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

[huerter]

Mind you, I've kept my PP arguments strictly to the facts that our current construction is awesome and that Lafraniere is a poor practical fit in so many respects....we can also get into the fact that Laf has shown no discernible ability to make plays on PP2. In terms of creating chances or simply finding an outlet when under pressure. I'm doing the libero. I'd love to see it. How could Lav not make changes though right? Such a critical error.

 

[n8]

The RW for Kreider and Zibanejad is Berard. He’s the right type of forward there and he costs nothing.

The question is, what RW can they find to play with Chytil and Cuylle.

Can someone compare Hague, McNabb and Dillon? For a guy projected to get a short term deal at like $3m, he’s a big body who hits a lot and plays a hard nosed game. It’s not a long commitment either.

Trouba, Lindgren and Gustafsson out, Roy, Dillon and Jones in. Major upgrade in general and it should save $$ on the cap. Allocate that to a good veteran RW for Chytil and an above average 4C as insurance for Chytil.

Panarin-Trochek-Lafreniere
Kreider-Zibanejad-Berard
Cuylle-Chytil-_______
Edstrom-_______-Rempe/________
Rempe/_______

Miller-Fox
Dillon-Roy
Jones-Schneider
________
_________

Just off the top of my head:
Perron for 2 years or Arvidsson but if it’s Arvidsson, they need a backup plan, like Barabanov
Blueger for 3 years
I’m going to assume this depth forward will come back in one of the trades (say Kostin from SJ)
Ruwedhl for 1 year
I’m assuming this depth defenseman will come back in one of the trades

Some bottom 6 players to consider

Dakota Joshua 6'3" 206, 245 hits
Sam Lafferty 6'2" 206, 191 hits
Nico Sturm 6'3" 209, 75 hits, 60% FOW% SIXTY
Teddy Blueger, 6'0", 185, 98 hits, 53% on faceoffs

And you already got this gem on the blueline:
Brenden Dillon 6'4" 225, 241 hits,

 

[80shockeywasbuns]

People really forget that our PP was touted as our number one strength during the regular season, going into the playoffs and during the playoffs. It was better than in 2019-20 when Panarin played that side. It was better than any year where Mika personally had more goals.

What's the problem?

I don’t see anyone saying it’s a bad unit for the regular season. It’s about optimizing it for the playoffs when they play teams that are actually good several times in a row, where you need to be able to generate different types of looks that the other team can’t take away.

It's more about being a threat and drawing attention when Panarin has the puck than anything to do with Kreider

Gallant had to acquiesce when we got Kane and Tarasenko. They tried a bunch of nonsense like having Kane near the low circle on Panarin's side. I try to forget that whole segment of time in our recent history.

The common denominator with all of these alignments is that Mika is out there playing like shit

 

[PuckLuck3043]

Mind you, I've kept my PP arguments strictly to the facts that our current construction is awesome and that Lafraniere is a poor practical fit in so many respects....we can also get into the fact that Laf has shown no discernible ability to make plays on PP2. In terms of creating chances or simply finding an outlet when under pressure. I'm doing the libero. I'd love to see it. How could Lav not make changes though right? Such a critical error.

PP1 was 1 for 15 and may have cost them that series. It was awful.

 

[PuckLuck3043]

Some bottom 6 players to consider

Dakota Joshua 6'3" 206, 245 hits
Sam Lafferty 6'2" 206, 191 hits
Nico Sturm 6'3" 209, 75 hits, 60% FOW% SIXTY
Teddy Blueger, 6'0", 185, 98 hits, 53% on faceoffs

And you already got this gem on the blueline:
Brenden Dillon 6'4" 225, 241 hits,

Dakota Joshua would be my pick. Big, plays center, scored 18 goals. Get it done Drury.

 

[80shockeywasbuns]

Mind you, I've kept my PP arguments strictly to the facts that our current construction is awesome and that Lafraniere is a poor practical fit in so many respects....we can also get into the fact that Laf has shown no discernible ability to make plays on PP2.

How is that a fact? That is the literal definition of an opinion. Personally I think Mika this year showed no discernible ability to make plays, create advantages, make himself useful in any way for PP1. And that’s before talking about how awful he is on entries.

