NYR too -- of what I would say are their five best players three were in the system if not critical players for them before their "retool" (Shesterkin, Kreider, Zibanejad) one was the biggest UFA signing of the last 10 years (Panarin) and one was a college UFA (Fox).
Its crazy how lucky the Rangers got with Shesterkin and Fox. Thank god Lafreniere and Kakko haven't worked out... so far.
I have a feeling Lafreniere is going to have a major breakout season next year. After putting up 28 goals in the regular season and 8 goals/14pts in 16 playoffs games, he looked like a much different and more confident player than he has before. Kakko is definitely going to continue underwhelming everyone though lol
Yeah especially as 26 of his 28 goals were at even strength. If they play him on PP1 40+ goals is realistic. But looking at their depth chart who does he replace? Would have to be Krieder (also a left hand shot) or Trochek (right hand shot but a center).
Going back a bit further, the Rangers had a series of high draft picks misses (though Lafreniere broke out last year).
Conversely, if they weren’t located in NYC, they’d be a bottom feeder. They got Fox and Panarin (for free) only because they’re in New York, same with Trouba though he’s more of a net negative at this point. It’s a hell of a lot easier to rebuild when you’re gifted a Norris Trophy winning defenseman and 90+ point superstar.
On TV, NJD on 10/12 and 10/19 -- they missed last year and definitely see our spot as the one to take, I think these will be good gut-checks to see where we fall.
He's entering his age 28 season, so he's not over the hill but he's not a kid either. I like this a lot too and would absolutely love a redemption story but I think expectations should be tempered... a 28-year old with his talent level and skill set is coming back to us on a PTO for a reason.
It's the same conversation we had in the other thread regarding Caps D. Are the Rangers bad at developing forwards, or have they taken the wrong players? Lias Andersson and Vitali Kravtsov have failed to produce elsewhere which suggests the latter.
Was looking at this. He simply looks…..thin. Sure his hair is messed up, but I assume he was just playing a lot of soccer?
I understand I don’t want to watch a bad team for multiple seasons either. But I also don’t want to live in the middle ground for decades like the 80/90s. It took top 5 picks to give us an actual top tier team. I hope the accumulation of picks the last couple years pays off and that’s all it takes. Along with good cap management, trades, free agents etc.. and we are off and running again. But if this team is still bad this year the big red tank needs to come out again at the TDL.
While this is all technically true, we spent more than a decade watching that "top tier" team not get any farther than most of those "middle ground" teams, playoff-wise. Obviously, getting Ovie changed the franchise forever, but the young guns weren't a total panacea either. I'd like to see them build a competitive team, and I don't much care how they do it. If they believe they can get there without a tear-down, then go for it. If they're wrong, the tear-down will come.
