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

[RangerBoy]

Columbus is led by a bunch of kids. Adam Fantilli is completing his 2nd season in the NHL. He is playing major minutes. 30 goals. If Fantilli was on the Rangers, he would on the 4th line. Boone Jenner missed most of the season with a shoulder injury. Sean Monahan missed two months with a hand injury. Fantilli stepped up his game. I was listening to Marek's show in December and he was saying scouts had issues with Fantilli's hockey sense. Really? Fantilli took off the last 3-4 months.

Kiril Marchenko. Kent Johnson. Dmitri Voronkov. They all play the right way. I was watching the Columbus game against Washington on Sunday. Steve Mears and Jody Shelley were saying how all of the young players are playing direct games and they showed clips of Johnson and Voronkov playing a north and south game. That team is going to be a problem. I hope Montreal loses tonight and Columbus beats the Islanders tomorrow night to make the playoffs. The Caps beat them in 5 or 6 games. You never know.

The Rangers would never put that number of young players in prominent positions. The Rangers would have a bunch of veteran players so they could remain "competitive".

Peter Baugh wrote the Rangers have fallen enough because other teams with young players have gotten better. It's true. He mentioned Alexis Lafreniere isn't a generational talent. He was never a generational talent. Later Baugh mentioned Tim Stutzle in Ottawa being a star player. I guarantee you if the roles were reversed, Lafreniere would be the star player and Stutzle would be stuck in the mud with the Rangers.

The Rangers don't trust young forwards for some reason and it's not like the veteran players are a group of elite talents leading the Rangers to the Cup every season. .

The Rangers keep rolling out Artemi Panarin, Mika Zibanejad, Chris Kreider, Vincent Trocheck and JT Miller. The PP sucks. No adjustments. Same personnel. Season is over. The same group against Florida. Can we see other players in the last two games? Nope.

 

[Homelander]

Fire Drury

 

[Do you want ants]

Columbus is led by a bunch of kids. Adam Fantilli is completing his 2nd season in the NHL. He is playing major minutes. 30 goals. If Fantilli was on the Rangers, he would on the 4th line. Boone Jenner missed most of the season with a shoulder injury. Sean Monahan missed two months with a hand injury. Fantilli stepped up his game. I was listening to Marek's show in December and he was saying scouts had issues with Fantilli's hockey sense. Really? Fantilli took off the last 3-4 months.

Kiril Marchenko. Kent Johnson. Dmitri Voronkov. They all play the right way. I was watching the Columbus game against Washington on Sunday. Steve Mears and Jody Shelley were saying how all of the young players are playing direct games and they showed clips of Johnson and Voronkov playing a north and south game. That team is going to be a problem. I hope Montreal loses tonight and Columbus beats the Islanders tomorrow night to make the playoffs. The Caps beat them in 5 or 6 games. You never know.

The Rangers would never put that number of young players in prominent positions. The Rangers would have a bunch of veteran players so they could remain "competitive".

Peter Baugh wrote the Rangers have fallen enough because other teams with young players have gotten better. It's true. He mentioned Alexis Lafreniere isn't a generational talent. He was never a generational talent. Later Baugh mentioned Tim Stutzle in Ottawa being a star player. I guarantee you if the roles were reversed, Lafreniere would be the star player and Stutzle would be stuck in the mud with the Rangers.

The Rangers don't trust young forwards for some reason and it's not like the veteran players are a group of elite talents leading the Rangers to the Cup every season. .

The Rangers keep rolling out Artemi Panarin, Mika Zibanejad, Chris Kreider, Vincent Trocheck and JT Miller. The PP sucks. No adjustments. Same personnel. Season is over. The same group against Florida. Can we see other players in the last two games? Nope.

It’s unlikely, but maybe this time they’ll actually hire a coach that isn’t known for catering to and riding Vets and making young players earn it (and not actually promote them when they do) and hire one that can handle infusing young talent into the line up with a vision for both the short and long term.

 

[GoAwayPanarin]

Columbus would give Washington trouble.

Montreal lasts 5 if they get lucky. That team is fools gold.

 

[McRanger92]

Mika’s like…. really handsome.

My wife is repulsed by him lol

 

[McRanger92]

Columbus is led by a bunch of kids. Adam Fantilli is completing his 2nd season in the NHL. He is playing major minutes. 30 goals. If Fantilli was on the Rangers, he would on the 4th line. Boone Jenner missed most of the season with a shoulder injury. Sean Monahan missed two months with a hand injury. Fantilli stepped up his game. I was listening to Marek's show in December and he was saying scouts had issues with Fantilli's hockey sense. Really? Fantilli took off the last 3-4 months.