 

[Charlie Conway]

Just off the top of my head:
Perron for 2 years or Arvidsson but if it’s Arvidsson, they need a backup plan, like Barabanov
Blueger for 3 years
I’m going to assume this depth forward will come back in one of the trades (say Kostin from SJ)
Ruwedhl for 1 year
I’m assuming this depth defenseman will come back in one of the trades

UFA RWs drop off pretty quickly.

Gotta wonder if DeBrusk or Arvidsson might be too pricy.

There are some that will presumably be at a cheaper price, like Barabanov, Labanc…maybe Sprong or Kapanen continue their travels…Lafferty, Amadio, Kunin…all varying quality.

 

[huerter]

PP1 was 1 for 15 and may have cost them that series. It was awful.

Pretty sure that’s PP1 and PP2.

And that’s 3 baseball games worth of at bats. Again, if the Yankees didn’t get swept would Judge have been in the lineup for game 5 after going 1-16?

And our PP1 plus Igor was the main reason why we made it to this point and had people believing we were destined to win it all.

And Mika switching out for Laf isn’t a practical move (see previous posts).

And Laf hasn’t shown any PP acumen (insert excuses).

And we lost the series most of all cause we got totally worked. The opponents’ star player was asking us “what are you afraid of” in the middle of the game.

And paragraphs are butt fun I realized.

 

[huerter]

How is that a fact? That is the literal definition of an opinion. Personally I think Mika this year showed no discernible ability to make plays, create advantages, make himself useful in any way for PP1. And that’s before talking about how awful he is on entries.

A former high major DOBO whose first love is hockey doing a libero on every moment of every game of Laf’s career is more fact than you can handle.

 

[80shockeywasbuns]

Pretty sure that’s PP1 and PP2.

And that’s 3 baseball games worth of at bats. Again, if the Yankees didn’t get swept would Judge have been in the lineup for game 5 after going 1-16?

And our PP1 plus Igor was the main reason why we made it to this point and had people believing we were destined to win it all.

And Mika switching out for Laf isn’t a practical move (see previous posts).

And Laf hasn’t shown any PP acumen (insert excuses).

And we lost the series most of all cause we got totally worked. The opponents’ star player was asking us “what are you afraid of” in the middle of the game.

And paragraphs are butt fun I realized.

if you think Zibanejad has shown an ability to create chances and find outlets when under pressure you are not watching closely. You are not seeing the game well enough

 

[huerter]

if you think Zibanejad has shown an ability to create chances and find outlets when under pressure you are not watching closely. You are not seeing the game well enough

So we had the leagues best PP% for a large portion of the season, finished 3rd, while getting minimal contributions from a 2nd unit, plus a strong track record dating back multiple seasons and your premise is that the top unit has a fatal liability?

Weird because people used to treat Strome/Trocheck as the liability until Trocheck had a Steven McDonald Award winning season and won over everyone’s hearts. Then everyone had to change course with a quickness. Now Mika is the liability on our (checks notes) elite PP.

 

[SnowblindNYR]

You don't know they are going 2 for the rest of the playoffs until they go 2 for the rest of the playoffs. You can use the "how much worse could it have been" line for any bad performance. How much worse would it have been to play someone else instead of Judge when he went 1-16 against Houston in the playoffs after a 62 homer season?

It's not like they had bad luck, the PP was clearly playing like shit with a few exceptions. Hoping and praying that it would fix itself was not a smart strategy.

 

[huerter]

It's not like they had bad luck, the PP was clearly playing like shit with a few exceptions. Hoping and praying that it would fix itself was not a smart strategy.

why does fixing it mean changing the players on it?

 

[SnowblindNYR]

Pretty sure that’s PP1 and PP2.

And that’s 3 baseball games worth of at bats. Again, if the Yankees didn’t get swept would Judge have been in the lineup for game 5 after going 1-16?

And our PP1 plus Igor was the main reason why we made it to this point and had people believing we were destined to win it all.

And Mika switching out for Laf isn’t a practical move (see previous posts).

And Laf hasn’t shown any PP acumen (insert excuses).

And we lost the series most of all cause we got totally worked. The opponents’ star player was asking us “what are you afraid of” in the middle of the game.

And paragraphs are butt fun I realized.

You keep bringing up a guy that had a historic season and comparing it to taking out a guy that had a relatively mediocre season out of a unit of 5. It's not even close to comparable.

So we had the leagues best PP% for a large portion of the season, finished 3rd, while getting minimal contributions from a 2nd unit, plus a strong track record dating back multiple seasons and your premise is that the top unit has a fatal liability?

