Speculation: Roster Building thread: Part XIX (Thanks, Sam)

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They are not rebuilding and dont need a rebuild. Rebuilds don't work. It's just a crutch to give up and not try. The Rangers literally just paid Igor + lafreniere and traded for 5 years of JT Miller's contract. Fox is signed long-term. They are about to do the same with Cuylle and K'Andre. They have plenty of youth, it doesnt bother me that HFBoards thinks they "lack talent" in the prospect pool considering 5 years ago the prevailing wisdom was the opposite and we know how that turned out.

The MO should be how do we put our young talent in positions to maximize their ability. Im so sick of hearing "the rebuild" didnt work because we lacked patience, but also lets trade lafreniere and schneider who were drafted in the thick of it and havent even turned 24 yet. THAT is short-sighted. Our team sucks offensively because our 3 highest paid forwards are essentially zeros 5v5 all season. But sure lets talk about the guy who has been back for 20 minutes is part of the problem and the young guys who are given no added responsibility by the coaching staff need to be the ones traded. It's just tiresome. I promise if the Rangers just play their young players and reward straight line play with more minutes, we will be a much better team and it will be obvious quickly. Stop overcomplicating the plan.
One of those forwards is averaging 104 points per 82 games as a Ranger.

Who's doing that?

They're still not getting anything offensively that doesn't come off the stick of Panarin or Zibanejad. Brodzinski and Carrick are two of our forwards I trust the most to beat defenders.

It's not overcomplicating the plan, it's addressing the elephant in the room.
 
One of those forwards is averaging 104 points per 82 games as a Ranger.

Who's doing that?

They're still not getting anything offensively that doesn't come off the stick of Panarin or Zibanejad. Brodzinski and Carrick are two of our forwards I trust the most to beat defenders.

It's not overcomplicating the plan, it's addressing the elephant in the room.

There are effort and coaching factors that are playing into that. When the teams spends years doing the same thing, and then it becomes stale, but the coaching staff refuses to try anything new, that's how you lose .4 on the goals per game average year over year. Im more concerned about the goals against average getting up over 3 per game when it was 2.76 last year. The team cant defend. Thats the issue. They have much more offensive zone time with players who werent more concerned with cheating for offense, flying the zone and leaving their defenseman with no outlet. again, this is a coaching and effort issue.
 
I don't know about that. CF 52.8 for Chychrun and 48.6 for Miller

I think I'd rather have Chychrun @ 9M then K'Andre at 7M, that's for sure.

Honestly, I'd rather have somebody better than both of them back there. :P

I dont care what their CF is this year, one plays for a good team and one plays for a bad team. And Chychrun has had trouble staying healthy until this season. We'll see. I think K'Andre will sign for less than 7. Probably something like 3x6.5.
 
There are effort and coaching factors that are playing into that. When the teams spends years doing the same thing, and then it becomes stale, but the coaching staff refuses to try anything new, that's how you lose .4 on the goals per game average year over year. Im more concerned about the goals against average getting up over 3 per game when it was 2.76 last year. The team cant defend. Thats the issue. They have much more offensive zone time with players who werent more concerned with cheating for offense, flying the zone and leaving their defenseman with no outlet. again, this is a coaching and effort issue.
I agree that it's a bit of a coaching and effort issue now, but it's gonna become a talent issue. Our pipeline is Third Liners, the Hockey Club.

They better hope McDavid or Eichel makes it to free agency.
 
KAM's cap hit is starting with a 6+ not a 5 - particularly if there's any term to it.
IMO it will be closer to $7m and how close will depend on how many years will be included. My guess it will be around $7 for 6 years. Less years - lower AAV, more years - higher AAV
 
I agree that it's a bit of a coaching and effort issue now, but it's gonna become a talent issue. Our pipeline is Third Liners, the Hockey Club.

They better hope McDavid or Eichel makes it to free agency.

If the Rangers long-term issue is finding a star offensive player to carry a team, im not concerned. thats the one thing theyve been good at doing in my lifetime as a fan. A strong infrastructure of homegrown players around the stars is the issue. We havent had it since whatever Torts instilled in them went away in the later AV years. You get that back by building a team that takes pride in wearing the Rangers sweater again. Homegrown players care. Overpaid veterans on the back 9 of their career do not. And if you're going to have guys like that, Id prefer them to be the ones who will actually lead. I think we can all agree anyone who has been wearing a letter for this team has not been a great leader. There's no stat for it, but it sure as shit matters. By ignoring it's importance you miss a relevant and key variable.
 
