Kitchener Rangers 2023-24 Season Thread (Part One)

[bobber]

I hope the coach tells Mesar to wake the .... UP.

He's too confortable out there... Bronsinsky.... lets go, move those legs

Nothing like being over dramatic. Four points in two games. Not sure what you are looking for from the kid.

 

[bobber]

Attack capitalized on their chances today. Difficult barn to get a win. Owen Sound had some skilled vets that can burn you if they get open. Things to work on in practice.

 

[Petes1987]

Another night of fun hockey from the Rangers. I know it's the logical move to sell, but it's going to suck to see this group split up. They look like a team on a mission. Everyone is involved and playing through each other.

Miles different than what we saw last year.

We are facing that same situation in Peterborough. The Petes are first in their division and second in the conference but are liking facing a rebuild in the New Year by seeing several veterans trades. I hope it is just a retool with only a couple players moved for a big return allowing us to remain competitive.

 

[GeoBlue]

I thought outside of 2 shifts last night and 2 shifts today he was excellent. Uses his speed in the neutral zone. Fantastic vision in the Ozone.

I have more issues with the 1st line trying to break out of their own end way to early. Making stupid passes late in the game while down a goal.

Mesar is far down the worry list imo

Yes, like Sop's attempted pass to the point that lead to the empty netter. It was practically right on the tape of the Otters stick. That was reminiscent of last years Rangers.

 

[Rangers True Blue]

Attack capitalized on their chances today. Difficult barn to get a win. Owen Sound had some skilled vets that can burn you if they get open. Things to work on in practice.

Throw in a little hockey gods luck and a pass is missed but NP, it bounces off the boards and onto the OS stick. Unless of course, that was a planned play...

Despite the loss, I thought the Rangers faced adversity and had their first taste of what it's like when an opposing team pushes back hard. There are no room for errors, no room for blind passes, and no room for letting up. While it was great how they came out with two quick goals to take the lead in the 3rd, there was a lot of game left to play. I'm quite sure that Jussi was not pleased.

Give Mesar some time to adapt to Rangers systems. He's still settling in and already has 4 points in just two games. Once that line clicks, there will be two lines that can burn a team.

Windsor, North Bay, and yes, London this coming week. Buckle up!!!

 

[Millpond]

, it bounces off the boards and onto the OS stick. Unless of course, that was a planned play...

That was a play they practice to take advantage of the lively boards.

 

[bobber]

It's difficult to imagine the Rangers are in a rebuild season. Franchises that need to replenish their draft cupboard usually trade off pieces before and at the deadline. Teams have to take finances into consideration. GMs might want to be in a playoff position to get the money from gate receipts. With the Rangers on a bit of a roll does this change what MM and his staff have planned going forward? Also does the new coaching staff have any input if the Rangers are involved in any transactions? It will be interesting to say the least.

 

[Gondrex]

It's difficult to imagine the Rangers are in a rebuild season. Franchises that need to replenish their draft cupboard usually trade off pieces before and at the deadline. Teams have to take finances into consideration. GMs might want to be in a playoff position to get the money from gate receipts. With the Rangers on a bit of a roll does this change what MM and his staff have planned going forward? Also does the new coaching staff have any input if the Rangers are involved in any transactions? It will be interesting to say the least.

I've learned that with MM, expect the unexpected. Who knows. Whatever he decides to do, please don't touch our 07's.

 

[EvenSteven]

It's difficult to imagine the Rangers are in a rebuild season. Franchises that need to replenish their draft cupboard usually trade off pieces before and at the deadline. Teams have to take finances into consideration. GMs might want to be in a playoff position to get the money from gate receipts. With the Rangers on a bit of a roll does this change what MM and his staff have planned going forward? Also does the new coaching staff have any input if the Rangers are involved in any transactions? It will be interesting to say the least.

What’s unfortunate was MM’s decision last year to go all in. That 22-23 Ranger team wasn’t going deep in the post season. Sure there was the Windsor series, but reality set in vs London.

Many on here, including myself, promoted a sell off.

