Roster Building Thread - Part VIII (2023-24 season)

[RangersFan1994]

I'm confident that given 19 games, he would have equal to or more points than Bonino. But points aren't everything

He’s done nothing before when called up, don’t expect that to change. The obsession with an AHL minor leaguer is pretty sad.

 

[Savant]

I'm looking around the league on the teams that are floundering a bit and here are the guys that at least catch my eye:

Blake Coleman
3 years left @ $4.95m then UFA
If Calgary continues to flounder this season, would they consider trying to off-load some of their longer term deals? Would Calgary retain for that term to shake things up and alleviate some cap? What if the Rangers could get Coleman @ $3m for this year and 3 more? He's a consistent 35-40 point (over 82 games) speedy winger who plays a gritty style and is very good on possession numbers. Clearly overpaid but would he be a fit?


Boone Jenner
2 years left @ $3.75m then UFA
Columbus may look to clean house after everything that went on with Babcock and Jenner, the Captain, may actually prefer a new home as well. He's a C/LW power forward who plays a hard nosed game that should lend itself well to the playoffs.


Nico Sturm
1 more year @ $2m then UFA
Strum is intriguing because last year was a bit of a revelation for him with 26 points in 74 games along with a 55.8% FO% and 40 takeaways to just 19 giveaways. He would fit in well with what Drury appears to be wanting from his 4th line and his 2 points in 19 games this season should mean the cost should be pretty low. The key would need to be that San Jose would need to retain for both this season and next which would mean San Jose would be at the max number of contracts they could retain on.


Ryan McLeod
1 more year @ $2.1m then RFA
McLeod is a good, young center with speed and who plays with tenacity. His possession numbers are very good this year on a very bad Edmonton team and he's a pretty good PKer as well. I think it would be unlikely that Edmonton would move him but he would be a really solid bottom-6 addition for the foreseeable future.

Adam Henrique
Final year of his contract
Henrique has always been a bit of a water-bug player. He has solid effort and knows how to score in and around the net. He's not overly flashy but he consistently puts up 30-40 points per season and can play wing or center.

I think this team upgrades itself (unless Chytil is toast) more by upgrading the D than it does but trying to improve the 4th line. I mean you look at these guys and is it worth it to realistically give away someone’s spot? Hard to say

 

[huerter]

Points aren’t anything.

 

[JimmyG89]

Lindholm is going to cost at the deadline but he 100% should be the main focus moving forward. Each day that passes Calgary gets closer to moving out pieces.

This is why you still have your pieces in the system even after the last two deadlines. You could go two ways with him as a player. He immediately becomes 2RW with Mika and Kreider (this is the 2nd line, not up for discussion). You now have a match-up line AND a line that can go out and score. The other option is he is your 3C with Chytil and Kakko making Chytil's faceoffs not matter.

At the moment, the east is the most vulnerable it's been in a while. Tampa isn't as strong, Boston (no matter their record) is not as strong, Carolina as well. This is the time to strike while the iron is hot. Hopefully with Fox returning Wednesday this team can begin accruing cap space again for the deadline. Send down Mackey and roll with what you have.

Also getting Lindholm would keep him away from Boston, where he would immediately be their 1C and slot Zacha and Coyle in better spots.

 

[effen]

Zach Hyman would absolutely crush on this team but like a lot of other guys, is not a fit in the salary cap.

 

[Levitate]

Lindholm is going to cost at the deadline but he 100% should be the main focus moving forward. Each day that passes Calgary gets closer to moving out pieces.

This is why you still have your pieces in the system even after the last two deadlines. You could go two ways with him as a player. He immediately becomes 2RW with Mika and Kreider (this is the 2nd line, not up for discussion). You now have a match-up line AND a line that can go out and score. The other option is he is your 3C with Chytil and Kakko making Chytil's faceoffs not matter.

At the moment, the east is the most vulnerable it's been in a while. Tampa isn't as strong, Boston (no matter their record) is not as strong, Carolina as well. This is the time to strike while the iron is hot. Hopefully with Fox returning Wednesday this team can begin accruing cap space again for the deadline. Send down Mackey and roll with what you have.

Also getting Lindholm would keep him away from Boston, where he would immediately be their 1C and slot Zacha and Coyle in better spots.

honestly I'm not sure who in the west scares me either

league this year seems to have hit that weird bit of parity where I dont' feel any team is really a dominant contender over others.

Avs have their flaws now, Vegas is good but I don't quite see them as a powerhouse repeat team exactly, Vancouver has talent but is gonna slip and probably has enough issues to keep them out of it...who else are we concerned about?

