Speculation: Roster Building Thread : Part XV (Light em up!)

[Glen Sathers Cigar]

Nothing Brooks said was wrong.

Nothing about that article was dramatic or over the top.

Agreed, that article is incredibly spot on.

 

[NYR Viper]

When is Drury going to pull the plug on Jones?

 

[mike14]

Fluff? He pulled no punches & every point he made was spot on.

Yes, fluff. There was nothing new in there, no deeper insight and no analysis. It's filler. I get he's got a column to fill and it's his job but let's not pretend he's churning out the good stuff here

 

[LokiDog]

Larry went full scorched earth. OMG this is glorious!

Gotta say it feels like he's pulled some of his copy right from these pages. Is @LokiDog Larry Brooks?

If I were getting paid, the games would be more watchable.

 

[zlev]

i really dont see it as quitting on the coach. i thought it was that a few weeks ago, but the more i watch them, i really don't see it. they had 50 shots last night, if they've given up on the coach that doesn't happen. they're too slow, cant defend, and dont generate enough high danger chances at 5v5. this has been the problem with this team for 4 seasons now, the difference this year is that they no longer have an elite PP that can swing games and the defense is worse than ever.

 

[RangersFan1994]

i really dont see it as quitting on the coach. i thought it was that a few weeks ago, but the more i watch them, i really don't see it. they had 50 shots last night, if they've given up on the coach that doesn't happen. they're too slow, cant defend, and dont generate enough high danger chances at 5v5. this has been the problem with this team for 4 seasons now, the difference this year is that they no longer have an elite PP that can swing games and the defense is worse than ever.

And Drury has done nothing to fix that because of some of the mess he made and Gorton made. Once that GTS fixed, it will look better.

 

[RangerBoy]

What are "seismic decisions ahead'? Why does that mean? Some of the moves seem pretty straightforward. Is not giving Panarin another contract a "seismic" move? No. Trade him? NMC. Unless the Rangers move Fox which would be a "seismic" move. Igor?

This is about reapplying a standard so that Drury and the hierarchy have the proper intelligence to make personnel decisions that will impact the next decade.

Are the Rangers rebuilding? Taking a step back?

They need to stop with this winning the Stanley Cup nonsense. The core group has crashed out.
It's over. All of the cap space was to tied into four forwards, two right shot D and Igor. There wasn’t much room to do anything else besides keeping their own players and accruing cap space for rentals with the Covid system.

The next core group isn't being built in one off-season or with one big free agent signing.

 

[DanielBrassard]

This just isn’t accurate. This team just went to the conference finals twice in 3 years. The Sabres aren’t good the senators aren’t good the penguins islanders aren’t good. This group of players is very good. But they’re lazy and they need a real coach. They have had 2 coaches that are known as short term motivators but not great coaches. And that’s exactly what they did. Drury hasn’t hired a Jon Cooper or a Rod Brindamour. He’s needed a Great coach for this group of babies. Talented but babies. Maybe that’s Quennville. A guy that might actually respect enough to play for

This mindset is partially the reason the rangers are where they are at this point. The players and I’m sure the front office to a degree huffed their own shit for far too long, not seemingly realizing that a lot of their success was on the back of things that are not so sustainable and are susceptible to randomness. We saw it with Zibanejad after the series against Florida and his comments to the media, he legitimately didn’t have a problem with the way he and the team played during that series. This team is not talented as a number of us have said for years, at least compared to the elite teams in the league. I’m glad Drury finally realized it even though it happened during the season and not during the summer.

 

[LokiDog]

Larry’s article isn’t fluff. Fluff would be taking a moderate stance that doesn’t point the finger too hard in any one direction while suggesting speculative fixes and speculating on what’s to come while having no solid information. This isn’t fluff, it’s just a scathing editorial on the current state of the team. There’s no real speculation. It isn’t towing the company line or trying not to take sides. It’s just an honest assessment of the NYR on 12/28/24. Fluff would be articles suggesting we trade Chytil + Lindgren and somehow get Brady Tkachuk in return.