I dont care what their CF is this year, one plays for a good team and one plays for a bad team. And Chychrun has had trouble staying healthy until this season. We'll see. I think K'Andre will sign for less than 7. Probably something like 3x6.5.

I'd counter that with Miller is part of the reason they're bad lol.

I don't know. Miller will either be a short 1-2 year deal or 5+.

As for Chychrun, I'm with you. His injury history always scared me.
 
Is Chychrun better than Miller? Yes.

But I don't think Chychrun is a #1 or arguably even top pair. That's top pair money even with the inflation.

I don't want to get rid of Miller. I think he'd be a good defenseman on a team that played real hockey. He needs puck support which we don't do.

Orlov is gonna be 34 and Provorov sucks. As I've been saying, I just don't think the help is there right now in free agency.

There's not much in '26 either except for Cale Makar who I don't see not extending.
 
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I'd counter that with Miller is part of the reason they're bad lol.

I don't know. Miller will either be a short 1-2 year deal or 5+.

As for Chychrun, I'm with you. His injury history always scared me.

KAM is 25. I bet he wants to hit free agency again at age 28-29 when the cap has really ballooned. I think fans need to view contracts signed the next few summers through that prism. especially RFA contracts.
 
If the Rangers long-term issue is finding a star offensive player to carry a team, im not concerned. thats the one thing theyve been good at doing in my lifetime as a fan. A strong infrastructure of homegrown players around the stars is the issue. We havent had it since whatever Torts instilled in them went away in the later AV years. You get that back by building a team that takes pride in wearing the Rangers sweater again. Homegrown players care. Overpaid veterans on the back 9 of their career do not. And if you're going to have guys like that, Id prefer them to be the ones who will actually lead. I think we can all agree anyone who has been wearing a letter for this team has not been a great leader. There's no stat for it, but it sure as shit matters. By ignoring it's importance you miss a relevant and key variable.
I mean, I get it.

The year and change right after Torts where they still played like a Torts team, but AV didn't bench them for scoring like Torts did, is my all-time favorite brand of Rangers hockey. We had a lot of fun and I actually enjoyed watching the team. I'd much rather have that over what we have now.

Still, that team didn't win and it's arguably because they didn't have a #1 guy offensively. I get what you're saying about the Rangers having the resources to get whoever but the next couple of years of free agency really don't look that good.

They also got really lucky on some stuff. Brassard was one of the most perfect fits in a trade this century, and Stralman was a legit top pair defenseman who fell from the sky.

Drury still has a long way to go to find some of those pieces that I don't think are in-house right now, especially at center and D because all the guys I like are wingers.
 
I mean, I get it.

The year and change right after Torts where they still played like a Torts team, but AV didn't bench them for scoring like Torts did, is my all-time favorite brand of Rangers hockey. We had a lot of fun and I actually enjoyed watching the team. I'd much rather have that over what we have now.

Still, that team didn't win and it's arguably because they didn't have a #1 guy offensively. I get what you're saying about the Rangers having the resources to get whoever but the next couple of years of free agency really don't look that good.

They also got really lucky on some stuff. Brassard was one of the most perfect fits in a trade this century, and Stralman was a legit top pair defenseman who fell from the sky.

Drury still has a long way to go to find some of those pieces that I don't think are in-house right now, especially at center and D because all the guys I like are wingers.

They thought Nash would be the #1 option but he wasnt that guy in NY sadly.

Part of the reason we find ourselves in this predicament is that we never even gave our #1 overall pick and chance to become a top offensive option. We can say Laf has sucked on the PP but for the majority of his Ranger career he's been on PP2 with Jonny Brodzinski and Jacob Trouba. You wouldve thought at some point they might attempt to play him on PP1 (with Trocheck and Panarin, who just so happened to make up the best 5v5 line in hockey last year, but I digress). Instead we've seen them force feed Mika and Kreider with declining efficiency since their magical run together in 2022. The veteran core runs the show, its why they are on their 3rd coach and he already needs to go to. For too long the team has accommodated what the players want, at the expense of whats best for the organization (top pair Lindgren for half a decade and Panarin dictating his linemates are 2 other good examples). They still haven't really fully bucked that trend yet but hopefully Drury understands the "Legacies" need to go, and we'll figure out how to replace their production when the team plays like they care on a nightly basis.
 
