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

[TGWL]

Why do folks love Laf so much? You move him in any deal that makes NYR better today and tomorrow. I'll drive him to Vancouver myself if dealing him lands us EP. I think some overvalue Laf and don't see how much of his production / offensive ceiling is directly tied to playing with Panarin. EP is elite at both ends.

We finally drafted #1 and he'll carry that hype with the fanbase. Fans are scared that he's going to be elite elsewhere. It's one of things fans can't stomach, even If they don't think it'll happen here.

Unfortunately, because the team sucks so hard, it's hard to really judge Laf, other than his skating looks like it took a step backwards and he can't drive a line.. For the right piece, young and affordable, he absolutely should not be "off the table" because he hasn't done anything to be considered untouchable.

 

[Oscar Lindberg]

Don’t let this Canucks noise distract you from the fact that the next shoe to drop is them trading Jones away for a sleeve of Oreos.

Because the organization hates puck moving defensemen and would rather have big lugs who move the puck like a grenade

 

[GAGLine]

Depends on how high you value EP. Eichel didn't win a Cup either, before being traded to Vegas, so that argument doesn't hold.

EP has shown incredible talent and put up huge numbers already in the league. He's definitely an elite 1C. JT Miller also has great numbers, 1C for sure ... nominally. I really haven't JT play in ages. They play on the same line? JT centered his own line? I suppose JT and EP also fed off each other on the PP.

In any case, if there is an elite 1C available, we should go after him, and in the case it's EP.

I'm not suggesting that EP can't win a cup. There are a lot of players who went many years before winning a cup.

My point is that simply obtaining a 1C isn't the answer. It has to be the right player at the right time. I don't think Petersson is the right player, and I don't think this is the right time.

 

[mike14]

If you count ROR as an 'elite' center then yes every team that's won the Cup has an elite center, and there a LOT of elite centers in the NHL. ROR is a very good player who had an outlier season in a magical run.
Maybe the Caps? Was Backstrom still 'elite' when they finally won?
Before that it was probably the Ducks. Getzlaf wasn't elite yet when they won (although well on the way)

 

[NYRFANMANI]

I'm not suggesting that EP can't win a cup. There are a lot of players who went many years before winning a cup.

I didn't say you were suggesting that, merely that suggesting it, isn't saying anything.

My point is that simply obtaining a 1C isn't the answer. It has to be the right player at the right time. I don't think Petersson is the right player, and I don't think this is the right time.

I think EP is the right player, or there is no right player for this team. Timing-wise? A deal for EP is gonna go down after July 1st 2025, not a day before.

 

[haohmaru]

EP is soft as brie and disappears worse than Zibanejad in the playoffs. Huge no thanks when considering what it'll cost to get him and his humongous cap hit here.

Much rather a Zibs for Miller type trade with lesser assets in the mix. I don't think EP is a solution in this market for this team.

 

[duhmetreE]

I don't think people realize how screwed we are cap wise. We'd have literally no money to improve the team if we add EP.

Even if the deal is Mika, Schneider, Lindgren, Othmann .... We'd have like $8-9M to add a 1LD, 2RD and a middle 6 winger. Not including extra skaters. Kreider could be moved for a cheaper 3LW.

 

[MrAlmost]

The point would be to add EP to Laf so that you could play them together with Perreault, Othmann, Cuylle or Berard. Whoever fits. Maybe even:

Panarin-Tro-Laf
Cuylle-EP-Perrault
Othmann-someone-Berard
Ed-Carrick-Rempe/Brod

The guy to get is Pettersson. Not Miller.

Chytil, Lindgren, Emery and you are almost there. Maybe Othmann is added. I think the Rangers are HOPEFULLY trying to buy low. 11.6 is a big tag but with Kreider and Z out in different deals (maybe even 1 included in this deal or assets aquired from dealing them used to help add) we are one of the few that can offer help now, help later and the ability to take the cap.

 

[mike14]

I don't think people realize how screwed we are cap wise. We'd have literally no money to improve the team if we add EP.

Even if the deal is Mika, Schneider, Lindgren, Othmann .... We'd have like $8-9M to add a 1LD, 2RD and a middle 6 winger. Not including extra skaters. Kreider could be moved for a cheaper 3LW.

Wouldn't the idea be to move Panarin along as well?
EP becomes part of the 'new core', Panarin goes for picks, young players and cap space, and the Rangers basically start over with something like:
Laf-EP-Gabe
Cuylle-Chytil-Berard
X-Tro-X with this line depending on what you give up for EP and what comes back from Panarin

 

[McRanger92]

I don't think people realize how screwed we are cap wise. We'd have literally no money to improve the team if we add EP.

