Kitchener Rangers 2023-24 Season Thread (Part One)

[Krangers08]

Should be an entertaining game today, the only downside is that we’re stuck listening to Sloan. If we can escape without injury and suspension I’d consider it a success

yikes

 

[frontsfan67]

View attachment 763592yikes

Ya jynxed it

 

[Krangers08]

Ya jynxed it

Yea I’ll take full blame

 

[blkhawk]

So f***in dirty and they bitch about penalties
They get a lot but could be at least double

 

[TheBlueMonster]

Well, I am officially off the full sell train.

I am not fully committed to buying but I can't sit here and say this team should sell. These guys have bought in and deserve to continue as things are.

Anytime you can beat the Knights in London, is a solid day.

 

[Tim Wallach]

Worried about the Martin injury. He’s a big piece and that didn’t look good.

Also, not one to complain too much about the refs or opponents but man London was dirty tonight. After every whistle.

 

[Krangers08]

 

[bobber]

Worried about the Martin injury. He’s a big piece and that didn’t look good.

Also, not one to complain too much about the refs or opponents but man London was dirty tonight. After every whistle.

Hunter hockey.

Well, I am officially off the full sell train.

I am not fully committed to buying but I can't sit here and say this team should sell. These guys have bought in and deserve to continue as things are.

Anytime you can beat the Knights in London, is a solid day.

These players believe in themselves and have a hell of a thing going. They beat two top teams in a row.

 

[Millpond]

View attachment 763638

'Toohotforhockey'

 

[EvenSteven]

Well, I am officially off the full sell train.

I am not fully committed to buying but I can't sit here and say this team should sell. These guys have bought in and deserve to continue as things are.

Anytime you can beat the Knights in London, is a solid day.

Good thing you’re not committed to buying, because we have nothing to buy with.

2nd. 3rd. 3x4ths. That’s it.

 

[Ward Cornell]

Geesch, half the talent of last yrs team with double the success.
The structure/systems with the players adherring to it is a breathe of fresh air. I've seen more clean breakouts with tape to tape passes in tonight's game than the entire last season. But not sure we should read too much in this win with the Knights playing the last game of a 3 in 3...I still think the Rangers would still have won this game.
Also need to compliment the players for not being suckered into penalties with the scrums after the whistle. Past yrs it seemed a player would retaliate that would negate a Ranger power play.

There is no real clear favourite this yr and with it being a host yr there should be a real arms race this yr. I'm still in corner of a sell but geesch what a decision.

 

[OhSheilaa]

Another gem of a game. Jussi, Jeff and Brad have made a HUGE difference. This team is relentless, they play as a team and they work their butts off.

The frustrated the heck out of the Knights in their arena. It was a thing of beauty.

The usual Hunter influenced after the whistle BS from them and the dives.

Their cheap shotting has to stop.

I hope Martin is okay, he's been a beast so far

What great hockey we've been treated to. I hope we get over 7,000 on Friday when the Petes come to town. HUGE test there.

 

[Krangers08]

Another gem of a game. Jussi, Jeff and Brad have made a HUGE difference. This team is relentless, they play as a team and they work their butts off.

The frustrated the heck out of the Knights in their arena. It was a thing of beauty.

The usual Hunter influenced after the whistle BS from them and the dives.

Their cheap shotting has to stop.

I hope Martin is okay, he's been a beast so far

What great hockey we've been treated to. I hope we get over 7,000 on Friday when the Petes come to town. HUGE test there.

Remembrance game usually have a solid turnout. The Sunday crowd should be a big one. Half the crowd will be from Elmira for Martin

 

[Tryblot]

Watched the game from a london fans pov and really hated (enjoyed) 91s game. Scores two goals and mouths off all game. Great game from him.

 

[RangerNation]

I had 2 wants from this team. Figure out 3rd periods and win a big game on the road. That's as big a game as any. Always nice to get a win at the Bud. National recognition this week? Man I would hate to be MM right now. I have no idea what he should do.

 

[EvenSteven]

Watched the game from a london fans pov and really hated (enjoyed) 91s game. Scores two goals and mouths off all game. Great game from him.

And he was $$ on the faceoffs.

I had 2 wants from this team. Figure out 3rd periods and win a big game on the road. That's as big a game as any. Always nice to get a win at the Bud. National recognition this week? Man I would hate to be MM right now. I have no idea what he should do.