But never mind sell, had we simply stood pat last year, or in other words, not completed the Moore, Arcuri, and Zhilkin trades, we’d have an extra 5 x 2nds, 7 x 3rds, a 4th, and a 5th in the bank to go with what we currently have now.
Today, give or take, we’d be sitting at:
6 x 2nds
8 x 3rds
4 x 4ths
Over the next four years.

Had we that overflowing draft cupboard today, we would be in the same boat as Missy. A young team getting better ahead of schedule. We wouldn’t need to be looking to sell Rehkopf this year. We could stand pat with our current overagers. Maybe we do some sort of Brzustewicz trade that mirrors the Guelph / Sarnia trade from last year where Guelph sold Pastujov but for a high end return in Namestnikov, a year younger, that helped them last year and is huge for them this year - plus picks.

And had we sold a couple graduating ‘03’s, say just Pinelli and Schmidt, it’s dizzying how the draft cupboard would look today.

 

[Gondrex]

What’s unfortunate was MM’s decision last year to go all in. That 22-23 Ranger team wasn’t going deep in the post season. Sure there was the Windsor series, but reality set in vs London.

Many on here, including myself, promoted a sell off.

But never mind sell, had we simply stood pat last year, or in other words, not completed the Moore, Arcuri, and Zhilkin trades, we’d have an extra 5 x 2nds, 7 x 3rds, a 4th, and a 5th in the bank to go with what we currently have now.
Today, give or take, we’d be sitting at:
6 x 2nds
8 x 3rds
4 x 4ths
Over the next four years.

Had we that overflowing draft cupboard today, we would be in the same boat as Missy. A young team getting better ahead of schedule. We wouldn’t need to be looking to sell Rehkopf this year. We could stand pat with our current overagers. Maybe we do some sort of Brzustewicz trade that mirrors the Guelph / Sarnia trade from last year where Guelph sold Pastujov but for a high end return in Namestnikov, a year younger, that helped them last year and is huge for them this year - plus picks.

And had we sold a couple graduating ‘03’s, say just Pinelli and Schmidt, it’s dizzying how the draft cupboard would look today.

Totally agree ES, what if...... I know one could point to the benefit of hindsight, but in reality things at that period of time (the results in the standings, and behind the bench) were not looking good in the view of many on this board. However, as we've learned in the past, MM does things differently. I'm only guessing, but he probably looked at last year's roster and figured he was losing so many players at season's end. So as a result, he unloaded the cupboard and ended up competing with so many other teams in a seemingly expensive trade market *sigh*.....and here we are.

Taking both this team's current relatively good success and MM's unpredictability into account, I wouldn't be surprised if he chose to do the soft sell at this point. I think CC kinda touched on this in a previous post. Perhaps he hangs on to Rehkopf this year - unless they get one of those deals you can't refuse. Perhaps the only player that they trade is Brzustewicz (recognizing that trading options for him are limited), and bring in an inexpensive veteran D to replace him. I do believe that MM (hopefully) recognizes that the 07's are the future of this team.

I don't think they would be able to end up competing with Saginaw when they eventually clear out their assets, but he would likely satisfy some people - one of whom tallies up the $$$$ - assuming they have a bit of playoff success.

 

[GeoBlue]

Totally agree ES, what if...... I know one could point to the benefit of hindsight, but in reality things at that period of time (the results in the standings, and behind the bench)

Perhaps the only player that they trade is Brzustewicz (recognizing that trading options for him are limited), and bring in an inexpensive veteran D to replace him.

With Juicy behind the bench and showing what has been able to accomplish THIS year, and the success we had against Windsor LAST year, one wonders what would have happened if we had an experienced coach on last years team. Yes, hindsight is 50-50.

I don't think we will need a replacement for Hunter if traded, IMO. We have Scott and Runco, with possibly MacNiel, if he is ready to make the jump. I think one of those would be sufficient for us to get through the year.

 

[EvenSteven]

With Juicy behind the bench and showing what has been able to accomplish THIS year, and the success we had against Windsor LAST year, one wonders what would have happened if we had an experienced coach on last years team. Yes, hindsight is 50-50.

