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

[KirkAlbuquerque]

Bring back Sather as GM!!!

And HC

 

[LaffyTaffy13]

realistic TDL moves would be

Lindgren at 50% retained for a 2nd
Borgen at 50% retained for a 2nd or a 3rd
Vesey for a 4th
Quick for a 3rd
Riley smith for a 3rd

I just think kandre and kreider or more offseason moves and pure hockey trades with players for players

 

[HFsNumber1Heel]

We have to play the chips we’re dealt. No doubt. We can’t play Florida style hockey with our roster. Nor can we play Oilers or Devils hockey. But I don’t see why we can’t focus on quick north-south puck movement and simple defensive zone collapses. This would take away missed assignments and minimize cross-ice pass interceptions. Also consider leaving one defenseman back / limit the pinching. The current system works if you have excellent skating defensemen who can recover from bad pinches in the offensive zone. That’s not us.

So all this to say: maybe a problem — not the problem — is in fact the coaching staff. The system just doesn’t work with this roster. So change the roster or change the system. Changing it won’t make us a Presidents trophy winner, but it will certainly make this season far more respectable, at least until we figure out this roster.


But it doesn’t match the coaching staff. And it contrasts sharply with the existing roster to boot. It’s just a cacophony.

Everyone has known since 2022-23 after helmet gate that there was going to be a seismic shift in personnel and style. They have a whole bunch of interest prospects coming up the next 2-3 years. Other than Perrault, no one is elite, what they are is cot effective and young. You get one high pick this year, and then somewhere else a random player exceeds expectations (e.g. Lamb out of nowhere becomes a 30 goal scorer), now you're in business.

 

[HFsNumber1Heel]

realistic TDL moves would be

Lindgren at 50% retained for a 2nd
Borgen at 50% retained for a 2nd or a 3rd
Vesey for a 4th
Quick for a 3rd
Riley smith for a 3rd

I just think kandre and kreider or more offseason moves and pure hockey trades with players for players

Vesey and Quick are more like 5th and 6th rounders unfortunately.

 

[Levitate]

Miller can probably be salvaged if someone sits him down and tells him to f***in' play defense first and then worry about the rest
but his agent is probably gonna try to push for asking for the moon

 

[HFsNumber1Heel]

Bring back Sather as GM!!!

Banf is beautiful Dawg. After spending a day there I'm like "yeah, I get why this is Sather's retirement place".

 

[Trxjw]

The team needs to figure out what they have before they decide what they're going to be. I don't think they're staring down 5 years of bottom-dwelling if they can be smart about their next moves. Granted, Drury handing out an awful contract to Igor isn't exactly confidence inspiring, but that impact can be mitigated.

I want to see what Lafreniere can do when the org clears the road for him to be the guy before I write him off as someone who can't be. I want to see what Cuylle does with more minutes. I want to see what Othmann can bring to the table. I want to see what Miller and Schneider can do with a defensive scheme that isn't absolute garbage.

Clear the room of the people dragging it down and let the kids play before you decide we need X, Y, and Z.

 

[mandiblesofdoom]

If I had any emotion left to give to this team, it would be anger atm. These past two weeks have been a mess.

We are 100% a worse team than we were two weeks ago. We should go full tank mode!

My money is on we're getting another letter later this season.

Can they just rebuild & not send a letter? Do all organizations send letters?

 

[Mac n Gs]

Whenever they shitcan Laviolette and Housley, which is hopefully after Florida clownpounds us tomorrow, they should throw a blank check at Rick Bowness to come on as an advisor to coach the defense. I know, he’s “retired,” but in a recent interview you could tell he misses being a coach. He’s helped make a lot of dmen go on to have great careers, and I’m sick of watching Housley coach the literal brains out of guys like Miller and Schneider.

 

[Profet]

If Matthews has surgery or is on IR the rest of the season, with some additional cap magic they could probably fit Zib and Kreider at the deadline and get Matthews back for the playoffs.

 

[Cmox]

I don't even have to hear the tone he answered this in.

 

[mandiblesofdoom]

I’ve wondered if NYR would consider asking Brassard to join the org in a player development role. They need to do everything in their power to make sure Perreault hits his ceiling.

That's an interesting idea. Brassard got the most out of his talent, played a good brand of hockey. I still don't get why they have Ortmeyer, Glass, and now Staal doing this.

 

[Shesterkybomb]

That's an interesting idea. Brassard got the most out of his talent, played a good brand of hockey. I still don't get why they have Ortmeyer, Glass, and now Staal doing this.