Even if the deal is Mika, Schneider, Lindgren, Othmann .... We'd have like $8-9M to add a 1LD, 2RD and a middle 6 winger. Not including extra skaters. Kreider could be moved for a cheaper 3LW.

Money is going out in any deal the Rangers make to try to improve. The Rangers need a top 4 left defenseman and have a logjam at LW with Othmann knocking on the door. They aren't trading Cuylle, so Panarin, Kreider and Lafreniere are the players to look at. They dont have enough ice time to go around for all 3 to be effective. Id go to Panarin to waive because he is the best player and largest contract but at this point I'd be dangling Kreider and Lafreniere out there for good defenseman.

 

[Profet]

Don’t let this Canucks noise distract you from the fact that the next shoe to drop is them trading Jones away for a sleeve of Oreos.

Because the organization hates puck moving defensemen and would rather have big lugs who move the puck like a grenade

I would love some Oreos... but we're getting Hydrox.

 

[duhmetreE]

Wouldn't the idea be to move Panarin along as well?
EP becomes part of the 'new core', Panarin goes for picks, young players and cap space, and the Rangers basically start over with something like:
Laf-EP-Gabe
Cuylle-Chytil-Berard
X-Tro-X with this line depending on what you give up for EP and what comes back from Panarin

Getting Zibs and Panarin agreeing to waive might be far fetched. And we’d have to eat some , if not half of Panarins contract to get a contender to play ball.

A lot of hypotheticals.

If only we traded Igor

Money is going out in any deal the Rangers make to try to improve. The Rangers need a top 4 left defenseman and have a logjam at LW with Othmann knocking on the door. They aren't trading Cuylle, so Panarin, Kreider and Lafreniere are the players to look at. They dont have enough ice time to go around for all 3 to be effective. Id go to Panarin to waive because he is the best player and largest contract but at this point I'd be dangling Kreider and Lafreniere out there for good defenseman.

Yeah but it’s not 1:1. Cap hit going out May be the same but those players need to be replaced

 

[duhmetreE]

The point would be to add EP to Laf so that you could play them together with Perreault, Othmann, Cuylle or Berard. Whoever fits. Maybe even:

Panarin-Tro-Laf
Cuylle-EP-Perrault
Othmann-someone-Berard
Ed-Carrick-Rempe/Brod

The guy to get is Pettersson. Not Miller.

Chytil, Lindgren, Emery and you are almost there. Maybe Othmann is added. I think the Rangers are HOPEFULLY trying to buy low. 11.6 is a big tag but with Kreider and Z out in different deals (maybe even 1 included in this deal or assets aquired from dealing them used to help add) we are one of the few that can offer help now, help later and the ability to take the cap.

now do the defense with whatever cap is left

 

[McRanger92]

Getting Zibs and Panarin agreeing to waive might be far fetched. And we’d have to eat some , if not half of Panarins contract to get a contender to play ball.

A lot of hypotheticals.

If only we traded Igor


Yeah but it’s not 1:1. Cap hit going out May be the same but those players need to be replaced

Kreider and Lindgren (11mil) out, Othmann(900K) and a defenseman in. Cuylle gets Kreider's PK role and Laf gets his PP role. They only need to survive 1 year with Panarin and Igor making 11.5 before Panarin walks.

 

[GoAwayPanarin]

EP is soft as brie and disappears worse than Zibanejad in the playoffs. Huge no thanks when considering what it'll cost to get him and his humongous cap hit here.

Much rather a Zibs for Miller type trade with lesser assets in the mix. I don't think EP is a solution in this market for this team.

I think moving on from Zibanejad is the right call for a bunch of reasons. I think it's probably the right move for him and his career too.

Hes also literally the only forward on the roster who has seen his production rate actually increase in the playoffs vs what he's done as a NYR during the regular season.

This isn't Panarin whose ppg rate drops by nearly half of what it has been in the RS.

But yeah if EP is having issues with someone being hard on him in the locker room, this isn't the place for him.

@LokiDog brought up that he played injured during the playoffs. I dug a bit and he said that he had knee tendonitis dating back to Jaunary and....

It checked out. His production dropped off from that point onwards. Changed the shade of that flag from red to pink for me because it is something that clearly had some impact but at the same time, he didn't miss any games (played a full 82 game slate) and you'd think that a team that had a spot solidified would have worked a bit to get him some rest down the stretch if he were really hurt.