I hope he makes better decisions than he did at the last deadline.

 

[EvenSteven]

Worried about the Martin injury. He’s a big piece and that didn’t look good.

Also, not one to complain too much about the refs or opponents but man London was dirty tonight. After every whistle.

Didn’t see Martin’s injury. Any idea what it was? Upper? Lower?

 

[RB76]

Based on past Championship contending teams, we might need something like the following in 2026-27:
3 x 2006’s (Elinas/ Campbell/?)
7/8 x 2007’s (Reid/Lam/Romano/ Stark/ McNeil/?/?/?)
5/6 x 2008’s
3/4 x 2009’s
1/2 x 2010’s
We’re gonna need to have another good couple of drafts and trades to get there.

 

[Section5Petes]

Another gem of a game. Jussi, Jeff and Brad have made a HUGE difference. This team is relentless, they play as a team and they work their butts off.

The frustrated the heck out of the Knights in their arena. It was a thing of beauty.

The usual Hunter influenced after the whistle BS from them and the dives.

Their cheap shotting has to stop.

I hope Martin is okay, he's been a beast so far

What great hockey we've been treated to. I hope we get over 7,000 on Friday when the Petes come to town. HUGE test there.

Petes-Rangers Friday at the aud is gonna be a very very big one, really looking forward to that

Even though Petes play Thursday, have to imagine Liam Sztuska goes back to back for both games.

 

[Krangers08]

Didn’t see Martin’s injury. Any idea what it was? Upper? Lower?

Lower. Took a 2 hand to back of the leg behind the play.

 

[EvenSteven]

Man I would hate to be MM right now. I have no idea what he should do.

What should he do? His choices are:

Buy.
Stand pat.
Mild sell.
Fire sale.

Those are the choices.

Buy.
We can’t. No picks to deal thanks to last year’s ill-advised buying spree. With a virtually empty draft cupboard, teams will want Reid and Romano in any deal for elite additions. I don’t think we want to go there.

Stand pat.
Maybe gets us to the 2nd round once the contenders go all in. Guelph and Saginaw have draft cupboards to make multiple significant additions. The Soo, Owen Sound and London have less in the cupboard, but still more than us. All five teams will get better I think.

Mild sell.
Satisfies the fan base who want to see this team still be fairly competitive while somewhat restocking the draft cupboard and adding a young player or two.

Fire sale.
Attempt to sell as many graduating pieces as possible. Likely means a 1st round exit if we don’t fall out of the playoff picture altogether. But would add very good young players and complete a healthy restocking the draft cupboard setting up our future for years to come.

Personally, I’m a huge fire sale guy. That being said, I wouldn’t lose sleep if we decided to do a mild sell. But only if the mild sell meant selling our two biggest pieces that would bring the most in return. Brzustewicz and Rehkropf.

Based on past Championship contending teams, we might need something like the following in 2026-27:
3 x 2006’s (Elinas/ Campbell/?)
7/8 x 2007’s (Reid/Lam/Romano/ Stark/ McNeil/?/?/?)
5/6 x 2008’s
3/4 x 2009’s
1/2 x 2010’s
We’re gonna need to have another good couple of drafts and trades to get there.

To get there, we have to accumulate 2nds and 3rds over the next three drafts. There’s only one way to do that.

 

[frontsfan67]

What should he do? His choices are:

Buy.
Stand pat.
Mild sell.
Fire sale.

Those are the choices.

Buy.
We can’t. No picks to deal thanks to last year’s ill-advised buying spree. With a virtually empty draft cupboard, teams will want Reid and Romano in any deal for elite additions. I don’t think we want to go there.

Stand pat.
Maybe gets us to the 2nd round once the contenders go all in. Guelph and Saginaw have draft cupboards to make multiple significant additions. The Soo, Owen Sound and London have less in the cupboard, but still more than us. All five teams will get better I think.

Mild sell.
Satisfies the fan base who want to see this team still be fairly competitive while somewhat restocking the draft cupboard and adding a young player or two.

Fire sale.
Attempt to sell as many graduating pieces as possible. Likely means a 1st round exit if we don’t fall out of the playoff picture altogether. But would add very good young players and complete a healthy restocking the draft cupboard setting up our future for years to come.

Personally, I’m a huge fire sale guy. That being said, I wouldn’t lose sleep if we decided to do a mild sell. But only if the mild sell meant selling our two biggest pieces that would bring the most in return. Brzustewicz and Rehkropf.

