing to the wrong players. Contract management is probably a bigger reason why Tampa and Boston are so dominant

Good points
We're pretty bad in the second round ( cough Olaf Lindbolm cough) lol
That's why giving up the 2 2's for Fox I didn't mind.
And it made it even more easy to deal with the Car 1st pick. Still think they should look to moving into the second round. You'll definitely find first round talent there. Just a matter of getting a little lucky which is weird to say considering how lucky we got already but I see your point.

They've drafted OK in the later rounds sure
But finding capable NHLers vs gamebreaking talent are 2 different things.
Thankfully it's not a must with everything that's gone on recently.
Wouldn't mind it tho lol

 

[Inferno]

IMHO the bruins are carried by 1 line....which 1 member is 32 and the other is 35.

The bruins are towards the end of their run IMHO.

 

[Amazing Kreiderman]

IMHO the bruins are carried by 1 line....which 1 member is 32 and the other is 35.

The bruins are towards the end of their run IMHO.

And it was a great run. A cup in 2011, Cup final appearances in 2013 and 2019. Quite the accomplishment considering their only top-3 pick in the salary cap era came in the Kessel trade and was later traded in a blockbuster deal to Dallas. They built their team a different way and it got them sustained success.

 

[will1066]

IMHO the bruins are carried by 1 line....which 1 member is 32 and the other is 35.

The bruins are towards the end of their run IMHO.

Irrelevant to what the OP commented about the here and now.

 

[Inferno]

Irrelevant to what the OP commented about the here and now.

Totally relevant...by the time were were ready to compete they're gonna be on the downside of this run. I'm not worried about how amazing they are right now

 

[OrlandK]

The hardest thing to acquire is talent. It appears we have done that. In addition to a couple of years of talent development the next phase will be getting players harder to play against. Against Canes you could see it was an issue. We don't have too many. Guys like Gauthier and Gettinger - big somewhat soft bottom 6 forwards - are not that.

JD built two teams (StL & Columbus) that were hard to play against so he clearly has that on his list. Similarly Gorton & Quinn prefer that type player too. It will be imperative that we add grit. Even with the changes to the game where speed is imperative the playoffs make it clear that physicality is still a prerequisite to winning the Cup.

 

[TopShelf86]

The hardest thing to acquire is talent. It appears we have done that. In addition to a couple of years of talent development the next phase will be getting players harder to play against. Against Canes you could see it was an issue. We don't have too many. Guys like Gauthier and Gettinger - big somewhat soft bottom 6 forwards - are not that.

JD built two teams (StL & Columbus) that were hard to play against so he clearly has that on his list. Similarly Gorton & Quinn prefer that type player too. It will be imperative that we add grit. Even with the changes to the game where speed is imperative the playoffs make it clear that physicality is still a prerequisite to winning the Cup.

Aside from Lafrenière they REALLY gotta go in a different direction in terms of talent they seek out. Guys with grit that can score greasy and have skill too. Hopefully we find our version of O'Reilly
After 1st overall they have to draft as if they didnt have 1st overall. Not just draft Lafrenière and spit ball the rest of the draft
Every pick is important

But there will come a point when we have too many draftees in the system and you can only sign and play so many players ESPECIALLY with how stacked we are at LW and RHD soon to be LD with Miller, Lindgren Robertson and whoever's else shows up.

The focus needs to be on centers for the big club and the pipeline. No goalies, no puck moving Righty defense. No LW.
Move up and grab quality centers

 

[Filthy Dangles]

if my aunt had balls.....

 

[HonestGabe]

Of course we won't look like those teams, we are 4-5 years younger in terms of average age.

The foundation of our rebuild is finally in place but we still do need to get tougher to play against. Some of our future skill players like Kakko and Lafreniere can play that game but they need time to perfect it at the NHL level.

Gorton and JD were accumulating assets to build the foundation but I think we will start to see them make moves to fill out the bottom 6.

Patience. We are still another 2-3 years away from being polished like these teams are right now. Let the core grow and develop.

 

[will1066]

It's difficult to coerce finesse players to play a physical/greasy/borderline-illegal brand of hockey when they've not played that way for half to most of their adult lives so far. Not saying it can't be done, but it's rarer than it is more common. This was defined as "character" in Gorton's open letter and the aftermath of the elimination was that we were easy to play against. Did the Canes even break a sweat in those three games after the first minute and after the Fast KO?

 

[Larrybiv]

That's all on the coach.
Only this coach that just doesn't know what he's doing.

It's either that or the players got frustrated and just flat out quit on him.You pick..

I would assume that when a team is beaten in every aspect of the game and lose two consecutive games going into the 3rd game.......there might come a time you nearly give up because you're so damn frustrated. When I get frustrated I usually hit something. I wish that our Rangers would do that. If you can't beat them on the scoreboard with your talent, refer to old fashioned old time hockey! beat them with your fists. Sorry. Not sorry yeah that's right.......not sorry.

 

[Edge]

The challenge with judging a work in progress is that it sometimes doesn't resemble the final product very well. That's as true for cooking, as it is carpentry, as it is building a team.