 

[DanielBrassard]

What are "seismic decisions ahead'? Why does that mean? Some of the moves seem pretty straightforward. Is not giving Panarin another contract a "seismic" move? No. Trade him? NMC. Unless the Rangers move Fox which would be a "seismic" move. Igor?



Are the Rangers rebuilding? Taking a step back?

They need to stop with this winning the Stanley Cup nonsense. The core group has crashed out.
It's over. All of the cap space was to tied into four forwards, two right shot D and Igor. There wasn’t much room to do anything else besides keeping their own players and accruing cap space for rentals with the Covid system.

The next core group isn't being built in one off-season or with one big free agent signing.

They have to have a plan, a direction. That’s more important than what the plan is in and of itself. Pick a direction. I can see them going for a soft rebuild/retool with who they have on the roster, but I could also see a rebuild and going for youth. But they need to pick either and stick to the plan.

 

[I Eat Crow]

George Strait song. All my exes live in Texas and that's why I reside in Tennessee.


The players can go first.

100%. How many coaches has it been for Kreoder, Zibanejad, and Lindgren? AV, Quinn, Gallant, and now Laviolette. All in 7 years.

Unbelievable.

 

[Machinehead]

They have to have a plan, a direction. That’s more important than what the plan is in and of itself. Pick a direction. I can see them going for a soft rebuild/retool with who they have on the roster, but I could also see a rebuild and going for youth. But they need to pick either and stick to the plan.

Right, and if it's a retool, they need to be aggressive, which they weren't with the 2018 retool (and that's what it was, let's be honest).

The only aggressive moves they made were Trouba and Panarin. Beyond that it was mostly hoping the existing core would exceed expectations.

I would argue they f***ing did (50 goals from CK, 90 points from Zib, the absolute best of Panarin) and it was still nowhere near good enough.

 

[DanielBrassard]

Right, and if it's a retool, they need to be aggressive, which they weren't with the 2018 retool (and that's what it was, let's be honest).

The only aggressive moves they made were Trouba and Panarin. Beyond that it was mostly hoping the existing core would exceed expectations.

I would argue they f***ing did (50 goals from CK, 90 points from Zib, the absolute best of Panarin) and it was still nowhere near good enough.

Exactly. I’m not sure if Drury is the right man for that job which is concerning but I can see with having Fox, Lafreniere, Shesterkin, Chytil, Trocheck, Cuylle, Schneider, Miller already on the roster and either locked in or young enough that they wouldn’t go scorched earth but take a 1 or 2 year reset and target the 2026 UFA class. If they decide to start over, that means trading Fox, Shesterkin, Trocheck and Miller also and I don’t know if they have the stomach for that.

 

[UAGoalieGuy]

i really dont see it as quitting on the coach. i thought it was that a few weeks ago, but the more i watch them, i really don't see it. they had 50 shots last night, if they've given up on the coach that doesn't happen. they're too slow, cant defend, and dont generate enough high danger chances at 5v5. this has been the problem with this team for 4 seasons now, the difference this year is that they no longer have an elite PP that can swing games and the defense is worse than ever.

A broken clock is right twice a day. They have given up on the coach as they play no coherent system that the coaching staff want them to use. It's honestly blind luck they get the puck out of the defensive zone. Tampa had a good amount of neutral zone and defensive zone unforced turnovers.

Lack of creating high danger shots as you 100% correctly called out is a result of playing without structure. Tons of shots but most from the outside. It's just gotten disgustingly worse in the past month and a half where lines go out there and do whatever they want essentially.

No structure will lead to losses on the regular and why they lost games even when they outshoot their opponents by almost 2-1.

 

[HFsNumber1Heel]

If this core had any pride they'd take the Larry article and go on a ten game winning streak, but they're babies who can't deal with adversity.

 

[Machinehead]

Exactly. I’m not sure if Drury is the right man for that job which is concerning but I can see with having Fox, Lafreniere, Shesterkin, Chytil, Trocheck, Cuylle, Schneider, Miller already on the roster and either locked in or young enough that they wouldn’t go scorched earth but take a 1 or 2 year reset and target the 2026 UFA class. If they decide to start over, that means trading Fox, Shesterkin, Trocheck and Miller also and I don’t know if they have the stomach for that.

