Speculation: Roster Building Thread - Part XIII (Nanaki edition)

[Leonardo87]

Regular season Panarin is a great player.

Playoff Panarin is not.

Rangers are putting up the points, and finding ways to win games, because they are a good team. Panarin may have another 100 point season, yet he is still under a PPG in the playoffs.

 

[Glen Sathers Cigar]

Two things outside the typical talking points:

I really like Ruehwedel as a #7 D. He’s not out of place at all in all 3 zones when he’s in the lineup. He has good wheels and is good at using them to close his gaps. He’s a solid player and I wouldn’t lose a wink of sleep if he was in every day as the 6d.

Reilly Smith is a very good fit in on this team overall. He’s a good PKer, he’s not out of place anywhere in the lineup, he’s a savvy pro and you can tell all over the ice. That line is still finding chemistry but Smith has shown he’s a very solid player.

I’m not understanding much of the pessimism around the team aside from the typical Rangers fan self loathing. This team is still really good. We have Igor. We upgraded the 2RW spot with Smith. The Panarin-Trocheck-Lafreniere line hasn’t skipped a beat and may even be better this season with Laf’s growth. And most importantly for me, we have a healthy Chytil which makes the 3rd line a scoring threat.

Make no mistake, we made it to game 6 of the ECF with our entire bottom 6 being a non factor. Those minutes were just hoping to not get scored on aside from Goodrow turning into Adam Graves. You’re telling me a healthy Chytil centering the 3rd line (rendering it a real offensive threat) and that couldn’t have helped us win the cup last year?

Minor extra thought, Carrick is a player. Like what I’ve seen from him. Really like him at 4C, especially at his 1m cap hit. I like Goodrow more than most during his tenure but his cap hit was prohibitive. Replacing him for nearly just a third of the price with a guy who can solidly fill the role Goodrow was in is a nice perk.

 

[egelband]

I dont like what the broadcast team said last night one bit. I don't know if this is the agent's sentiment or if this is Igor's thoughts, but I didn't like to hear that. They said he wants to be the highest paid player on the team because he thinks he's the most important player on the team. He said he wants to be the highest paid goalie because he thinks he's the best goalie in the league.

He has zero issues with handicapping the team. On personal level, great go get that money make as much as you can. In terms of being a fan, who the hell wants to hear that? The way the broadcast team reported it last night it rubbed me the wrong way. It came off incredibly arrogant and narcissistic. After they said it I pretty much felt, here's 10 million.. you don't want it go f*** yourself.

I hear you but also the real culprit is the dumb cap. While I’d love Igor to accommodate the roster construction, I’m not going to be upset with a guy asking for everything he has earned.

 

[egelband]

I wouldn't count on Trouba playing here on the last year of his contract. I'm fairly certain that Drury will jettison him come the offseason.

Yeah. Gotta figure the upshot of this summer’s brouhaha was ‘we won’t press the issue this summer but don’t give us a hard time next summer’.