I don't think we will need a replacement for Hunter if traded, IMO. We have Scott and Runco, with possibly MacNiel, if he is ready to make the jump. I think one of those would be sufficient for us to get through the year.

This isn’t so much a hindsight issue. We could see from a mile away that last year’s team had problems underachieving and going all in was a very questionable, desperate exercise. And since, multiple reports of how much better an environment it is this year vs last year, obviously due to graduation, says there may have been a split in the room or an undesirable or two have moved on. And that’s not coaching because it continued on after Dennis was let go.

I could make the argument, that we have higher end graduating assets this year (if we include Rehkropf) than we had last year.

Looking back at last year versus this year, we really didn’t have a lot of high-end graduating players going into the season. But it was Pinelli’s last year and we couldn’t waste that.

We had Pinelli, Schmidt as graduating ‘03’s that would have brought good value in return. The other ‘03’s were looked at as very good OA probables that you don’t look to trade. But we went all in to build around these guys because it was a scheduled “all in” year.

With Juicy behind the bench and showing what has been able to accomplish THIS year, and the success we had against Windsor LAST year, one wonders what would have happened if we had an experienced coach on last years team. Yes, hindsight is 50-50.

I don't think we will need a replacement for Hunter if traded, IMO. We have Scott and Runco, with possibly MacNiel, if he is ready to make the jump. I think one of those would be sufficient for us to get through the year.

This year, we don’t need a replacement for Hunter if he’s traded. But in my post, I was saying that had we sold, or even stood pat last year, then this year, our cupboard would be full.

Then, a Guelph/ Sarnia type deal could’ve been made for Hunter year. Because this year, at least so far, we look to have a team much better than we thought. We’d be selling for futures while still having a high end asset in return this year that could help this year’s team.

 

[Krangers08]

It's difficult to imagine the Rangers are in a rebuild season. Franchises that need to replenish their draft cupboard usually trade off pieces before and at the deadline. Teams have to take finances into consideration. GMs might want to be in a playoff position to get the money from gate receipts. With the Rangers on a bit of a roll does this change what MM and his staff have planned going forward? Also does the new coaching staff have any input if the Rangers are involved in any transactions? It will be interesting to say the least.

I’m not worried. They’ve had an easy schedule when comparing to other around the league and rookie will hit the inevitable rookie slump. I think they’ll be 6th by Christmas

Did Arquette spend enough time in camp to become NCAA ineligible?

Not sure how much ground that rules hold. There have been multiple instances of kids going to OHL camps and end up in NCAA. I do think he’ll sign in the summer if he continues to develop. I also wouldn’t be surprised if Giancola ends up dropping his commitment to come and play here. When he committed I saw some post that it would be hard to maintain his commitment.Was good at the combine, decent numbers in the OJ, and has history with Lam and Stark.

• this year will also be the first draft with Kyrzakos who had a big impact on Mississaugas drafts as he mention he will scout and have a hand in decisions with the rangers in trades and drafting

 

[bobber]

Totally agree ES, what if...... I know one could point to the benefit of hindsight, but in reality things at that period of time (the results in the standings, and behind the bench) were not looking good in the view of many on this board. However, as we've learned in the past, MM does things differently. I'm only guessing, but he probably looked at last year's roster and figured he was losing so many players at season's end. So as a result, he unloaded the cupboard and ended up competing with so many other teams in a seemingly expensive trade market *sigh*.....and here we are.

Taking both this team's current relatively good success and MM's unpredictability into account, I wouldn't be surprised if he chose to do the soft sell at this point. I think CC kinda touched on this in a previous post. Perhaps he hangs on to Rehkopf this year - unless they get one of those deals you can't refuse. Perhaps the only player that they trade is Brzustewicz (recognizing that trading options for him are limited), and bring in an inexpensive veteran D to replace him. I do believe that MM (hopefully) recognizes that the 07's are the future of this team.

I don't think they would be able to end up competing with Saginaw when they eventually clear out their assets, but he would likely satisfy some people - one of whom tallies up the $$$$ - assuming they have a bit of playoff success.

