Speculation: Roster Building Thread: New Season Edition

[JohnC]

The obvious fix to the RW problem is to play the top 2 lines that we know work.

20-93-13
10-16-24

The kid line is killer but I’d rather not watch Jimmy Vesey, Vitali Kravstov, and Sammy Blais fail at being top 6 forwards just to keep them together tyvm.

Play 74-72-91 together and pray that Kravstov decides to play impressive North American hockey for once in his life.

 

[leetch99]

Assume it is a game of chicken and Vesey is holding out for a better offer / trying to leverage the fact that at this point, the NYR kind of need him.

Maybe they are waiting to see who gets claimed and then they put the final touches on a Vesey deal .....I assume he can remain unsigned until opening night and that they might have a verbal deal in place . I think we can survive without Vesey and give the damn kids the ice time until at least the deadline and finally see what we have and do the same with Gauthier as well....keep him . He gets offensive chances.....eventually some of the pucks will go in playing with the right guys every night . When he stops getting those crease crashing chances....get rid of him .

 

[tomobson]

20/93/91
10/16/74
13/72/24

I think it's fine to give these guys some regular season games to see how it works out. It looks like it's what the coaching staff wanting coming into preseason. The top two lines are veteran heavy and they're probably not even giving 50% in these preseason games so it's hard to judge those two lines. The last game was a good one for Blais. Looks like he shaking off the rust well.

 

[RangerBoy]

The Rangers had interest in this player a while ago.

 

[TheDirtyH]

The Rangers had interest in this player a while ago.

If he is waived, this would be a great pick up. Change of scenery project for a kid who would easily be a good #6-7 here right now with the upside to be more. Ofc, he probably wouldn't make it to us. Maybe a swap for Gauthier?

 

[RangerBoy]

If he is waived, this would be a great pick up. Change of scenery project for a kid who would easily be a good #6-7 here right now with the upside to be more. Ofc, he probably wouldn't make it to us. Maybe a swap for Gauthier?

Won't work. Valimaki makes too much money. My fault. I posted without looking at the cap hit.

$1,550,000. Nope. That's a lot for a marginal D.

In this economy.

 

[BobMarleyNYR]

Me so horny, Juuso Valimaki.

 

[bhamill]

Probably, though there is something to be said for permanent, irreversible damage being done.

What, like they permanently damaged his skating somehow? Because that’s the biggest issue, that and apparently being mentally not very tough, in which case sure he may have been gun shy after leaving here, but all the confidence in the world dpesnt make him an NHL skater. And maybe that’s something the scouts should have picked up on.

 

[RangerBoy]

Arthur Staple speculated Drury might acquire a #6D and assign Jones to the AHL. Staple brought up Pierre Oliver Joseph as a possibility. $825,000 cap hit. Signed through 23-24.

Who’s winning the third-pair defense battle?

Judging by how the Rangers have lined up since their camp scrimmages ended it’s Zac Jones’ job to lose. He and Schneider have been paired together for all their preseason work, including Wednesday, which… wasn’t great. Jones handled himself well in Fox’s PP1 spot but that’s not going to be there next week and it’s the same question we posed earlier in camp: Is Jones valuable enough to the Rangers to be a 12-15 minute, no-power play guy on the third pair? So far it seems that it is and he’s ahead of Libor Hajek, but not by much.

Hajek and Matt Bartkowski were a tire fire on Wednesday but it’s easy to see where Gallant might platoon Hajek and Jones early in the season, going with Hajek against a team with bigger forwards and Jones when the Rangers could use a bit of elusiveness.

The big whack of waiver-wire placements is still to come in the next few days, so keep an eye on that — GM Chris Drury certainly will. If there’s someone the Rangers like on there it wouldn’t be a total shock if they made a claim and sent Jones to Hartford for a bit. Jones doesn’t need waivers so if he’s not the clear No. 6 defenseman it does him no good to sit behind Hajek or anyone else that might come in.

The Penguins have reportedly been trying to move P-O Joseph, who was never able to establish himself in Pittsburgh after a good rookie season in 2020-21. If Joseph ends up on waivers perhaps the Rangers see him as an upgrade on what they’ve got.

10 questions, 10 answers as the Rangers' regular season approaches

The stars look like stars, but there are important spots in the lineup that have yet to be solidified.

theathletic.com

When does Jones request a trade if he is sent to the AHL?

 

[bhamill]

Could definitely see a P. Kane deadline trade something along the lines of a 3 team trade. Say for example Arizona

Kane CHI -> ARZ (50% retained)
Future Considerations ARZ -> Chicago

Kane ARZ -> NYR (50% retained)
Julien Gauthier, COL 2023 3rd, DAL 1st 2023, NYR 2nd 2024*, NYR 3rd 2025**, Vitali Kravtsov NYR-> ARZ

DAL 1st 2023, NYR 2nd 2024*, NYR 3rd 2025*, Vitali Kravtsov ARZ-> CHI (fulfills future considerations)
CHI 2023 7th CHI -> ARZ

* - If NYR wins cup 2023, NYR 2024 2nd becomes NYR 2024 1st
** - If Kane resigns with NYR, NYR 3rd 2025 becomes NYR 1st 2023

NYR Gets: Kane at $2.625M
ARZ Gets: Julien Gauthier, COL 2023 3rd, CHI 2023 7th
CHI Gets: Vitali Kravtsov, DAL 1st 2023, NYR 2nd 2024*, NYR 3rd 2025**

NYR get their guy for cup push, at salary that can fit under cap.
ARZ gets 3rd rounder, Gauthier and 7th for retaining $2.625M
CHI gets atleast 1st, 2nd, 3rd and Vitali Kravtsov, with potential for 2-3 1st round picks if conditions are met.

