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Roster Building Thread - Part XI (Off-season edition)

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McRanger92 said:
I dont think the point is to be "better" this year. Winning the Prez Trophy is fun but it means nothing ultimately. The Rangers just need to get into the playoffs and go from there. Igor can win any series and I do think Drury can see the problem with the defense. Its salvageable if Laviolette and the players are willing to put their egos aside and switch up the pairings. I do believe theyll be in the market for a top defenseman toward the deadline.

The forward group is very deep. Bonafide top line, my hope is if Mika/Kreider are staying together (wouldnt be my choice) that Smith can help them breakeven 5v5 and while the wonder twins own special teams. The bottom 6 has a ton of young talent. We're in the window and we're a good team. The entire league knows we are a top contender, the fanbase is just traumatized, especially fans of a certain age (people who didnt see 94 like myself).
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We need to be better to win the cup, we weren't in that Florida series at all once they got their legs. There's probably 2 or 3 teams we would have lost to in the west as well. So if the goal is to win the cup we can't stay at the same level. I agree we are in the window, I'm hoping it stays open but are we thinking the core of Zibs, Kreider and Panarin are gonna get us there, against more physical teams I'm not so sure.
 
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McRanger92 said:
I dont think the point is to be "better" this year. Winning the Prez Trophy is fun but it means nothing ultimately. The Rangers just need to get into the playoffs and go from there. Igor can win any series and I do think Drury can see the problem with the defense. Its salvageable if Laviolette and the players are willing to put their egos aside and switch up the pairings. I do believe theyll be in the market for a top defenseman toward the deadline.

The forward group is very deep. Bonafide top line, my hope is if Mika/Kreider are staying together (wouldnt be my choice) that Smith can help them breakeven 5v5 and while the wonder twins own special teams. The bottom 6 has a ton of young talent. We're in the window and we're a good team. The entire league knows we are a top contender, the fanbase is just traumatized, especially fans of a certain age (people who didnt see 94 like myself).
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The idea that "Igor can win any series" is of course technically true but should not be something we hang our hat on.

Hank was the better goalie on paper in every series he played for us.

He still eventually lost a series every season.

In fact, I'd like to take a different approach than relying on the elite goalie because in the playoffs the difference between goalies gets very tight
 
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Shesterkybomb said:
We need to be better to win the cup, we weren't in that Florida series at all once they got their legs. There's probably 2 or 3 teams we would have lost to in the west as well. So if the goal is to win the cup we can't stay at the same level. I agree we are in the window, I'm hoping it stays open but are we thinking the core of Zibs, Kreider and Panarin are gonna get us there, against more physical teams I'm not so sure.
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The problem is that you need those good young players coming up to backfill and deepen the team. They’ve whiffed on a myriad of forwards which affects depth. Our best players haven’t always been our best players but that will happen.
 
Realistically, what do you hope for to change?

Well, you hope Reilly Smith delivers more of an impact than Wennberg and Roslovic did, which is pretty doable to start.

You hope Chytil rebounds and is back to his skilled productive self, that would be a pretty decent sized boon.

You hope Fox stays healthy through the playoffs - like, he was still great, but he clearly was not his full self (I believe the final reports were strained MCL but the guy was in a mechanical knee brace for months before and through the postseason).

Finally, you'd hope that K'andre rebounds as well and is the more productive defenseman that we know he can be. It felt like his progression regressed last year. He has the most realistic chance of growing to make a noticeable impact difference.

Laf should continue to grow into a very good to great player. Schneider you'd like to just stay solid. Kakko I've given up on and don't care, just play defense I guess. You'd like to see more offensive production out of Cuylle, as it seemed like he became a hit machine and defense first guy that kind of lost his place as the playoffs went on (but how much is expected out of him really), and you hope Rempe can develop his skating and awareness well enough to be relied on closer to 9-10 minutes a game so that we aren't playing every 3rd period with 11 forwards.