What happened last season was all on MM. He made the decision to hire Dennis. Players were held back in development. Having "no apparent system" was the plan to confuse opponents. The defensive coaching was horrible that last few seasons and even though it was the elephant in the room it was ignored. Going for it last year and trying to placate the fans after all the confusing hockey was a mistake. MM did finally make the proper hiring decisions. I just hope Jussi has input in the way the team drafts players and not interfered with as far as running the bench. Hope they stick to a solid plan going forward. Lot of amateur cooks in the kitchen behind the Rangers scenes that have had too much input over time. Just my two cents. That's after inflation.

 

[MediaCritic]

What’s unfortunate was MM’s decision last year to go all in. That 22-23 Ranger team wasn’t going deep in the post season. Sure there was the Windsor series, but reality set in vs London.

Many on here, including myself, promoted a sell off.

But never mind sell, had we simply stood pat last year, or in other words, not completed the Moore, Arcuri, and Zhilkin trades, we’d have an extra 5 x 2nds, 7 x 3rds, a 4th, and a 5th in the bank to go with what we currently have now.
Today, give or take, we’d be sitting at:
6 x 2nds
8 x 3rds
4 x 4ths
Over the next four years.

Had we that overflowing draft cupboard today, we would be in the same boat as Missy. A young team getting better ahead of schedule. We wouldn’t need to be looking to sell Rehkopf this year. We could stand pat with our current overagers. Maybe we do some sort of Brzustewicz trade that mirrors the Guelph / Sarnia trade from last year where Guelph sold Pastujov but for a high end return in Namestnikov, a year younger, that helped them last year and is huge for them this year - plus picks.

And had we sold a couple graduating ‘03’s, say just Pinelli and Schmidt, it’s dizzying how the draft cupboard would look today.

Hindsight makes us all smarter though, right? There was certainly a case for not buying last year with an 8th place team. Then again, maybe the philosophical opinion in the organization is that you go for it when your window opens and the Rangers had the right mix of veterans last year to have that open window. It just never came together.

While it's unlikely that this years team remains in first place, that's where they are now and you want a hard sell. You didn't want an 8th place team to buy and now you want a 1st place team to sell. Isn't that kind of like sucking and blowing at the same time? The thing to remember is that draft picks are just currency. You can't possibly put them all into your line-up. So, are you projecting that this year's crop is going to need a lot of additional support when their window opens? Or will they just need a tweak? If it's only going to require a tweak how many draft picks do you need to acquire the pieces? Also, if you go with a hard sell and trade Rehkopf this year how much do you lose from taking away this teams chances to win? I don't think you can overlook the value in winning games and the confidence that comes with it. Maybe building a culture of winning this season is also worthwhile.

If London is the standard then you have to look at how many times they've gone out for big splashes at the deadline, or traded away multiple vets in an off year. It doesn't happen a lot. Maybe this is the start of the Rangers being consistently good with only tweaks needed in go for it years instead of wholesale changes.

I wouldn't be in a hurry to move a lot of guys out this year.

 

[EvenSteven]

Hindsight makes us all smarter though, right? There was certainly a case for not buying last year with an 8th place team. Then again, maybe the philosophical opinion in the organization is that you go for it when your window opens and the Rangers had the right mix of veterans last year to have that open window. It just never came together.

While it's unlikely that this years team remains in first place, that's where they are now and you want a hard sell. You didn't want an 8th place team to buy and now you want a 1st place team to sell. Isn't that kind of like sucking and blowing at the same time? The thing to remember is that draft picks are just currency. You can't possibly put them all into your line-up. So, are you projecting that this year's crop is going to need a lot of additional support when their window opens? Or will they just need a tweak? If it's only going to require a tweak how many draft picks do you need to acquire the pieces? Also, if you go with a hard sell and trade Rehkopf this year how much do you lose from taking away this teams chances to win? I don't think you can overlook the value in winning games and the confidence that comes with it. Maybe building a culture of winning this season is also worthwhile.

If London is the standard then you have to look at how many times they've gone out for big splashes at the deadline, or traded away multiple vets in an off year. It doesn't happen a lot. Maybe this is the start of the Rangers being consistently good with only tweaks needed in go for it years instead of wholesale changes.