I'd love to see if Lidstrom was available for that role or for d coach.

 

[will1066]

The team needs to figure out what they have before they decide what they're going to be. I don't think they're staring down 5 years of bottom-dwelling if they can be smart about their next moves. Granted, Drury handing out an awful contract to Igor isn't exactly confidence inspiring, but that impact can be mitigated.

I want to see what Lafreniere can do when the org clears the road for him to be the guy before I write him off as someone who can't be. I want to see what Cuylle does with more minutes. I want to see what Othmann can bring to the table. I want to see what Miller and Schneider can do with a defensive scheme that isn't absolute garbage.

Clear the room of the people dragging it down and let the kids play before you decide we need X, Y, and Z.

Don't want to infect the younger ones anymore than they have been. Clean house, disinfect because the kids coming up aren't oblivious to what's happening here and being thrown into this mess would be catastrophic. They're still moldable.

 

[Gordon Bombay]

Banf is beautiful Dawg. After spending a day there I'm like "yeah, I get why this is Sather's retirement place".

They got cell service yet?

Can they just rebuild & not send a letter? Do all organizations send letters?

If your GM actually talks to the media and says what the team's plan is, no they don't usually send out a letter. Ours is in a cave making pizza on a fire so I assume a letter is coming if that's the plan

 

[eco's bones]

For Quick to move.....a playofff team is going to already pretty much have a hole as far a backup. If you got a pretty good backup there's not really a spot for him. No team is going to on purpose carry three goalies for the balance of the regular season.

Smith, Borgen, Lindgren will move as rentals---maybe Vesey too. Barring season ending injury I can see Kreider moving. He's a leader who isn't leading. He's also a proven playoff player with limited term and if you can him back on track a pretty friendly cap hit. Some teams will gamble on that. Mika at this point I'd think we'd have to pay someone to take. It's a way worse issue than Trouba or Goodrow. Miller's a possibility to move. I think the Rangers feel him out beforehand about his next contract and decide from there. We're not all that far away from unrestricted with him too. Signing him long term for a big number I just don't see.

As far as completely blowing up the team. You don't hold on to Shesterkin if you intend to do that. Maybe not Fox either. Maybe not even Lafreniere. So where would you go from there? The Rangers I think will hang on to Igor, Trocheck, Laf, Panarin (for now), Fox, Cuylle, Schneider because they'll need a framework to build around starting next year. I wouldn't be shocked if Mika is still here because we won't find someone to offload him on. I suspect we'll be picking up draft picks/prospects/young roster players at the deadline and have lots of cap space when free agency opens up. If Drury's still the GM and/or Laviolette is still coach is pretty much up in the air. I would say maybe on Drury and not likely on Laviolette.

 

[Uglybstrd]

Rangers have quit on Peter Laviolette — and it will eventually cost him his job​

Ownership and management had no stomach for this. The hierarchy was not going to allow this flawed core to fire another head coach less than two years after beseeching GM Chris Drury to dismiss Gerard Gallant in May of 2023, 11 months after going to the conference final.

But that’s what this splintered core has effectively done even if Peter Laviolette remains behind the Rangers bench much like a broken general pleading with his troops not to desert the battlefield. It is only a matter of time, whether it is this week, next month or the moment the season ends.

This is like the old movie plot in which a man has been poisoned and knows he will die in 24 hours but takes the time left to track down his murderer. But in this case, it does not take nearly that long to identify the culprit.

It’s the core.

Now the splintered core.

The Rangers have quit on their coach, they have quit on the organization, they have quit on themselves, they have quit on each other, they have quit on the fans who pay top dollar to fill the Garden and they have quit on New York.

This is worse than the Dark Ages of 1997 through 2004 in which mercenaries filled the Ranger$ roster and missed the playoffs seven straight seasons. I have been watching the Rangers for nearly 70 years, I was in the side balcony while the team was an Original Six laughingstock and I was in the blue seats when it all came tumbling down for Emile in 1975-76, but I don’t know if I have seen anything quite like this ongoing disgrace to the sweater.

Laviolette and his staff have done themselves no favors. The Rangers have no structure. They have not defended from Game 1. There is no coherent way out of the defensive zone. There is no forecheck. The neutral zone has become a sieve. The same mistakes are committed over and over again. There have been few adjustments. There has been no accountability.

This last-place team does not present a single redeeming quality. They lack self-belief. They do not compete. At this point, there is not a single player who is playing well. This has become an unhealthy environment for the kids who are supposed to be learning how to conduct themselves.