Here's why they're much better in 2025:

1) Top pair LD acquired in trade
2) Rot cleared out (how much to be seen but Kreider at the very least)
3) New coach with a system that adds actual puck support
4) More young legs filtering in
5) Igor's awesome

They still have a generational gigabrain (who is also a lazy office temp with a bad attitude) defenseman and awesome mobile physical specimen gentle giant who have basically played their entire careers on hard mode. Their goalie plays the game on hard mode while being attacked with baseball bats. If they fix their in zone structure and zone exits *everything* becomes easier.

Focusing on their weird dysfunctional offense is treating the symptoms and not the disease. Fixing the foundation of their game is a force multiplier for everything.
 
Here's why they're much better in 2025:

1) Top pair LD acquired in trade
2) Rot cleared out (how much to be seen but Kreider at the very least)
3) New coach with a system that adds actual puck support
4) More young legs filtering in
5) Igor's awesome

They still have a generational gigabrain (who is also a lazy office temp with a bad attitude) defenseman and awesome mobile physical specimen gentle giant who have basically played their entire careers on hard mode. Their goalie plays the game on hard mode while being attacked with baseball bats. If they fix their in zone structure and zone exits *everything* becomes easier.

Focusing on their weird dysfunctional offense is treating the symptoms and not the disease. Fixing the foundation of their game is a force multiplier for everything.
Which top pair LD?
 
There's a pretty good chance k'Andre or Schneider could do the job next to Fox, Laviolette just has a brain the size of a walnut/is as checked out as his players.
As an org they *very much* want KAM-??? to be their matchup pair and I don't think they're gonna stop that. It's been years of that.

Their treatment of Schneider tells you they think he's a 3rd pairing guy and can't perform higher. They gave Urho and Soucy minutes next to Fox over Schneider and will continue to do so.
 
Is Chychrun better than Miller? Yes.

But I don't think Chychrun is a #1 or arguably even top pair. That's top pair money even with the inflation.

I don't want to get rid of Miller. I think he'd be a good defenseman on a team that played real hockey. He needs puck support which we don't do.

Orlov is gonna be 34 and Provorov sucks. As I've been saying, I just don't think the help is there right now in free agency.

There's not much in '26 either except for Cale Makar who I don't see not extending.

I agree with this. I like Chychrun. I don't like Chychrun at $9m per season. The guy who would have been a really nice fit here, and who the team was indeed after by all accounts but couldn't trade Trouba in time, is Matt Roy.

I'll be honest, I don't NEED a top pair LD. What I need is a solid group of 5 competent NHL d-men who can serve specific roles after Fox. Miller and Borgen are (2) of those 5 to me. Schneider for now is fine. That leaves (2) spots. Gavrikov would be great, but even signing someone like Orlov to a 3 year deal would suit the purpose here. He's a competent NHL d-man who can provide some offense and move the puck and he's unlikely to break the bank.
 
I loved Chychrun on his current contract. $9M is kind of steep.

He'd be the perfect pairing with Fox. Size, skating, puck moving and goal scoring. I could have easily seen him pushing 25+ goals a season playing with Fox.

It is what it is.

Drury better figure it out because our defense is not good enough.
 
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As an org they *very much* want KAM-??? to be their matchup pair and I don't think they're gonna stop that. It's been years of that.

Their treatment of Schneider tells you they think he's a 3rd pairing guy and can't perform higher. They gave Urho and Soucy minutes next to Fox over Schneider and will continue to do so.

I just dont get why Schneider is untouchable to them in a trade but looked good on the left side with Trouba, but now they wont try him there. It feels like a disconnect between coaching and management imo. especially with the benefit of hindsight where the Rangers might have a Cup if they were willing to give up Schneider and Chytil 3 years ago to get JT.
 
That's up to the people who get hundreds of thousands of dollars per year and not some guy on a messageboard.
And if they fail to acquire one, or if they acquire one and that player fails, will it still be up to them? Or will you criticize what they did or didn't do in hindsight?
 

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