We have plenty of insolation throughout the lineup so im not sure what you are talking about filling everything with kids. Panarin, Zibanejad, Kreider, Strome, Smith, Trouba, Buchnevich, Deangelo and Lemieux , Johnson are all vets at this point and you should probably include Howden and Chytil as well. Fox and Kakko are heading into their 2nd year, and there is no question they are holding spots. So what we are talkin about is adding Lafreniere, possibly Barron and possibly Miller, and if those guys don't work out we go to our backup plans. Management knows its players, at some point you have to let them play and learn as they go.
They absolutely do not have “plenty of insulation” throughout the lineup. Grouping Lemieux, Howden, and Chytil into your argument is as big a reach as you can make...claiming those kids are “insulation” aka vets when they themselves are still trying to figure out their own way in this league, their own identity. Even Buchnevich and DeAngelo are a reach. Those two are 24-25 years old and were just discovering what they can be in the NHL over the last 2 years, especially DeAngelo. So you are left with is, being more realistic, Kreider, Zibanejad, Panarin, Strome, Trouba, Smith, and Johnson. That latter two might not even be regulars halfway through the season, maybe even sooner than that at least one of them isn’t. But even so thats SEVEN players in your entire lineup that are actual vets to breakup the youth and provide experience. And then if you break it down even further, you look at a guy like Strome who is terrible away from the puck, terrible in his own end, and terrible on the faceoff dot.
Management wants to take the next steps forward towards contention. Part of that process is creating good structure and a winning culture, which requires the right players in the right roles. No, Morgan Barron should not be on your 3rd line to start. So is it really good for his development to be getting limited minutes on the 4th line? Miller has a ways to go with his defensive game. He is going to just jump to the NHL, no problem? Oh well if they dont then we’ll just go to our “backup plan” of Jack Johnson, Kevin Rooney, Mackenzie Blackwood, etc., more NHL/AHL tweeners. And then what happens? We fall short in games or towards the end of the season because we didnt have a strong enough 3rd line, let alone a 4th line. We didnt have a solid faceoff guy to win key draws, besides just having Zibanejad. We didnt have quality PKers. We didnt have enough defensively responsible forwards to help the D. We ended up rolling 3 lines and not matching up well.
We have so much youth. It is ok to add 1-2 more proven NHL vets. Let Gauthier/Barron/Kravtsov/Miller/Lundkvist/Reunanen force the Rangers hand to move out Strome or say a Granlund who would be on a short term deal. Let them develop the right way. They dont need to be force fed minutes, it has only been detriment for Howden. It didnt work for Lias Andersson. And it really hasnt done much for Chytil. Look how long it took for DeAngelo, Buchnevich, and even Zibanejad to really find themselves. Whats the rush with our secondary tier talent beyond Kakko and Lafreniere? No one is advocating signing Granlund or Haula or whomever longterm.