I'm sort of leaning towards more of a soft reset for a couple of reasons. One, like you said, there needs to be a vision. A full teardown gives you a vision with no pieces in it. That's much harder to complete. Two, there's already a solid group of young players existing, which again, is hard to replace if you have to do everything.

The thing that gives me pause is that the existing group of young players is mostly depth. We need to bring in the entire core group of forwards (only 1D and G are penciled in) and that's the hardest to acquire.

That being said, I don't think the Alexis Lafreniere/Will Cuylle Rangers are preventing us from getting good draft picks tbh.

If they want to step back for a couple of years and hit the 2026 UFA class, the #1 goal is to get rid of Zibanejad's contract before that by any means necessary.

 

[noncents]

i wanna hear more about the machinehead lokidog meetup and ensuing beef

 

[Boris Zubov]

Yes, fluff. There was nothing new in there, no deeper insight and no analysis. It's filler. I get he's got a column to fill and it's his job but let's not pretend he's churning out the good stuff here

Just because it's been discussed ad-nauseam on this board doesn't mean the message has made its way to the general population of non obsessed fans. So to many out there, there is new insight in the article.

Besides that, with the state of the media in general & every new beat writer who comes along afraid to ask difficult questions or disturb the status quo, its refreshing to hear someone actually fire away & say what needed to be said.

As fans we should be grateful that Brooks had the balls to put this in print. Maybe Dolan once again remembers he owns a hockey team, although it's bad timing with his dad passing away.

 

[Filip Chytil]

I'm sort of leaning towards more of a soft reset for a couple of reasons. One, like you said, there needs to be a vision. A full teardown gives you a vision with no pieces in it. That's much harder to complete. Two, there's already a solid group of young players existing, which again, is hard to replace if you have to do everything.

The thing that gives me pause is that the existing group of young players is mostly depth. We need to bring in the entire core group of forwards (only 1D and G are penciled in) and that's the hardest to acquire.

That being said, I don't think the Alexis Lafreniere/Will Cuylle Rangers are preventing us from getting good draft picks tbh.

If they want to step back for a couple of years and hit the 2026 UFA class, the #1 goal is to get rid of Zibanejad's contract before that by any means necessary.

If the Rangers somehow dealt Mika/Kreider/Lindgren/Panarin, would that constitute a rebuild or more of a soft reset?

 

[Machinehead]

If the Rangers somehow dealt Mika/Kreider/Lindgren/Panarin, would that constitute a rebuild or more of a soft reset?

Panarin is close to expiring and the others are so bad that, no, I don't think dealing them necessarily constitutes a full rebuild.

At this point, I think trading your 26 year old #1 D is the demarcation.

 

[GoAwayPanarin]

If the Rangers somehow dealt Mika/Kreider/Lindgren/Panarin, would that constitute a rebuild or more of a soft reset?

That’s a pretty hard reset.

 

[Profet]

If the Rangers somehow dealt Mika/Kreider/Lindgren/Panarin, would that constitute a rebuild or more of a soft reset?

Whoever is on the roster, it involves acquiring a young center to build around. A true top center.

You need that player for a successful rebuild.

 

[Filip Chytil]

Panarin is close to expiring and the others are so bad that, no, I don't think dealing them necessarily constitutes a full rebuild.

At this point, I think trading your 26 year old #1 D is the demarcation.

Makes sense. If you're dealing Fox, then we're in pretty hard rebuild status.

 

[NYR Viper]

If Drury does this properly, he’s going to have the ammunition to make 1-2 BIG trades as he sees fit along with a serious amount of cash for this years UFA class, maybe next years as well depending on if he spends it all this year. That’s a 2-year reset that’s completely viable

 

[Filip Chytil]

That’s a pretty hard reset.

Only Kreider + Lindgren being dealt would probably be the softer reset option I suppose. Probably the bare minimum at this point, no?