Weird because people used to treat Strome/Trocheck as the liability until Trocheck had a Steven McDonald Award winning season and won over everyone’s hearts. Then everyone had to change course with a quickness. Now Mika is the liability on our (checks notes) elite PP.

Considering people treated Strome as the liability and Trocheck in fact did improve it, what's your point?

why does fixing it mean changing the players on it?

Why doesn't it?

 

[huerter]

Considering people treated Strome as the liability and Trocheck in fact did improve it, what's your point?



Why doesn't it?

Trust me, the Laf should be in the bumper sentiment only snowballed in Trocheck year 1. Laf the lefty...in the bumper!!! They didn't realize they were exposing themselves.

As far as 'why doesn't it'...
Cliff notes version:
- PP1's track record as a 5 (Trocheck or Strome)
- Practicality of taking out Mika for Laf and how that has a domino effect on the whole unit
- Laf's demonstrated acumen on the PP over 4 seasons

 

[huerter]

Considering people treated Strome as the liability and Trocheck in fact did improve it, what's your point?

And wait a second...our PP% went down from 21-22 to 22-23.

 

[effen]

The PP is great because Kreider might be that best tip guy in history and Panarin and Fox are literal wizards.

It succeeds off individual greatness of those 3 more than scheme or dangerous puck movement. That's why it's gonna struggle in the playoffs, when things get tighter and you're not up against Buffalo in December.

 

[huerter]

The PP is great because Kreider might be that best tip guy in history and Panarin and Fox are literal wizards.

It succeeds off individual greatness of those 3 more than scheme or dangerous puck movement. That's why it's gonna struggle in the playoffs, when things get tighter and you're not up against Buffalo in December.

Our PP didn’t struggle in the playoffs. Its percentage (24%) was the same as the 7th best team in the regular season (leafs). It struggled in a small sample at the end.

The isles had the worst regular season pk at 71.5. In the playoffs, when things supposedly get tighter, 7 out of 16 teams had a worse pk percentage than that. Because power plays still can do damage in the playoffs and because variance occurs in a small sample size.

Shots fired at Buffalo who were at 79.8% (13th) in the regular season.

If Panarin is a wizard don’t you like the idea of him on the right boards surveying all his options towards the net and/or having right handed shots in the bumper and opposite side to dish to. PRECISELY!!!

 

[Tob]

Why we talking about the PP instead of 5v5, the country club attitude has seeped into this board.

 

[leetch99]

I don't think there is a good one. It's a non-starter. It's already two guys who don't really make sense together.

Our GM has to figure out what he is going to do with Othmann-Chytil-Kakko -Vesey-Goodrow up front before they start revamping lines . He has some serious tweaking on his hands .

 

[McRanger92]

Dakota Joshua would be my pick. Big, plays center, scored 18 goals. Get it done Drury.

Goodrow 2.0 on the contract side

 

[LannyMcdonald]

Our PP didn’t struggle in the playoffs. Its percentage (24%) was the same as the 7th best team in the regular season (leafs). It struggled in a small sample at the end.

The isles had the worst regular season pk at 71.5. In the playoffs, when things supposedly get tighter, 7 out of 16 teams had a worse pk percentage than that. Because power plays still can do damage in the playoffs and because variance occurs in a small sample size.

Shots fired at Buffalo who were at 79.8% (13th) in the regular season.

If Panarin is a wizard don’t you like the idea of him on the right boards surveying all his options towards the net and/or having right handed shots in the bumper and opposite side to dish to. PRECISELY!!!

Dude. It didn’t struggle in a “small sample.” It struggled the entire second half of the playoff run. It was sitting at ~35% half-way through IIRC.

 

[jay from jersey]

Our GM has to figure out what he is going to do with Othmann-Chytil-Kakko -Vesey-Goodrow up front before they start revamping lines . He has some serious tweaking on his hands .

This really does make sense

He’s going to get paid a ton. More then he’s worth imo…
With Panarin/Kreider Already on the books, and Laffy getting a substantial raise soon, I think spending long term high dollars on a wing is short-sighted and foolish at this current time.

Organizationally, it’s prob the only position we have that should 100% produce 2-3 legit NHL players, possibly more in top 9 roles.

