Hollowell was a decent player and more than less the main power play QB. Brouillard isn't a loss. He's not good defensively and he took loads of undisciplined or out of position penalties. What it means though is the Rangers don't really seem to have a defenseman who can run their power play. That's the one gaping hole that the Pack seem to have right now. Other than that it seems like they should have a good team.
Remains to be seen from how training camp goes but I do expect Carrick to make the Rangers. He's a 4th line guy for sure but he's okay on face-offs and a gritty physical guy not all that much unlike Goodrow only coming in a lot cheaper. Barclay's all around game might be somewhat better in some areas but not by all that much. Carrick hits a little more and he drops the gloves more. He's had like 18 fights in the last two years and he's fighting the tough guys almost all the time. I looked at his list on Hockeyfights. He's not picking fights with guys who don't do it or do it very often......he's fighting the legit guys.
I agree that Hartford needed to sign a player to run the PP and the team didn't. That lead me to think that maybe the management feels there are players on the roster who could fill that role.
Hartford has signed three defensemen to AHL contracts: Case McCarthy, Ryan Siedem and Carter Berger.
On June 3rd I posted the following about them:
"In the 2019 draft Berger was drafted in the 4th round with the 106th pick by Florida. Hunter Skinner was drafted by the Rangers with the 112th pick by the Rangers. And Case McCarthy was drafted with the 118th pick by New Jersey. Only Skinner was signed and he was traded.
Ryan Siedem also was draft eligible but was not selected.
The Central Scouting Bureau rated McCarthy 77 for US non goalie prospects, Siedem 110 and Skinner 120. Berger was an over ager. I didn't find him in the CSB rankings but Steve Kournianos's website said he as rated 147 by CSB.
Kournianos rated McCarthy 95 and Siedem 110. He did not rate Skinner and he rated Berger as the 47th overager.
Of McCarthy Steve said he is a "thick, big-bodied blue liner who can crank it from the point." Steve said that while he can carry the puck he relies moron making safer plays and deferring to play makers. He called Case a "strong, powerful skater."
For Siedem Steve commented he was a "clean no nonsense two-way defender." Steve called him highly-intelligent and disciplined."
At Western Michigan, Carter Berger had 23 points in 33 games in the 2022-2023 season and followed that up last year with 20 points in 36 games. He was the 9th leading scorer on the team.
Case McCarthy played five years and never had more than 15 points.
Ryan Siedem played three years at Harvard before moving last year to Notre Dame. He had 20 points last year.
None of this screams running a power play.
Perhaps that's why the Rangers invited Kale McCallum. McCallum had 69 points in 68 games in the QMJHL in 2021-2022 and was the fourth leading scorer on the team. He followed that up with 34 points in 36 the following year before moving onto Canadian colleg hockey. Last year for the University of New Brunswick he had 42 points in 30 games and was the second leading scorer on the team. It will be interesting to see if he is offered a contract.
awinninghabit.com