Aww, are the core’s feelings hurt? In nearly a half-century in this business, I have never heard more about feelings than I have the last three months.
Barclay Goodrow’s feelings were hurt. Jacob Trouba’s feelings were hurt. Their friends’ feelings were hurt. Boo hoo. Funny, none of them have asked to be traded. I guess they just thought they were just going to fire another coach or maybe this time get the GM.

This is not about saving this season. Yesterday’s not only gone, so is tomorrow. This is about restoring a modicum of credibility to the operation. 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.
Ownership proved in 2018 that the goal is not to simply scrape into the playoffs for a couple of postseason home games but to win the Stanley Cup. The Rangers will take a step back in order to take two steps forward.

Drury has made his share of mistakes. The Substack message after which the team has rolled into a fetal position was a mistake, but the team had just had consecutive no-show first periods and had already been outclassed decisively by Washington, Winnipeg and had been humiliated at home by Buffalo. Toxicity had already been in the air for weeks.

The GM’s biggest mistake, however, was not recognizing that bringing Trouba back into the room after the events of the summer — documented accurately in this space in July and in September — would prove destructive.

Power against power, Trouba won but what are his winnings? He will be remembered as the worst captain in the history of the franchise, he has been bounced across the country, separated from his family, could be moved again at the deadline and maybe again over the summer. Or maybe there will be a buyout. A more Pyrrhic victory has never been achieved.

There are seismic decisions ahead. The core as we know it is finished. But they got themselves one more one pelt, didn’t they?

Fait accompli.

The 2024-25 Rangers’ only accomplishment.

Larry Brooks for the Pulitzer

 

[I Eat Crow]

I don't even have to hear the tone he answered this in.

It's actually way more mature a response than I was expecting.

 

[effen]

Miller can probably be salvaged if someone sits him down and tells him to f***in' play defense first and then worry about the rest
but his agent is probably gonna try to push for asking for the moon

I have no interest in a 7/49+ deal for K'Aant Playdefense. Hockey trade that man.

I stand by Mika having some medical issue that is preventing his body from doing what his brain wants. He knows what he wants to do he just can't do it and it's eating him up. Seems obvious.

Facts are facts and he needs to get the f*** off the team, but I don't think he's part of the rot. I think he's just broken. He certainly plays like it.

 

[mas0764]

The identity I want to develop is a high IQ team that plays fast.

A team I always go back to really liking stylistically is the 2014 into most of 2015 run. Everyone talked about how fast that team was.

Not f***in Brad Richards! Sure as hell not Derek Stepan, my God. Rick Nash wasn't that fast. Kevin Hayes was pretty slow. The defense was completely immobile outside of McDonagh.

That team played fast because almost everyone on the roster excelled at processing the game.

This team sucks at it. The only guys I really like under pressure with a hundred things being thrown at them are Fox and Chytil. Even Panarin leans way too much on "let me stand here and wait for a pass that only I can hit" and if it doesn't materialize, it's a turnover. He doesn't come up with alternatives on the fly. Kreider is smart in between games in terms of understanding his abilities and how to apply them, and he deserves a lot of credit for re-inventing himself as he lost his speed. In game, he's pretty meh at reading and reacting. I'd throw Cuylle into the same boat. Everyone else is a brainlet.

That's why our offense is so boring and ineffective at 5v5. They don't see opportunities develop. They play catch until the other team makes an obvious mistake, and if they don't, we just don't score. The powerplay got by on talent for a few years but it's becoming the same paint by numbers bullshit. They can't move their feet and get chaos going on the powerplay like good teams do, because they can't process that.

Interesting that Lafrienere was supposed to be a smart player but doesn't seem to be so far.

 

[McRanger92]

Have to think Drury is going to take the next offer he gets on Smith or Vesey and call up Othmann, now that he’s healthy.

 

[LaffyTaffy13]

Vesey and Quick are more like 5th and 6th rounders unfortunately.

Disagree. Duhaime got moved for a 3rd last TDL for example. Jake allen got moved for a 3rd as well.

 

[Mike in Houston]

Interesting that Lafrienere was supposed to be a smart player but doesn't seem to be so far.

He should've played more softball this past offseason.

 

[LiveLongandProspal]

Is Drury gone yet?

 

[TheGortonConspiracy]

team in absolute shambles

brooks: "i don't know if i have seen anything quite like this ongoing disgrace to the sweater" (he compared it to 1997-2004 "dark ages" and 1975-76 season which was before my time)

Dolan (Sather) need to do something asap

team is painful to watch