Top of the league now is probably Rangers, Bruins, Vegas, Avs...Stars? As teams I see currently as contenders. Lot could change by the end of the season though for sure...Kings I think aren't legit yet, but in the east I can see Carolina and New Jersey rebounding to go into the playoffs strong, Tampa will hang around but not really convinced on them being a contender any long barring some good luck in matchups etc, I guess I should think that the Panthers are due to end the year on a hot streak? dunno

It's pretty open at the moment IMO. We'll know more at the end of the season but certainly at this moment no one looks scary compared to the rangers

 

[SA16]

I'm confident that given 19 games, he would have equal to or more points than Bonino. But points aren't everything

He has 4 points in his last 40 NHL games.

Bonino had more points in 62 games last year than Brodzinski has in his entire NHL career.

 

[Savant]

Zach Hyman would absolutely crush on this team but like a lot of other guys, is not a fit in the salary cap.

I mean you can basically do like Chytil, Kakko, Jones for Hyman and McLeod. Gives Oilers some youth and lets them hedge a bit if one of their centers leaves. Rangers get better right now but it’s a pretty big swing. And you are acknowledging you are arguably selling low on Kakko (offensive performance) and Chytil (concussion risk). Hyman only about a million more than Chytil on his own. Maybe you get some other asset(s) pack from Edmonton. Maybe you send them less. Maybe you get some retention, but I don’t think it’s too far out compared to some others

 

[McRanger92]

Lindholm is going to cost at the deadline but he 100% should be the main focus moving forward. Each day that passes Calgary gets closer to moving out pieces.

This is why you still have your pieces in the system even after the last two deadlines. You could go two ways with him as a player. He immediately becomes 2RW with Mika and Kreider (this is the 2nd line, not up for discussion). You now have a match-up line AND a line that can go out and score. The other option is he is your 3C with Chytil and Kakko making Chytil's faceoffs not matter.

At the moment, the east is the most vulnerable it's been in a while. Tampa isn't as strong, Boston (no matter their record) is not as strong, Carolina as well. This is the time to strike while the iron is hot. Hopefully with Fox returning Wednesday this team can begin accruing cap space again for the deadline. Send down Mackey and roll with what you have.

Also getting Lindholm would keep him away from Boston, where he would immediately be their 1C and slot Zacha and Coyle in better spots.

I agree with the go for it logic with the east looking weak but idk if Lindholm is the guy. Every team will be after him, and while i'd love for Drury to drive up the price on Boston, I have no interest in trading our 1st for a rental.

I still think if they are going to deal any major assets it will be for a 2-3 year guy with 50% retained. We've seen teams load up this way in the past. Idk who that specific player will be but Drury has shown that he knows what the team needs. Kane being the outlier, with the knowledge that it may have been influenced by Dolan to some degree.

Until then just stay healthy and keep playing this way.

 

[egelband]

It's really just been the last 2 games if we're talking about raw production.

They've generated more offense as a trio than Kreider-Zib-Kakko did though (3.32 xGF/60, which is the best of ANY line we've had this year including both combos with Panarin.)

On the downside, they've taken a massive hit defensively (2.93 xGA/60, 2nd worst of any line behind the shit show 4th line we saw earlier this year that I'm worried will be reunited once Chytil returns) but that may be a necessary evil with that trio. Zibanejad has always created most of his offense off the rush and if you play that way, it's likely going to go back the other way for chances too. He's getting paid to score so you have to lean into that even if it goes against what you as a team want to do.

I'm still on board with splitting Kreider and Zibanejad. Kreider can play a hybrid rush/cycle game and the latter goes away when he's with Zibanejad and I also grow tired of watching our 2 best goal scorers overpass their way out of quality chances when they're playing together.

I love the idea of Crash Line Kreider. I think it suits him better than run-and-gun with Mika. But at this point I doubt that happens.

 

[SnowblindNYR]

Also, it needs to be stressed that we weren't that bad last year. If this is a 50-50 analytics team, they have enough talent to contend.

View attachment 774040
The problem last year is that we were locked into a first round matchup with a team that morphed into Team Canada around game 50.

The Devils went on a 20-25 game stretch where they just trucked everyone every night and we ran right into that. At this point, we don't even know who that team is gonna be in the spring.

In hindsight do you think those 20-25 games were a fluke?

 

[Flan the incredible]

No. Lindholm had a ONE career year with Gaudreau and Tkachuk. That's not his normal production rate. Their production besides that one season are very similar.

One is worth the headache. The other is not. Neither are likely to happen.

Lindholm put up 78 points back in 2018-19 season so not sure where you are getting the 1 career year thing from as he also scored 82 two years ago. Lindhilm has actually outscored Tro every year for the past 5 years. Tro had to play with Panarin to break 60 points. Lindholm is .87 PPG over the last 6 years while Tro is .73. If anything the opposite is true as Tro had 1 career year where he hit 70 points and he needed Panarin to eclipse 60 points after. Sorry I can't get behind the logic of Lindholm only put up those point totals because of Tkachuk and Gaudreau while also ignoring Tro needed Panarin to hit 60.