This is awful.

 

[Boris Zubov]

When does Jones request a trade if he is sent to the AHL?

Can we stop trying to will this into existence for every prospect we have that might not be NHL ready at the moment.

 

[irishlaxburger2]

I still like the idea of stealing Stralman from his PTO in Boston

 

[EdJovanovski]

 

[KirkAlbuquerque]

Me so horny, Juuso Valimaki.

guaranteed future elite #1D juuso Valimak??

 

[KirkAlbuquerque]

Krav starting at 5C

 

[irishlaxburger2]

Would rather see both KK and Laf in the top 6, but at this point I guess beggars can't be choosers. 1 is better than 0.

 

[Unusual Suspect]

Gallant a) trying to prove he gave Vesey every possible chance before cutting him in favor of Hunt and b) maybe trying to help showcase him for a deal another team might offer after seeing his preseason. After the predictable Rydahl BS (yeah, yeah, **** the cap), I see no reason to believe anything different will happen with Vesey. But I hope so, he's earned the slot. Why offer the guy a PTO... knowing exactly who he now is, what he's capable of, and who he'd be pushing... and then say "nah, we were just fooling"? Nonetheless.

 

[HatTrick Swayze]

I don't get the fixation on the PP with Jones. He still offers a massive upgrade in the transition game over the other options for his spot. That's still really, really important to creating offense at even strength (which itself is really, really important to winning hockey games).

 

[bleedblue94]

That was my point. I don’t think it’s concussion. That’s why I don’t think it’s a fair analogy. Coming back from head trauma is a different animal.

I believe he was “off” before the injury. The injury made it that much worse in the following season. His entire line being perimeter and floaty was another part of the issue.

And I am not going to be indirectly baited to say if you are right or wrong, but it is weird that you can make to assumption that it was or wasn't a concussion. I am not sure how you can make that assessment either way without knowing.

 

[bleedblue94]

I don't get the fixation on the PP with Jones. He still offers a massive upgrade in the transition game over the other options for his spot. That's still really, really important to creating offense at even strength (which itself is really, really important to winning hockey games).

i think in some ways he is also fox lite, he sees things that some other players dont see or they arent ready for, but fox has a way to do it where he seems to put the puck in areas where even if a player didnt expect it they can react by default. sometimes i watch jones and see him make a play that doesnt work and it looks bad for him but it is a lack of awareness with the player he passed to. defensively he just needs to mature, he needs to play in the nhl now to get that, and there will be bumps in the road but lets go through them now so he is ready for the postseason

 

[GoAwayPanarin]

Arthur Staple speculated Drury might acquire a #6D and assign Jones to the AHL. Staple brought up Pierre Oliver Joseph as a possibility. $825,000 cap hit. Signed through 23-24.

10 questions, 10 answers as the Rangers' regular season approaches

The stars look like stars, but there are important spots in the lineup that have yet to be solidified.

theathletic.com

When does Jones request a trade if he is sent to the AHL?

He should immediately if that happens.

I'm not seeing all of these defensive weaknesses that keep on being harped on when it comes to Jones by our wonderful beat. He's been matched up 1v1 against some pretty good players and when hes been in those situations, hes won EVERY SINGLE ONE to this point.

You can't expect a pairing of players who are 21 and 22 to be letter perfect. You can expect them to get better over time which is more than you can say by picking up a terrible veteran who may have experience, but is just a pile of suck and will continue to be a pile of suck.

Not to mention, its your f***ing BOTTOM PAIR! Almost every team has a shitty bottom pair. Jones-Schneider at least has the potential to be league average off the bat and better than that with some time. No need to nuke in lieu of "experience."

 

[EdJovanovski]

Krav starting at 5C

Revolutionary, already creating a new position

 

[KirkAlbuquerque]

I don't get the fixation on the PP with Jones. He still offers a massive upgrade in the transition game over the other options for his spot. That's still really, really important to creating offense at even strength (which itself is really, really important to winning hockey games).

and outside of Fox we have no good puck movers. Miller and Trouba are okay but not exactly PMD

lol the Chytil interview , neither of them could understand each other

 

[NYR Viper]

I'd take a gamble on PO Joseph and platoon him and Hajek to start the season. I don't think another 20-40 games of 20 minute a night AHL time would be a bad thing for Jones.

 

[Mac n Gs]

There's absolutely zero reason for Zac Jones to be in Hartford. He should've won the spot out of camp last year over Nils, vastly outplayed him in Hartford all last season, and now again has vastly outplayed Bartowski and Hajek at LD. Just give the kid the f***ing spot. He's earned it.