Kiril Marchenko. Kent Johnson. Dmitri Voronkov. They all play the right way. I was watching the Columbus game against Washington on Sunday. Steve Mears and Jody Shelley were saying how all of the young players are playing direct games and they showed clips of Johnson and Voronkov playing a north and south game. That team is going to be a problem. I hope Montreal loses tonight and Columbus beats the Islanders tomorrow night to make the playoffs. The Caps beat them in 5 or 6 games. You never know.

The Rangers would never put that number of young players in prominent positions. The Rangers would have a bunch of veteran players so they could remain "competitive".

Peter Baugh wrote the Rangers have fallen enough because other teams with young players have gotten better. It's true. He mentioned Alexis Lafreniere isn't a generational talent. He was never a generational talent. Later Baugh mentioned Tim Stutzle in Ottawa being a star player. I guarantee you if the roles were reversed, Lafreniere would be the star player and Stutzle would be stuck in the mud with the Rangers.

The Rangers don't trust young forwards for some reason and it's not like the veteran players are a group of elite talents leading the Rangers to the Cup every season. .

The Rangers keep rolling out Artemi Panarin, Mika Zibanejad, Chris Kreider, Vincent Trocheck and JT Miller. The PP sucks. No adjustments. Same personnel. Season is over. The same group against Florida. Can we see other players in the last two games? Nope.

Stands to reason JD had time to do the game the other night with Sam. If he was still pulling the strings in CBJ the kids would be playing on the 3rd line like they did in NY. Columbus also had a major void up front when Johnny Hockey passed. Their kids had no choice but to raise their level of play. Im rooting for them.

 

[UnparalledPark]

My wife is repulsed by him lol

My wife asks me 3 times each game what icing is, but she made me get her a Zibadejad jersey.

 

[McRanger92]

My wife asks me 3 times each game what icing is, but she made me get her a Zibadejad jersey.

Different strokes haha

 

[UnparalledPark]

Different strokes haha

As I woke up this morning and looked in the mirror, I suspect your wife has better taste in men than mine.

 

[KirkAlbuquerque]

My wife is repulsed by him lol

Your wife and I have something in common

 

[GoAwayPanarin]

When watching highlights of Hagens he seems to be a great skater to me but still none of these 3 guys seem like they're going to be absolute superstars. It seems like a pretty weak draft class. I won't pretend I watch much OHL or College Hockey, the only Junior hockey I watch is International tournaments, some MHL, and some WHL. I go to a handful of WHL games per year and usually try to schedule around which notable prospects are playing the Giants in said game. But from the highlights I've seen of Hagens & Misa, Hagens seems to be the better skater in my eyes.

A player who may go where we're currently projected to pick, who's a center is; Jake O'Brien. He looks pretty impressive in highlights I've seen and reports I've read, however he's yet another guy who's not a very good skater lol so he may not be the best fit for our current roster construction but he's who I think I would target at our projected spot.

For Russian deep sleepers... Daniil Prokhorov is very intriguing. A massive 6'6 winger with a lot of flare, throws huge hits and is blazing fast. But he is very raw, definitely a project.

There isn't a single offensive tool where I'd give Hagens the edge over Misa including skating. Neither of them are super burners but Misa's got more room for growth there. Great mechanics, just needs a bit more burst. Could straight up be Kucherov at C. Awesome shooter.

McKenna has a shit load of hype for next year (warranted) but I don't think the gap between the 2 of them is that big (they're both 07's, McKenna is a December BD.)

I'm not going to sit here and act like the quality of the OHL hasn't fallen off of a cliff in the last 7 years, but leading the league in scoring is leading the league in scoring. NCAA is an infinitely tougher league, but Hagens didn't really have that great of a season considering who he played with. He's no scrub and probably the BPA at 3, but he's not an Eichel level prospect. With the other guys who are of the opinion that he probably slots in better as your 2nd option (in terms of impact someone said Hischer and thats probably right, will concede that he's got a higher ceiling bc of a better natural skill set.)

Also to your point that no one was talking about Schaefer - He was the #1 OA in the OHL draft and has smoked international competition when ever called upon (was easily Canada's best D at the Hilinka and arguably so at the U-18's last year where he participated as a 16 YO. His WJC was obviously cut short but he looked great when he played.) He's been on the radar. A talented guy taking off with added responsibility isn't surprising at all.

Not everyone is going to be Landon Dupont where they get a ton of minutes off the bat and crush them (This is the WHL guy everyone should really be going nuts about.)

 

[Machinehead]

Lafreniere has been cemented to the top six since Gallant took over.

I don't care what lineup Vince tweets -- look at the TOI. He plays a ton.