I would love EP but as of now Lindholm is a realistic trade target and EP is not. EP would also cost pieces most Ranger fans would not want to part with. EP still isn't getting traded this year. Tiny chance he gets moved in the offesason.

We can agree to disagree however. Enjoy your night and let's hope for another win against the Sabres tonight.

 

[Machinehead]

In hindsight do you think those 20-25 games were a fluke?

Partially. They're very good but nobody's that good, and they ran out of steam in the playoffs.

Like, we're good. We're not going to win the 64 games we're currently on pace to win.

I was saying for months that I just don't like the matchup and that I don't think it's necessarily an indictment on the Rangers. They were the early-peaking buzzsaw team.

Vegas was the late-peaking buzzsaw team. Their chart was just starting to climb in March. They're still hot.

 

[SnowblindNYR]

Partially. They're very good but nobody's that good, and they ran out of steam in the playoffs.

Like, we're good. We're not going to win the 64 games we're currently on pace to win.

I was saying for months that I just don't like the matchup and that I don't think it's necessarily an indictment on the Rangers. They were the early-peaking buzzsaw team.

Vegas was the late-peaking buzzsaw team. Their chart was just starting to climb in March. They're still hot.

As good as we've been the Devils were 16-3 and won 16 of 17 games after losing the first two. Almost unfathomble. (Bruins were 17-2). Hard to believe where they are now.

 

[rangersfansince08]

Lindholm is going to cost at the deadline but he 100% should be the main focus moving forward. Each day that passes Calgary gets closer to moving out pieces.

This is why you still have your pieces in the system even after the last two deadlines. You could go two ways with him as a player. He immediately becomes 2RW with Mika and Kreider (this is the 2nd line, not up for discussion). You now have a match-up line AND a line that can go out and score. The other option is he is your 3C with Chytil and Kakko making Chytil's faceoffs not matter.

At the moment, the east is the most vulnerable it's been in a while. Tampa isn't as strong, Boston (no matter their record) is not as strong, Carolina as well. This is the time to strike while the iron is hot. Hopefully with Fox returning Wednesday this team can begin accruing cap space again for the deadline. Send down Mackey and roll with what you have.

Also getting Lindholm would keep him away from Boston, where he would immediately be their 1C and slot Zacha and Coyle in better spots.

I actually prefer @Machinehead 's idea of Nick Schmaltz given we would have him for three runs.

 

[Daves a mess]

I am also more concerned about RW than C. Actually I’m not really concerned about any position except RW.

I've been banging this drum in my posts since camp.

I don't know how anybody can look at this roster currently, and past this year, and not see real ugly organizational weakness at RW.

Need to make trades accordingly.

 

[mas0764]

Isn’t Perrault a RW?

 

[aufheben]

I've been banging this drum in my posts since camp.

I don't know how anybody can look at this roster currently, and past this year, and not see real ugly organizational weakness at RW.

Need to make trades accordingly.

Yeah, and I don’t know exactly what the solution is, but upgrading at center seems like an unnecessary luxury. I get that center is the sexier position but our best RWs are Lafreniere and Wheeler. You could say having Panarin and Kreider at LW balances it out but it’s still a positional weakness if there is any with this team.

 

[TominNC]

I'm confident that given 19 games, he would have equal to or more points than Bonino. But points aren't everything

Since he doesn’t kill penalties or win faceoffs like Bonino and I’m not sure he’s out score Bonino. No thanks on Brod

 

[Clark Kellogg]

I am also more concerned about RW than C. Actually I’m not really concerned about any position except RW.

For me it’s LD but if we had the luxury of both I would like Drury to see about Alex Tuch at the deadline.

 

[Machinehead]

I've been banging this drum in my posts since camp.

I don't know how anybody can look at this roster currently, and past this year, and not see real ugly organizational weakness at RW.

Need to make trades accordingly.

Yeah, and I don’t know exactly what the solution is, but upgrading at center seems like an unnecessary luxury. I get that center is the sexier position but our best RWs are Lafreniere and Wheeler. You could say having Panarin and Kreider at LW balances it out but it’s still a positional weakness if there is any with this team.

I think the only reason people are looking at center is because they're just assuming Chytil will die at some point and like, yeah, I get it.

 

[aufheben]

For me it’s LD but if we had the luxury of both I would like Drury to see about Alex Tuch at the deadline.

I mean for the playoffs the top-4 D do most of the work and having Gustafsson helps a lot .

 

[aufheben]

I think the only reason people are looking at center is because they're just assuming Chytil will die at some point and like, yeah, I get it.

So let’s trade for a center and just play him at RW

 

[Mac n Gs]

I told you all already, the answer is Phil Tomasino

 

[Avery16]

Bonino was a good signing.