-counting on chytil to become a healthy dependable player here is a fools errand.
If you think he is/will be, you’re setting yourself up for disappointment. Trade him for draft picks and reallocate his cap hit into finding another 2A/2B 3C that can be counted on.
Trade him for more draft capital
And reallocate his cap hit

-Kakko is in the same situation… I don’t think Lavi is going to magically give him top 6 time, he’s also doesn’t sniff being on the PP… 2nd playoff scratch here in by 2 diff coaches.
It’s time to move him. What he brings to the rangers can be replaced by cheaper/younger internal options.
Some team that is rebuilding or bad will take a shot and left him sink or swim in a larger role.
A cup contender likely won’t.
Guys like Berard, Othmann can bring what he brings or better offensively…
Guys like edstrom, chmelar also have size/skating/hit/play a responsible 2-way game etc…
Kakko doesn’t bring anything super special to the table. He has no X-factor to his game that makes you think, Damn, he’s about to turn the corner and hit his stride… maybe he stays with us for half a season if the FO determines Berard/Othmann etc need a little more AHL seasoning, but I doubt it. Kakko didn’t also sound too enthusiastic in his exit interview about his future with the team….. guy has such a vanilla personality, doesn’t strike me as someone who is going to do whatever it takes to succeed.
Quinn and gallant both did their fair share to step on him developmentally as well. It’s a shame, the ball falls a certain way and this team likely winds up with Hughes or Zergas.

-Goodrow might have played his way to another year with the team. He has a high cap hit, but if you’re flanking him with 2 rookies/ELC guys and dirt cheap vets it’s not a huge issue. Vesey will also be back in the mix as well.

As a NYR fan, you pray either Othmann/Berard takes the next step and has some chemistry with Mika/kreids after they do some soul searching and hard work in the offseason…

It’s much easier to revamp/trade/sign 2/3rds of a 3rd line than it is to trade for a top 6 winger….
Whether it’s trade ammo, cap space, etc

Imo, Cuylle needs a look with Zibby.
Kreids and Zibby should spend at least some time apart from each other 5 V 5


Panarin-Tro-Laf
Cuylle-Zibby-Berard/Othmann/Kakko? If here
Or
Kreider-Zibby-Cuylle
Or
Kreider-Zibby-Berard/Othmann/Kakko?

Revamped 3rd line

4th line a mix of
Edstrom/Rempe/Goodie/Vesey/AHL or training camp stand out/cheap UFA vet

If they don’t have some sandpaper/Hustle/grit spread out all over the top 9, then playoff wise, this is Likely the furtherest we see them go/reach.

Add a young vet Swiss Army knife player like zetterlund, who has balls and can seamlessly move anywhere in the top 9 and a legit 3C that can play up in case of injury. The. Go to war…

Fixing D is for another thread…..

 

[RangerBoy]

But there is a flip side. Verbeek was Steve Yzerman’s right-hand man for many years, and if Verbeek is looking to move on from Zegras, it could be a red flag from Detroit’s standpoint. Carolina’s Martin Necas will be another popular name, but two more under-the-radar options could be Winnipeg’s Cole Perfetti (who was scratched for most of the Jets’ playoff series) and the Rangers’ Kaapo Kakko, who had just 19 points this season but had 40 a year prior, and is still only 23. Neither is as tailor-made for an immediate top-six deployment as Zegras, but there is still some hope for real upside with both.

I thought about Kakko for Perfetti. The latter is a smaller player. Both players need a change of scenery.

A more ambitious option could be Jacob Trouba, with the Rangers retaining salary, but New York would likely need to retain at least $2 million of his $8 million cap hit (and/or take back a contract the other way) for it to be worthwhile for Detroit.

Detroit is looking for a right-handed shooting D. Which contract without retaining money? Chiarot at $4.75M per remaining for two more years. Wallman? $3.4M per for two more years?

https://x.com/i/web/status/1798686903090196700

 

[McRanger92]

I thought about Kakko for Perfetti. The latter is a smaller player. Both players need a change of scenery.

Detroit is looking for a right-handed shooting D. Which contract without retaining money? Chiarot at $4.75M per remaining for two more years. Wallman? $3.4M per for two more years?

https://x.com/i/web/status/1798686903090196700

Trouba at 2 mil retained for Chiarot is probably right from a value perspective. But that kind of trade will really test certain people's conviction that Trouba needs to go. I remember the Ben Chiarot trade deadline panic in 2022.