I wouldn't be in a hurry to move a lot of guys out this year.

A Windsor fan may look at how their season ended and say they shouldn’t have gone all in. That would be hindsight. They were a 1st place team and they were a lock to go deep. Going all in was logical. Different story in Kitchener. Turmoil on the team. Coaching change that really didn’t turn our fortunes. Spent the season near the bottom of the conference. Vets not having as good a season as expected. It was evident that we shouldn’t have gone all in.

This year, we don’t have what it’ll take to win the conference this year and we have an empty cupboard with which to go to war with at the deadline if we chose to contend. Not sucking and blowing at the same time. Circumstances are different. If you’ve been reading my recent posts, you’d see that if we had a full cupboard, maybe we don’t sell everyone off. But our cupboard is empty.

If we don’t sell, we won’t have the draft capitol to bring in multiple quality ‘08’s and ‘09’s in the next couple drafts. Then where will that leave us when the ‘07’s are 18 and 19? A good group of ‘07’s without and good supporting cast.

 

[Ward Cornell]

A Windsor fan may look at how their season ended and say they shouldn’t have gone all in. That would be hindsight. They were a 1st place team and they were a lock to go deep. Going all in was logical. Different story in Kitchener. Turmoil on the team. Coaching change that really didn’t turn our fortunes. Spent the season near the bottom of the conference. Vets not having as good a season as expected. It was evident that we shouldn’t have gone all in.

This year, we don’t have what it’ll take to win the conference this year and we have an empty cupboard with which to go to war with at the deadline if we chose to contend. Not sucking and blowing at the same time. Circumstances are different. If you’ve been reading my recent posts, you’d see that if we had a full cupboard, maybe we don’t sell everyone off. But our cupboard is empty.

If we don’t sell, we won’t have the draft capitol to bring in multiple quality ‘08’s and ‘09’s in the next couple drafts. Then where will that leave us when the ‘07’s are 18 and 19? A good group of ‘07’s without and good supporting cast.

A contending team usually will buy to fill a missing piece or strengthen a weakness. An 8th place team doesn't trade to try to become a contender.

There's no hindsight with you and many others on here. We were in the sell mode 3 months into the season.

 

[bobber]

A contending team usually will buy to fill a missing piece or strengthen a weakness. An 8th place team doesn't trade to try to become a contender.

There's no hindsight with you and many others on here. We were in the sell mode 3 months into the season.

There is no magic formula that will win any team a championship. Some teams are relatively successful most years with excellent coaching and scouting. Still championships elude them most seasons. A franchise can put together a massively skilled line up and a hot goalie can kill their momentum in a play off series. As for me I just want to enjoy this winning attitude the team seems to be going through for as long as possible. This team has character seems to have really bonded.

 

[GeoBlue]

There is no magic formula that will win any team a championship. Some teams are relatively successful most years with excellent coaching and scouting. Still championships elude them most seasons. A franchise can put together a massively skilled line up and a hot goalie can kill their momentum in a play off series.

As I have always said, "A successful team only needs to win one game........the last one of year."

 

[MediaCritic]

A Windsor fan may look at how their season ended and say they shouldn’t have gone all in. That would be hindsight. They were a 1st place team and they were a lock to go deep. Going all in was logical. Different story in Kitchener. Turmoil on the team. Coaching change that really didn’t turn our fortunes. Spent the season near the bottom of the conference. Vets not having as good a season as expected. It was evident that we shouldn’t have gone all in.

This year, we don’t have what it’ll take to win the conference this year and we have an empty cupboard with which to go to war with at the deadline if we chose to contend. Not sucking and blowing at the same time. Circumstances are different. If you’ve been reading my recent posts, you’d see that if we had a full cupboard, maybe we don’t sell everyone off. But our cupboard is empty.

If we don’t sell, we won’t have the draft capitol to bring in multiple quality ‘08’s and ‘09’s in the next couple drafts. Then where will that leave us when the ‘07’s are 18 and 19? A good group of ‘07’s without and good supporting cast.