If I was you guys with all your top players really performing on the offensive end I agree I would go fire sale. Leave the big fishes (Rehkopf, Brzustewicz) around WJC time but guys like Sop, Misaljevic, and Martin would trade whenever possible because they’d likely get the biggest return of the year right around now with how they’ve performed thus far.

Highly doubt Misaljevic for instance will keep this up the until Christmas.

 

[Smithsy]

Well, I am officially off the full sell train.

I am not fully committed to buying but I can't sit here and say this team should sell. These guys have bought in and deserve to continue as things are.

Anytime you can beat the Knights in London, is a solid day.

I know traditional OHL logic say this is a sell year but this team deserves a chance to go for it. The last Blue Jays game this year comes to mind.....the stats and analytics said to take Berrios out of that game, but sometimes you have to go on feeling and the eye test rather than "traditional" thinking. There seems to be something real here with this Kitchener team this year.

 

[Habsrule]

Mark me down for the mild sell category.

Brzustewicz’s return should include three 2nds and two 3rds. That would restock the draft draft picks quite nicely.

Sell on the overagers as upgraded to other teams. I don’t think Motew has a lot of value but teams would be inquiring about Martin and Sop. Think of the trades where Kitchener traded Xhekaj or traded for Moore. Rangers would get a lesser OA back in return plus picks.

I would do one sort of surprise sell. Swick or Miseljevic. Both are 19 year olds and both should be back for their OA season. Swick has size that any playoff team would covet and Miseljevic has offence that any team would love to add in their top six. I think they could get a pretty solid return on either of them.

Keep Rehkopf and sell him next year. He is a star they can market around. I would be happy trading him for the long term play with the return he would get but I understand why the Rangers would want to keep him around.

 

[EvenSteven]

Mark me down for the mild sell category.

Brzustewicz’s return should include three 2nds and two 3rds. That would restock the draft draft picks quite nicely.

Sell on the overagers as upgraded to other teams. I don’t think Motew has a lot of value but teams would be inquiring about Martin and Sop. Think of the trades where Kitchener traded Xhekaj or traded for Moore. Rangers would get a lesser OA back in return plus picks.

I would do one sort of surprise sell. Swick or Miseljevic. Both are 19 year olds and both should be back for their OA season. Swick has size that any playoff team would covet and Miseljevic has offence that any team would love to add in their top six. I think they could get a pretty solid return on either of them.

Keep Rehkopf and sell him next year. He is a star they can market around. I would be happy trading him for the long term play with the return he would get but I understand why the Rangers would want to keep him around.

On a mild sell, obviously, Hunter B is on the table.

But after that, I’m split on moving a combination of Sop and Martin and maybe one of Swick and Miseljevic as you suggest, over moving Rehkopf.

I feel moving Rehkopf this year brings us a 16 year old 1st rounder plus 2x 2nds and 2x3rds minimum but likely more. Owen Beck deal at least but maybe more.

Sell him next year and he would bring minimum 2x2nds and 3x3rds.

But, if we keep him, and he continues at this scoring pace, goal a game right now, say finishes the year with 60+ goals, we could lose him to the Kraken next year and get nothing for him. What if he lights it up at Kraken camp next year and makes it impossible for them to send him back? We thought Skinner was coming back. Rehkopf will be a year older than he was. Guelph is wondering if Poitras will be sent back. Did they see that coming? There’s an amount of risk with keeping Rehkopf considering the year he’s having.

If we keep him, and are successful in moving Martin, Sop, and one of Swick / Miseljevic, will the return those three bring match the return that selling Rehkopf this year would bring? A 16 year old 1st rounder would be huge to add to the other ‘07’s we have in the organization. You don’t get that return by going in the other direction.

Hard to get value for OA’s. I can’t see Xhekaj return (2x2nds. 2x3rds. 4th) for either of Martin or Sop. Xhekaj was a unicorn. I’m thinking the best possible return for these guys is 2nd, 3rd, 8th each?(Lleyton Moore return). Swick or Miseljevic? Would we get a 2nd for either. I’m sceptical. You may be looking at 3rd, 5th at best.

And once you move Brzustewicz, Martin, Sop, and one of Swick / Miseljevic, are we still good enough to be competitive this year? Win a round? I don’t know.