Kitchener Rangers 2024-25 Season Thread, Part I

[Jives]

if we were hoping to trade Swick for Picks, then we now have a free player plus the picks we can get in a trade.....could be a good move if you look at things that way.

“Could be” hopefully that’s what he does. We have a bunch load of players. We can easily trade Swick, Misa, Ando and Parsons are still ice a competitive team.

Pridham - Romano - weak OA
Stark - Ellinas - Lam
Arquette - Headrick - Bottineau
Anstis - Labrash - Hlacar
Ex Grisolia, Vermeulen, Mercer, Cameron (if needed)

Reid - Chromiak
Campbell - Max
Bilecki - MacNeil
Ex Schneider

Weaker OA goalie
Schaubel

Still a weak OA spot available if needed but I’m fine with only using 2 OAs. I’d also trade Vermeulen and Mercer to give the kids more ice. This gives us only 1F sitting per game and Cameron ready for emergency call ups.

 

[All the Answers]

I'm not really concerned with Bottineau being here as an OA, because I don't forsee him being a good enough one in a mem cup run, therefore if the goal is to still be competitive Vermeulen, Mercer, and Griz all have more value (Mercer solely as a face-off guy).

 

[Jives]

I'm not really concerned with Bottineau being here as an OA, because I don't forsee him being a good enough one in a mem cup run, therefore if the goal is to still be competitive Vermeulen, Mercer, and Griz all have more value (Mercer solely as a face-off guy).

I would agree. I just don’t see Bott having any trade value which is why I left him on. To be honest any 2 of the 4 you mentioned to be traded I’d be happy with.

Arquette now back
Pridham added
Anstis and Headrick coming back still

Something has to give shortly or you are going to have a bunch of pissed off players. 17F once Anstis and Headrick back. 15F currently healthy. 3 healthy players will be sitting the next game is Pridham is here (no official announcement yet).

 

[All the Answers]

Send the 16 yo kids to B affiliates and get them lots of minutes, at least until bodies are moved. Give them some confidence. Don't think at this time any of them move the needle on this squad one way or the other. Been impressed with the 16 yo blueliners, but afraid Antsis and Headrick will be playing catch up too much with time already missed..practice squad does wonders.

 

[EvenSteven]

“Could be” hopefully that’s what he does. We have a bunch load of players. We can easily trade Swick, Misa, Ando and Parsons are still ice a competitive team.

Pridham - Romano - weak OA
Stark - Ellinas - Lam
Arquette - Headrick - Bottineau
Anstis - Labrash - Hlacar
Ex Grisolia, Vermeulen, Mercer, Cameron (if needed)

Reid - Chromiak
Campbell - Max
Bilecki - MacNeil
Ex Schneider

Weaker OA goalie
Schaubel

Still a weak OA spot available if needed but I’m fine with only using 2 OAs. I’d also trade Vermeulen and Mercer to give the kids more ice. This gives us only 1F sitting per game and Cameron ready for emergency call ups.

Send the 16 yo kids to B affiliates and get them lots of minutes, at least until bodies are moved. Give them some confidence. Don't think at this time any of them move the needle on this squad one way or the other. Been impressed with the 16 yo blueliners, but afraid Antsis and Headrick will be playing catch up too much with time already missed..practice squad does wonders.

Trade Ando and leave the rest of the D as is. Revisit only if a flyer D reports this year.

Up front, Swick likely holds more trade value as an OA than Miseljevic based on unique size. Proven power forward that can score vs small forward who had a sketchy 2nd half last year.

Championship winning goaltenders have gone for cheap over the last couple years. There’s no indication anybody would pay a ton for Parsons. I would surmise that he’d be more valuable playing out the string here as a Ranger then getting a light return for him at the deadline. Of course I listen to offers. If someone runs into injury problems, and wants to give us fair value, then I entertain it.

So:
Trade Ando, Swick and maybe a bubble 05 to make room for youth and call it a day at the deadline.

What you’re suggesting is a complete dismantling. I doubt we get fair value for all three OA’s.

So by keeping Miseljevic helps insulate the forward group. Keeping Parsons helps insulate the remaining D once Ando is moved.

I would not discount placing Headrick at Junior B for the rest of the season. Sure he is a first rounder, but we took Meireles in the first round a few years ago, and he played his 16-year-old season at a lower level. Turned into a fine Ranger. Leave Cameron there as well. As an American, I don’t think Anstis can be used at junior B. So we fit him into the lineup when we can.