Is that enough of a difference to get us over the hump that was this last ECF? Maybe? Odds are probably not? That's okay. We certainly have the ammo to have a significantly more impactful deadline as another note.

Longshot impact changes (impact as in actually makes a stark difference come playoffs, not just a "oh that's nice" but also I am not counting on or even wasting much hopefulness on any of these realistically happening) - Othmann or Berard comes in and is a useful productive offensive player, Trouba finds his legs away after injury recovery, Zib rolls the clock back a couple years, Kakko pulls his head out of his ass

LGR
 
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About the best lines we can run. F’s actually aren’t terrible if we separate the Wonder Twins. The D on the other hand, besides the 1st pair? Yikes

Bread-Trocheck-Laf
Kreider-Chytil-Smith/Kakko
Cuylle-Zibanejad-Smith/Kakko
Rempe/Brod/Carrick/Edstrom

Miller-Fox
Someone-Schneider
Jones-Someone

I HATE buying at the deadline but it legitimately may be the only way to fix the D corps for the playoffs. My worry is that the team will take Jones out of the lineup though, rather than a Lindgren or Trouba who should actually come out
 
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nsvoyageurs said:
I doubt that too. Was just wondering about what was actually written, though I doubt much of it hasn't already been speculated about either on here or on social media sites.
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if you turn on reader view in your browser and then reload the page you can read the article

e: it's mainly a recap of this offseason and a mailbag where they say "Rangers won't decide what to do with Lindgren and an extension until Igor is dealt with and Lindgren might be a casualty of remaking the blueline after this year. Smith likely gets first crack at 1 RW with Zibanejad, Laf likely gets a look at PP1 time and the units might get re-made, Othmann, Rempe, and Edstrom the likely AHLers getting long looks in camp, Rangers still hope Kakko can put it together but he still might be a trade piece even if he looks like he's doing better considering coming cap crunches etc
 
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Guyute said:
Remember when Igor couldn't stop a beachball for a quarter of the season last year? This board is going to have a meltdown when he goes through a similar stretch while he gets paid $10 million+ AAV.
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Irrelevant, same happened in Lundqvist career when Talbot or Raanta were backups.
 
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The sooner the team realizes that players of the Othmann type are the ones that win championships, scoring touch along with strength and physical play the quicker they will win, and I'm not talking about bottom line players, I mean the guys in your top 6 or 9. It's not surprising that a guy like Trochek was our most consistent forward this playoff, physical, chippy, skilled. It's not rocket science, teams that have that in their top 9 are the ones that win. You can shuffle in Reaves types or whatever in the fourth line for "toughness " but they are never on the ice when it counts. Zibanejad isn't that type, Kreider for all his physical gifts isn't that guy, Panarin is all world skill but too slight to take on the Barkovs of the world. Grit wins cups, it always has. Imo Othmann needs to be given some time this year, lots of it, he's the type of young player we need. He's as close to our next Jt.miller as we may get.
 
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Who could be some Fs we bring to camp as PTOs? Labanc, Cousins, Kubalik?

D is looking thin, maybe Dermott if he’s healthy or can we stash Klingberg?
 
Shesterkybomb said:
The sooner the team realizes that players of the Othmann type are the ones that win championships, scoring touch along with strength and physical play the quicker they will win, and I'm not talking about bottom line players, I mean the guys in your top 6 or 9. It's not surprising that a guy like Trochek was our most consistent forward this playoff, physical, chippy, skilled. It's not rocket science, teams that have that in their top 9 are the ones that win. You can shuffle in Reaves types or whatever in the fourth line for "toughness " but they are never on the ice when it counts. Zibanejad isn't that type, Kreider for all his physical gifts isn't that guy, Panarin is all world skill but too slight to take on the Barkovs of the world. Grit wins cups, it always has. Imo Othmann needs to be given some time this year, lots of it, he's the type of young player we need. He's as close to our next Jt.miller as we may get.
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Laf fits your profile too.
 