The Rangers are a very young team with many of it's most prized prospects still years away from resembling their final form.

Consider for example that the 2028 presidential election is three elections from now, and that both of the potential franchise players we'll have in a few weeks will still be only the age Zinbanejad and Strome are now. We're talking young.

Take comfort in the fact that at some point many of today's top teams also did not look like they do now.

 

[TopShelf86]

The challenge with judging a work in progress is that it sometimes doesn't resemble the final product very well. That's as true for cooking, as it is carpentry, as it is building a team.

The Rangers are a very young team with many of it's most prized prospects still years away from resembling their final form.

Consider for example that the 2028 presidential election is three elections from now, and that both of the potential franchise players we'll have in a few weeks will still be only the age Zinbanejad and Strome are now. We're talking young.

Take comfort in the fact that at some point many of today's top teams also did not look like they do now.

Interesting take...same goes for Art. Cant judge a painting in the middle of the process

And yes that is crazy to think that 10 years from now Kakko and Laf are only 28 and 29. Wow
God only knows who else will being drafted and traded for...free agency. Crazy

 

[NYR]

I would assume that when a team is beaten in every aspect of the game and lose two consecutive games going into the 3rd game.......there might come a time you nearly give up because you're so damn frustrated. When I get frustrated I usually hit something. I wish that our Rangers would do that. If you can't beat them on the scoreboard with your talent, refer to old fashioned old time hockey! beat them with your fists. Sorry. Not sorry yeah that's right.......not sorry.

I'm 100% down with that, especially if it's a rival

 

[Levitate]

As I sit here and watch the TBL/BOS series...I think to myself that although we are getting so much better on paper and the future looks brighter than ever.... I'm reminded that we, by and large, simply do not do what these playoffs teams do.

I see them skating with urgency and creativity. A dynamic element to most shifts
They attack the slot and crash the net. Rage through the neutral zone. The physicality
It's almost every shift, as if it's the finals. Going hard every shift.

This is not a thread of negativity or pessimism but I am just wondering "Why?"
It is disappointing. Its not just winning or losing but the WAY you do it.
I can handle us losing games but looking anaemic and flat. That's no good.

Is it team philosophy? Team strategy? Style? Idk
I just thought it would be an interesting discussion to see what you all thought on this.

I think you need to figure that those teams, particularly Boston and Tampa, are very very veteran teams and have kept together a general core and system for a long time and have all the core players that every year come back and are ready to pick up where they left off.

It takes some time to form that identity and keep a group of players so that you have that consistency from year to year. That's what we hope the Rangers will build in the next few years and why you can't just tumble the roster every year and expect things to work out well on ice.

 

[Elliman]

Lafreniere is coming! (said in my best GOT accent)

 

[Edge]

I think you need to figure that those teams, particularly Boston and Tampa, are very very veteran teams and have kept together a general core and system for a long time and have all the core players that every year come back and are ready to pick up where they left off.

It takes some time to form that identity and keep a group of players so that you have that consistency from year to year. That's what we hope the Rangers will build in the next few years and why you can't just tumble the roster every year and expect things to work out well on ice.

Both teams have drafted very well, but it also shows the benefit of being able to find those 3-5 core guys you can build around and cycle in support players.

In a few weeks, the Rangers will have 3 rookies/sophomores who have the potential to be franchise players - Lafreniere, Kakko and Shesterkin.

That’s on top of two guys who are franchise level talents or damn close, and could be for a while - Panarin and Zibanejad.

Then you have a group of players who could be upper tier core guys, or better, with names like Kravtsov, ADA, Fox, Lundkvist, Miller.

If the Rangers can sustain and keep an elite group of 5, and then have some prime support players around that 5, they’ll be one of those constant contenders in the 2020s.

The ingredients are there - especially in a post-2020 draft landscape.

 

[eco's bones]

The Rangers do need to toughen up IMO. How they go about doing that I have no idea. It's not so much that the Rangers won't stick up for themselves or we don't have anyone at all who can fight but we are not a heavy forechecking team and the guys who will fight are small or mediocre at it. This is what always brings me back to guys like Roussel, Calvert or Sam Bennett because they will up that grit quotient even if they're not the biggest of guys and at least give us more edge. At the end of the Carolina series the team acknowledged we're too easy to play against--so we'll see if they do anything to rectify that.

 

[NYSPORTS]

The hardest thing to acquire is talent. It appears we have done that. In addition to a couple of years of talent development the next phase will be getting players harder to play against. Against Canes you could see it was an issue. We don't have too many. Guys like Gauthier and Gettinger - big somewhat soft bottom 6 forwards - are not that.

JD built two teams (StL & Columbus) that were hard to play against so he clearly has that on his list. Similarly Gorton & Quinn prefer that type player too. It will be imperative that we add grit. Even with the changes to the game where speed is imperative the playoffs make it clear that physicality is still a prerequisite to winning the Cup.

been toutingBarron and been hoping for Holloway in the draft for a while. Although. Holloway might need a little time.