 

[Straightshot2424]

WHERE DID LEBRASH PLAY LAST YEAR ? HE STRUGGLES WHY KEEP HIM IN LINE UP OVER THE OTHERS ON THE ROSTER OR THE ONES THAT ARENT I DONT SEE HIS ADVANTAGE OVER ONY OF THE OTHERS UNLESS THERES A MAGICAL FORMULA I AM MISSSING

 

[Fastpace]

Been saying all summer along the Rangers were going to be better than most thought, I am a Knights fan, but do pay attention to all players around the league and how they do progresses. Kitchener kept my eyes and my mind busy, from all the talents I was seeing coming up their ranks and how well this team have drafted the last two drafting seasons. They are good now, but what is terrifying from this Knights fan view is, what this Rangers team are going to do for the next two seasons after. Cheers!

 

[Jives]

WHERE DID LEBRASH PLAY LAST YEAR ? HE STRUGGLES WHY KEEP HIM IN LINE UP OVER THE OTHERS ON THE ROSTER OR THE ONES THAT ARENT I DONT SEE HIS ADVANTAGE OVER ONY OF THE OTHERS UNLESS THERES A MAGICAL FORMULA I AM MISSSING

Labrash is a 6’5” center. He is already a decent defensive center. He is a 2007. He has 2 years to improve and get used to his big tall frame. Players this tall (think Swick and Yantsis) take longer to develop than a 5’10” player. At worst he will be a VERY solid 4th line center for mem cup year. I’m all for keeping Labrash….he will only get better and fits in perfect with our time line

 

[Ward Cornell]

Been saying all summer along the Rangers were going to be better than most thought, I am a Knights fan, but do pay attention to all players around the league and how they do progresses. Kitchener kept my eyes and my mind busy, from all the talents I was seeing coming up their ranks and how well this team have drafted the last two drafting seasons. They are good now, but what is terrifying from this Knights fan view is, what this Rangers team are going to do for the next two seasons after. Cheers!

Thank-you, I suspect this season will play out much like last season. Win one round than maybe lose in 5 games in the second round. But it's all about the growth of the younger players and changing of the "culture" that set in here the last 12 or so seasons!
Next season should be more than interesting if even we get half of McKenzies's flyer picks do show up!

 

[RangerNation]

WHERE DID LEBRASH PLAY LAST YEAR ? HE STRUGGLES WHY KEEP HIM IN LINE UP OVER THE OTHERS ON THE ROSTER OR THE ONES THAT ARENT I DONT SEE HIS ADVANTAGE OVER ONY OF THE OTHERS UNLESS THERES A MAGICAL FORMULA I AM MISSSING

The game I watched last Friday, he had about 6 hits and 5 shots on net. Compliments Arquette well. Why are we yelling?

 

[Fastpace]

Thank-you, I suspect this season will play out much like last season. Win one round than maybe lose in 5 games in the second round. But it's all about the growth of the younger players and changing of the "culture" that set in here the last 12 or so seasons!
Next season should be more than interesting if even half of McKenzies's flyer picks do show up!

Oh, I think you will do much better than last season, last season your young players relied on older talented players, and they were in for the learning ride, not so this season, yes they are young, but extremely talented. This year, they can only get better as the season progress, they don't need to ride the learning ship, they have to swim or sink, from what we've seen so far, they are excellent swimmers

 

[bobber]

WHERE DID LEBRASH PLAY LAST YEAR ? HE STRUGGLES WHY KEEP HIM IN LINE UP OVER THE OTHERS ON THE ROSTER OR THE ONES THAT ARENT I DONT SEE HIS ADVANTAGE OVER ONY OF THE OTHERS UNLESS THERES A MAGICAL FORMULA I AM MISSSING

Glad you are not scouting for the Rangers Straightshot.

 

[Gondrex]

Trade Ando and leave the rest of the D as is. Revisit only if a flyer D reports this year.

Up front, Swick likely holds more trade value as an OA than Miseljevic based on unique size. Proven power forward that can score vs small forward who had a sketchy 2nd half last year.

Championship winning goaltenders have gone for cheap over the last couple years. There’s no indication anybody would pay a ton for Parsons. I would surmise that he’d be more valuable playing out the string here as a Ranger then getting a light return for him at the deadline. Of course I listen to offers. If someone runs into injury problems, and wants to give us fair value, then I entertain it.

So:
Trade Ando, Swick and maybe a bubble 05 to make room for youth and call it a day at the deadline.

What you’re suggesting is a complete dismantling. I doubt we get fair value for all three OA’s.