"Put him on the powerplay!" He's one of the least effective powerplay scorers of the 21st century. 16 points in 489 minutes. His 5v5 p/60 (1.84) is almost the same as his powerplay p/60 (1.99).

"He barely plays on the powerplay." Will Cuylle barely plays on the powerplay -- he scores 3.79 p/60. Tony DeAngelo has more points on the powerplay since 2020 for the Rangers than Lafreniere does. DeAngelo hasn't played for the Rangers since 2020.

He was given an opportunity on the powerplay when Kreider was hurt. He did nothing and they were 0 for the universe.

He just sucks.

I do think the Rangers suck with young players. Othmann barely plays. Berard barely plays. They signed Gabe to scratch him. You have to be a 4th liner before you've earned the right to play for the Rangers. Cuylle played 6:58 a game his first callup and 11:08 last year in a full season.

They never did that with Lafreniere. He played 13:53 out of the gate. He was in the top six for his NHL debut. He lost that spot immediately. He kept losing that spot until Gallant gave up because he had nobody else to play. Laviolette hasn't had anyone else to play.

He's played almost every minute of the last two years with the best forward this team has ever(?) had. We twisted that into a bad thing somehow.

The Rangers suck with young players generally, but they gave Lafreniere every possible opportunity. Both things are true.

 

[Guyute]

Lafreniere has been cemented to the top six since Gallant took over.

I don't care what lineup Vince tweets -- look at the TOI. He plays a ton.

"Put him on the powerplay!" He's one of the least effective powerplay scorers of the 21st century. 16 points in 489 minutes. His 5v5 p/60 (1.84) is almost the same as his powerplay p/60 (1.99).

"He barely plays on the powerplay." Will Cuylle barely plays on the powerplay -- he scores 3.79 p/60. Tony DeAngelo has more points on the powerplay since 2020 for the Rangers than Lafreniere does. DeAngelo hasn't played for the Rangers since 2020.

He was given an opportunity on the powerplay when Kreider was hurt. He did nothing and they were 0 for the universe.

He just sucks.

I do think the Rangers suck with young players. Othmann barely plays. Berard barely plays. They signed Gabe to scratch him. You have to be a 4th liner before you've earned the right to play for the Rangers. Cuylle played 6:58 a game his first callup and 11:08 last year in a full season.

They never did that with Lafreniere. He played 13:53 out of the gate. He was in the top six for his NHL debut. He lost that spot immediately. He kept losing that spot until Gallant gave up because he had nobody else to play. Laviolette hasn't had anyone else to play.

He's played almost every minute of the last two years with the best forward this team has ever(?) had. We twisted that into a bad thing somehow.

The Rangers suck with young players generally, but they gave Lafreniere every possible opportunity. Both things are true.

"16 points in 489 minutes. His 5v5 p/60 (1.84) is almost the same as his powerplay p/60 (1.99)."

Cmon man please. These numbers mean exactly nothing without context. 90% of those 489 minutes are Trouba/KAM/Jones fishing the puck from behind Igor then leading one last rush with only 30 seconds remaining on the PP.

 

[The Crypto Guy]

"16 points in 489 minutes. His 5v5 p/60 (1.84) is almost the same as his powerplay p/60 (1.99)."

Cmon man please. These numbers mean exactly nothing without context. 90% of those 489 minutes are Trouba/KAM/Jones fishing the puck from behind Igor then leading one last rush with only 30 seconds remaining on the PP.

He knows that, he's trying to be cute with numbers that mean zero without the context he conveniently left out.

 

[kovazub94]

"16 points in 489 minutes. His 5v5 p/60 (1.84) is almost the same as his powerplay p/60 (1.99)."

Cmon man please. These numbers mean exactly nothing without context. 90% of those 489 minutes are Trouba/KAM/Jones fishing the puck from behind Igor then leading one last rush with only 30 seconds remaining on the PP.

Did Lafreniere do much better in his (admittedly very limited) time away from Trouba and Miller?

 

[Fitzy]

Kakko had a 70 point upside and turned into a 35-45 point third line wing who is solid defensively.

Laf has more like 80-90 point upside an has turned into a 45-60 point second line wing who is lazy as shit.

I guess that's why they call it upside.

 

[Machinehead]

Did Lafreniere do much better in his (admittedly very limited) time away from Trouba and Miller?

When we have to ask questions we already know the answer to...

 

[EdJovanovski]

 

[TGWL]

Trocheck was crap 2 out 3 seasons he's been here, Zib had higher highs but lower lows and has been nosediving the past 3 years. Z and Kreider need to be gone not just for dwindling performance but for culture reasons. Which means we're probably rebuilding, in which case having Trocheck on the team is pointless as well and we should try to get some assets for him.

