Pre-season odds are made by the people who pay too much attention to what a team looks like "on paper". I like to call them the "on paper people". People who did not watch hockey and looked at the print-outs after the game thought Tony DeAngelo was an emerging elite defenseman. People who actually watched the Rangers knew he was perhaps the worst defensive player in the entire NHL last season; a me-first guy who could care less about the scoreboard so long as his name was on the scoresheet. Adam Fox is a player who I like more, but he's not exactly a sure-shot in his own zone, either. That Rangers blueline is extremely problematic, built for numbers and not for performance. I think it will improve in the future with savvy draft choices of Miller, Schneider and Robertson but it's not there yet, especially with their youth between the pipes.
Without getting too deeply into it, I do not think Quinn is getting the job done as head coach. I feel the Rangers need to make a change behind the bench at some point. As for their talented young forwards -- they'll be terrific, they just need time. Kappa Kakko has really taken a nice step forward this year and I think he'll be an impact player for them very soon. Though Lafreniere has not lit it up, as Jack Hughes proved last year the NHL is very hard for an 18 year old, no matter how talented they are. The Rangers would be wise to check the trade deadline market on Chris Kreider -- an excellent player for sure but the Rangers can not afford to load so much of their cap hit at LW with him and Panarin, especially considering Kreider is blocking Lafreniere for future ice time.
As for this year, I feel the Rangers are a lottery team. The future is bright at MSG but the reality of the situation is that it's a team with a ton of question marks right now.