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bhamill said:
Laf fits your profile too.
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Myself...I'm not completely sold on the Laf compete level consistency part just yet . He might be able to raise it but I would like to see him do it in games of note where it is certainly needed . He still vanishes out there at times . Hopefully we all see less of that this season . That is also why I do not like seeing Kreider go through the motions on so many of his shifts even if it is for conserving energy as a few point out in here .I think it sets a terrible example on the ice especially since we have so many impressionable guys on the club now and that he wears an A on his chest . If he were to become more involved on the bumping/grinding on the fore check and the back check....our team will be a force to deal with . It would easily spread to Cuylle -Laf-Othman -Edstrom-Rempe . We get 6 guys out there hitting....we are better than the Panthers .
 
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Shesterkybomb said:
The sooner the team realizes that players of the Othmann type are the ones that win championships, scoring touch along with strength and physical play the quicker they will win, and I'm not talking about bottom line players, I mean the guys in your top 6 or 9. It's not surprising that a guy like Trochek was our most consistent forward this playoff, physical, chippy, skilled. It's not rocket science, teams that have that in their top 9 are the ones that win. You can shuffle in Reaves types or whatever in the fourth line for "toughness " but they are never on the ice when it counts. Zibanejad isn't that type, Kreider for all his physical gifts isn't that guy, Panarin is all world skill but too slight to take on the Barkovs of the world. Grit wins cups, it always has. Imo Othmann needs to be given some time this year, lots of it, he's the type of young player we need. He's as close to our next Jt.miller as we may get.
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Despite fan opinions to the contrary, I do not think this has escaped Drury (and, IMO, it did not escape Gorts/JD either as both commented this team was not built for playoffs). I'm sure the fact that the three mentioned players disappearing in three consecutive playoffs set off alarm bells. If unoticed, then the entire staff should be sent packing (including Dolan).
 
Unless the Rangers can bring in other D in deals they are pretty much committed to both Trouba and Lindgren for one more year. I think that will probably be it for both of them. Barring a bunch of injuries it should easily be a playoff deal and if trades for new D don't happen by the deadline the chances of the Rangers switching out Trouba or Lindgren will be pretty much nil. Going into the playoffs playoff teams don't look to dump D....they look to add D.

According to some reporting the Rangers aren't convinced on Jones. Neither am I and I think our defense is smaller than it needs to be. A big part of the reason I don't like Lindgren as a partner for Fox for one. Within the system the one guy I think who could push seriously for an NHL job sometime next year is Mancini. If Schneider pairs with Miller---and Mancini can move up and pretty much give us what Schneider has a bottom pair D then switching Trouba out gets a lot easier and replacing an $8 mil contract with an $800/900K one would be massive looking ahead at re-signing both Shesterkin and Lafreniere.
 
I know this is the slow part of the NHL offseason, the start of training camps are still a month away, but I think we need a Jacob Trouba trade as much as the Rangers do. LOL
 
eco's bones said:
Unless the Rangers can bring in other D in deals they are pretty much committed to both Trouba and Lindgren for one more year. I think that will probably be it for both of them. Barring a bunch of injuries it should easily be a playoff deal and if trades for new D don't happen by the deadline the chances of the Rangers switching out Trouba or Lindgren will be pretty much nil. Going into the playoffs playoff teams don't look to dump D....they look to add D.

According to some reporting the Rangers aren't convinced on Jones. Neither am I and I think our defense is smaller than it needs to be. A big part of the reason I don't like Lindgren as a partner for Fox for one. Within the system the one guy I think who could push seriously for an NHL job sometime next year is Mancini. If Schneider pairs with Miller---and Mancini can move up and pretty much give us what Schneider has a bottom pair D then switching Trouba out gets a lot easier and replacing an $8 mil contract with an $800/900K one would be massive looking ahead at re-signing both Shesterkin and Lafreniere.
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Losing out on Kylington especially for what he got in money and terms (one year) stunk.

Klingberg is still out there rehabbing. He'd be worth a gamble because his skillset would help with breakout and quickening the game if he's healthy.
 
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