Trade or keep him aside, define crap when directing it to Trocheck? He's paid under 6m, and was thrown into a top role with us instead of his normal middle 6. But he wasn't paid to be that. So now it seems a lot of fans are judging him for not following up the Panarin/Tro/Laf line that produced really well last season. Trocheck being fed more minutes is a result of the team having an issue, not Trocheck being crap.

 

[tiggles]

Did Lafreniere do much better in his (admittedly very limited) time away from Trouba and Miller?

The parenthetical is doing a lot of heavy lifting

 

[Machinehead]

Over the same timeframe, Jacob Trouba, who was apparently the cause of Lafreniere putting up a 1.99 p/60 on the powerplay, put up a 2.69 p/60 on the powerplay.

Filip Chytil, 2.08.

Kaapo Kakko, 3.27.

Reilly Smith, 3.35. 5.02 just as a Ranger!!!

Erik Gustafsson last year, 5.60.

Smith and Gustafsson put up legit first-unit numbers on the same PP2 that Lafreniere was on.

All of the guys on PP2 who were sabotaging Lafreniere outproduced him.

Some people are just beyond the pale with Lafreniere. There's absolutely nothing he can do to convince them he's just not very good.

 

[Killem Dafoe]

I'm probably in the minority here but I think Laf's play just mirrored everyone else's this season. The whole team gave up after like 20 games. No one played particularly well this year (or at least up to their potential) I think Laf is still a 70+ point player during a season where everyone's heads aren't firmly planted up their asses.

 

[Machinehead]

I'm probably in the minority here but I think Laf's play just mirrored everyone else's this season. The whole team gave up after like 20 games. No one played particularly well this year (or at least up to their potential) I think Laf is still a 70+ point player during a season where everyone's heads aren't firmly planted up their asses.

That's fine if you think that!

I'm just tired of hearing about his lack of opportunities and how the Rangers ruined him. You need a crowbar to get him out of the top six.

He hasn't been put on PP1 because putting Lafreniere on your powerplay and trying to score is like sawing off a leg and trying to play hopscotch.

We say we want meritocracy and then we complain that players aren't doing things they're terrible at because we like those players.

 

[Fitzy]

I'm probably in the minority here but I think Laf's play just mirrored everyone else's this season. The whole team gave up after like 20 games. No one played particularly well this year (or at least up to their potential) I think Laf is still a 70+ point player during a season where everyone's heads aren't firmly planted up their asses.

He absolutely can go back to being a 60-70 point guy in a normal year. But he lacks compete, snarl, speed… he’s an okay top 6 guy who doesn’t fit the kind of elements this team is desperately in need of out of more in their top forwards.

He’s a better Reilly Smith in that sense. We need Chimera types

 

[TGWL]

Peter Baugh wrote the Rangers have fallen enough because other teams with young players have gotten better. It's true. He mentioned Alexis Lafreniere isn't a generational talent. He was never a generational talent. Later Baugh mentioned Tim Stutzle in Ottawa being a star player. I guarantee you if the roles were reversed, Lafreniere would be the star player and Stutzle would be stuck in the mud with the Rangers.

The Rangers don't trust young forwards for some reason and it's not like the veteran players are a group of elite talents leading the Rangers to the Cup every season. .

The Rangers keep rolling out Artemi Panarin, Mika Zibanejad, Chris Kreider, Vincent Trocheck and JT Miller. The PP sucks. No adjustments. Same personnel. Season is over. The same group against Florida. Can we see other players in the last two games? Nope.

The gap between what the vets produced and what the youth produced was very high. Now that some of the vets aren't producing as much, the team didn't get carried by them and the younger players didn't do enough to close that gap and make up for it. Until this season, the Vets were the ones leading the group to the playoffs and deeper runs.

Cuylle wasn't going to push the season to the winning side by being given 2 more minutes a night. Laf received plenty of time and did nothing with it outside the first 19 games. This season is on him and has nothing to do with being held back or the organization halting his development. He showed up last season and took a step back. Yes, the team took a major step back as well, but the way Lafreniere played is on him. The 4th line is the 4th line. I will agree that when the season was pretty much lost, a change should have be made. Whether it's a direct message to the vets, or just seeing what you have with your organization's youth, but they choose to ride it out and hope for the best

The argument can be made about putting our eggs in the wrong basket, how the organization believed this was a competitive team, rushing the rebuild, or just hiring the wrong personnel, but the vets carrying this team is because the other players couldn't.

Gabe, Othmann, Robertson and Jones played in the game against Florida? Aside from Berard coming back in, who else do you want to see? Or were you strictly talking about the powerplay?