SupersonicMonkey*
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Does Allen play the right side or left side? He's left-handed.
Both sides, i believe.
Edit: Zil beat me to it.
Does Allen play the right side or left side? He's left-handed.
His contract is drool worthy. I think Klein has a fair bit of value if and when we move him.
Sharks fans unanimously agree that Boyle is a shell of himself and on the decline.
I hope he isn't, but the chances of an entire fan base being wrong is slim.
Boyle scored goals on a stacked offensive Sharks team.
The Rangers are paying $2.9mm for a third pair defenseman. He may be the best out there, and is capable of top four minutes on many teams, but it's a lot for a third pair defenseman and an insurance policy when you've spent as much as the Rangers have on many other individuals.
I watched a lot of Sharks games this year, mostly due to proximity (they're sort of my adopted 2nd team, although being there in person for the 9-2 loss put a bit of a damper on that).
There's no question that for the bulk of this year - Boyle looked slow, old, and confused. He was single-handedly responsible for a ton of odd-man rushes - his ability to turn and catch speedy forwards pushing the puck past him at the offensive blue line was at times worse than watching Richards try to the do the same on our PP.
That said, I really believe a big portion of it was the concussion, and coming back too early. He improved late on in the season, and was decent early-on. His ability to make plays happen in the offensive zone never went away - stickhandling while walking the line, finding lanes and getting pucks to the net was always on, and significantly better than any Rangers d-man (consistently - McD had a few moments of brilliance, but it wasn't his raison d'etre).
Don't get me wrong - Sharks fans are absolutely right about how god-awful he was for stretches this year, but as long as he gets his conditioning back over the summer (no-one can lose *that* much of a step in a few months), he'll be a good player for us. Absolutely no-one on the Rangers D can do what he can potentially do when he's on his game - I just hope he has the legs for it.
Got no problem paying Klein 2.9 to play 3rd pair. Defense and goaltending has been our strength for awhile. I'm fine with it.
Valid on the $2.9. But for all we know, the team may have looked at what they had to do in re-signings this off-season and maybe they planned on moving Klein top 4 this coming season. Klein did average 19-21 mins a game the past 5 seasons in Nashville, so it's not insane to think they may have pegged him for a top 4 spot in looking at what was likely to happen this off-season. Who knows, but not entirely far fetched.
I really do like Dan Boyle. In fact, he's one of those players that you can't be mad about signing because it's just cool seeing him in a Rangers sweater.
He needs to step up his ES play, though, if our 2nd pairing is gonna be close to as good as it was last year. It's that simple.
I really do like Dan Boyle. In fact, he's one of those players that you can't be mad about signing because it's just cool seeing him in a Rangers sweater.
He needs to step up his ES play, though, if our 2nd pairing is gonna be close to as good as it was last year. It's that simple.
Kleins contract is very good. I consider him a 2nd pair D, but even of I didn't, I don't know what you guys think good veteran 3rd pair D cost. It's not $1.5m.
Besides, we have a very cheap defense. ~$24m for that group is fantastic.
I was at work when I made this point, but now I'm home and I'd like to reinforce it.
Klein would be the 5th+ highest paid defenseman on 8 teams.
He would be 4th on 13 teams. Those teams are Bos, LA, NJ, Van, Dal, Det, Col, Ari, Edm, Mtl, Clb, Buf, and Ott. With the exception of Boston and LA, not a single one of those teams has a better D group than we do. On those two teams are guys who only are getting paid small amounts because of their age/status. Hamilton and Muzzin will both be making more than $3m at Klein's age. Similar stories are true for many of the teams in this group. Those are just the ones worth pointing out.
When do the salaries of the other four look like in those teams? The Rangers spend a lot on defense and goaltending.
So the defense going into the season is:
McDonagh-Girardi
Staal-Boyle
Moore-Klein
Kostka?
Allen?
I would think it's doubtful they carry Allen as a 7th. They need him to play.
Boyle just did a conference call with the media. Here's the quote I found the most interesting.
@HartnettHockey: D.Boyle said he had a rough 3 months due to concussion. Boyle: "A lot of people said it was the age factor. I don't buy that for a second."