You wanted the 8th place team to sell and you also want the 1st place team to sell. Is that just sucking and sucking or blowing and blowing then? I'm just saying it's not consistent. And again, you can only play so many 08's and 09's next year and the year after to integrate them into your line-up. How much "draft capital" do you need? The plan you're promoting seems a little aggressive to me, while taking the knees out of the current team. I think a more measured approach is possible. I think you also might be forgetting the impact of the last chance the Rangers had a chance to "sell." The year that came up was the year that the entire season got cancelled. That certainly left a few bits of draft capital behind.

 

[Coaches Coroner]

Things must be going well this year because we're digging up the beat-to-death-horse of last season to have something to complain about. For me personally, having spent an entire year doing that, I can't imagine relitigating it over and over this season when we finally have what looks like the foundation to move this organization in the right direction.

 

[EvenSteven]

You wanted the 8th place team to sell and you also want the 1st place team to sell. Is that just sucking and sucking or blowing and blowing then? I'm just saying it's not consistent. And again, you can only play so many 08's and 09's next year and the year after to integrate them into your line-up. How much "draft capital" do you need? The plan you're promoting seems a little aggressive to me, while taking the knees out of the current team. I think a more measured approach is possible. I think you also might be forgetting the impact of the last chance the Rangers had a chance to "sell." The year that came up was the year that the entire season got cancelled. That certainly left a few bits of draft capital behind.

I wanted the 8th place team to sell because we weren’t good enough to contend. Our bad ‘21 draft of ‘04’s was a big reason for the lack of quality depth you need.

This year’s team has had a relatively light schedule so far. Of the teams slated to be the top five teams in conference, we’ve only played Owen Sound and Saginaw and vs them, have a losing record : 2-5. Add in the loss vs the top team in the east Missy, and we’re 2-6 vs higher end teams in the league. It’s not a reach to expect us to fall down the standing somewhat once the schedule gets tougher.

With an empty cupboard, that means the pressure will be on to sell.

You’re right. You can only play so many of your draft picks. But that’s as 16 year olds. We can ice four. But the more picks we have in the top three rounds allows those four to be of better quality. In order to get there, we need to sell to accumulate those picks. The problem with a soft sell this year is that the quality of movable assets goes down after this year. We’ll get less for Rehkopf next year than this year. We aren’t contending next year where we’ll be even younger than we are this year. No reason to hang onto Rehkropf this if if there’s a massive deal on the table for him.

You are very right about how this team was shafted by the Covid crap.

Not only did we go all in on the season that was cut short (Serron Noel trade), we lost the opportunity to move one of the best D in the league (Micheal Vukojevic) the following year due to the cancellation of the season. Then, the ruling that allowed certain players to play AHL at 19 took away our opportunity to move Sebrango as well. As a WJC player, selling him off along with Xhekaj would have set us up nice going forward.

 

[OHL4Life]

What happened last season was all on MM. He made the decision to hire Dennis. Players were held back in development. Having "no apparent system" was the plan to confuse opponents. The defensive coaching was horrible that last few seasons and even though it was the elephant in the room it was ignored. Going for it last year and trying to placate the fans after all the confusing hockey was a mistake. MM did finally make the proper hiring decisions. I just hope Jussi has input in the way the team drafts players and not interfered with as far as running the bench. Hope they stick to a solid plan going forward. Lot of amateur cooks in the kitchen behind the Rangers scenes that have had too much input over time. Just my two cents. That's after inflation.

dennis is very well connected to birch, not sure that mckenzie made that decision without some hard pushing.

 

[bobber]

dennis is very well connected to birch, not sure that mckenzie made that decision without some hard pushing.

As a poster above says it's all under the bridge now. None of us armchair GMs really know what goes on behind the scenes in the OHL. At the very least I sure don't. Happy with the last draft and the direction the team is going at the moment.

 

[Krangers08]

Team has been fortunate with one of the easiest schedules to start, but starts to pick up this month with London, Soo, owensound (2) and Guelph . January might be a nightmare for this team. They will play Saginaw Sudbury, Ottawa, Oshawa, Erie, NB, Soo, London, Guelph