So by keeping Miseljevic helps insulate the forward group. Keeping Parsons helps insulate the remaining D once Ando is moved.

I would not discount placing Headrick at Junior B for the rest of the season. Sure he is a first rounder, but we took Meireles in the first round a few years ago, and he played his 16-year-old season at a lower level. Turned into a fine Ranger. Leave Cameron there as well. As an American, I don’t think Anstis can be used at junior B. So we fit him into the lineup when we can.

Agree on the Swick and Andonovski comments. There are going to be plenty of teams selling at the deadline. To get any significant return for a given player, that player needs to have some desirable attributes that sets them apart from others. I personally believe Andonovski and Swick both do.

Miseljevic’s category will have plenty of company if he were to be put on the block IMO.

And OA goalies aren’t that easy to trade. I would think that Brampton could be considering a reliable backup if things keep going south for the team. However I gotta think they traded Leenders with the view that they could always get that cheap backup if required…..and it might not even necessarily be Parsons. There are others out there. We mentioned some names before…guys like MacKenzie (Ottawa)- just to mention one off the top.

If Pridham displaces one of the present ‘05’s or ‘06’s, I wouldn’t be surprised if there would be no interest from other teams….maybe Peterborough looking for a cheap lower level player to add some veteran presence to a team that I feel actually deserves the “young” label. Otherwise likely released to play at a lower level of junior if I were to guess.

We’ll see.

 

[SFC]

WHERE DID LEBRASH PLAY LAST YEAR ? HE STRUGGLES WHY KEEP HIM IN LINE UP OVER THE OTHERS ON THE ROSTER OR THE ONES THAT ARENT I DONT SEE HIS ADVANTAGE OVER ONY OF THE OTHERS UNLESS THERES A MAGICAL FORMULA I AM MISSSING

Mr. President, Truth Social is that way. ->

Unrelated, I just heard about this Landon Sim thing. Two things: 1) It's never OK to insult someone's religion. 2) The Greyhounds absolutely have to enter the arena to Amish Paradise at the next London-SSM game in the Soo.

 

[Habsrule]

My ideal deadline would be to trade Swick and Andonovski for picks. You can never have too many plus teams are always looking for size and physical players for the playoffs. Those players always carry good value.

Then trade for a second import player. The market on imports is usually pretty low at the deadline. Most teams are set. Kitchener doesn’t even need an impactful player but one who could be a productive addition for cheap to offset dealing Swick and Andonovski out.

Then trade Bottineau for any return that you can. At 18 he has really not improved much since last year and is still a fourth line player. Nothing against him but some younger player I would rather give that ice time to.

 

[EastAveRangers]

An outside the box outlook on Adam Valentini. Do the Rangers really want him to report if he plans on leaving for Michigan before the 2027 season? They would have to give the 3 conditional picks (2nd, 3rd, 4th all in 2028) to the Steelheads, which is incredibly valuable ammunition they’re going to need in order to load up talent for that team. Maybe MM wants an agreement that Valentini would sign his NHL-tender after he gets drafted and stay in Kitchener instead of defecting back across the border? Food for thought..

 

[Fastpace]

Mr. President, Truth Social is that way. ->

Unrelated, I just heard about this Landon Sim thing. Two things: 1) It's never OK to insult someone's religion. 2) The Greyhounds absolutely have to enter the arena to Amish Paradise at the next London-SSM game in the Soo.

Does pay back part of religious teaching, I wonder ? I get it, you want to send a big strong message, all in fun at the end, I hope. Cheers!

 

[EvenSteven]

An outside the box outlook on Adam Valentini. Do the Rangers really want him to report if he plans on leaving for Michigan before the 2027 season? They would have to give the 3 conditional picks (2nd, 3rd, 4th all in 2028) to the Steelheads, which is incredibly valuable ammunition they’re going to need in order to load up talent for that team. Maybe MM wants an agreement that Valentini would sign his NHL-tender after he gets drafted and stay in Kitchener instead of defecting back across the border? Food for thought..

100% the Rangers want him to report. They don’t make the trade otherwise.

Big picture. Valentini will be NHL drafted at the end of next season. Likely 1st round. By then he’ll be a pro player 1st and education likely takes a back seat.

I doubt that whoever drafts him, will urge him to go NCAA when a pro type season, long playoff run and possible Memorial Cup is the alternative in his draft + 1 season.

2nd, 3rd, and 4th, all in 2028, will be a huge steal for this player the minute he reports.