 

[Clark Kellogg]

Like I said, we aren't winning with that. Blowing our load to get Petersson is just a bad idea to start with. Doing it and not dumping Mika is even worse.

Roughly 70 million committed next season to 9 forwards, 2 defensemen and 1 goalie.
Cap estimates for next season is 92.5 million.
Leaves 22.5 million to sign/resign 3/4 forwards, 4/5 d-men and a goalie.
Bringing in Petersson @11.6 million without a large contract(s) going out is death.

Signed:
Panarin 11.6 million
Shesterkin 11.5 million
Fox 9.5 million
Zibanejad 8.5 million
Lafreniere 7.5 million
Kreider 6.5 million
Trocheck 5.6 million
Chytil 4.4 million
Schneider 2.2 million
Carrick 1.0 million
Berard 900k
Brodzinski 800k

Unsigned:
Cuylle RFA
Edstrom RFA
Miller RFA
Jones RFA
Rempe RFA
Borgen UFA
Smith UFA
Vaakanainen UFA
Lindgren UFA
Vesey UFA
Quick UFA

 

[DanielBrassard]

I don’t even think the Rangers are looking at Pettersson because the GM is insisting on building team USA lol. But I don’t know how you pass up on potentially adding that level of center because you don’t want to lose Lafreniere and Schneider level players if that was even a possibility, I really don’t. It’s similar to the arguments against Eichel, and it is dumb.

 

[KirkAlbuquerque]

I don’t even think the Rangers are looking at Pettersson because the GM is insisting on building team USA lol. But I don’t know how you pass up on potentially adding that level of center because you don’t want to lose Lafreniere and Schneider level players if that was even a possibility, I really don’t. It’s similar to the arguments against Eichel, and it is dumb.

Laf will take off in Vancouver I’m confident. But he’s still just a LW and we have Gabe coming. We have zero in the way of centers.

Because this dumb ass pos organization didn’t draft any their only hope is to trade for one. If EP is actually available they should do whatever they can to get him

Acquiring a top line center is also infinitely more difficult than fixing the defense

No it isn’t. There are far more teams with a top line center and a shit defense than the opposite.

 

[DanielBrassard]

Laf will take off in Vancouver I’m confident. But he’s still just a LW and we have Gabe coming. We have zero in the way of centers.

Because this dumb ass pos organization didn’t draft any their only hope is to trade for one. If EP is actually available they should do whatever they can to get him

I don’t think that’s something that should dissuade the Rangers from trying to acquire an elite center, I really don’t.

 

[KirkAlbuquerque]

I don’t think that’s something that should dissuade the Rangers from trying to acquire an elite center, I really don’t.

What is?

 

[DanielBrassard]

What is?

Laf potentially taking a leap if he gets traded. Which I’m far from convinced would happen anyway.

 

[duhmetreE]

We need elite talent but we also need some more bulls.

I’d rather cut the soft fat first and go from there.

I have no problem including Kam or Schneider in a deal for Petterson but I’d clean out the old core first

 

[UnSandvich]

Trading Lafreniere or Schneider, or god forbid both, does nothing to help the team because it does nothing to fix any of the actual issues. In fact, it *exacerbates* them. The D needs a complete overhaul, and Schneider is probably the 2nd best Dman in the org, which says a lot. What happens when Fox goes down, and our defense is K'Andre Miller, Zac Jones, and 4 AHLers?

Priority 1 is shed bad players with high cap hits
Priority 2 is rebuild the D with cap savings

If those can't be done, then there is legitimately no reason to think adding another Top 6 C will change a thing.

 

[KirkAlbuquerque]

Laf potentially taking a leap if he gets traded. Which I’m far from convinced would happen anyway.

Yeah that was my point. Even if he ends up being an all star winger it’s worth it

 

[JohnC]

I think moving on from Zibanejad is the right call for a bunch of reasons. I think it's probably the right move for him and his career too.

Hes also literally the only forward on the roster who has seen his production rate actually increase in the playoffs vs what he's done as a NYR during the regular season.

This isn't Panarin whose ppg rate drops by nearly half of what it has been in the RS.

But yeah if EP is having issues with someone being hard on him in the locker room, this isn't the place for him.

@LokiDog brought up that he played injured during the playoffs. I dug a bit and he said that he had knee tendonitis dating back to Jaunary and....

It checked out. His production dropped off from that point onwards. Changed the shade of that flag from red to pink for me because it is something that clearly had some impact but at the same time, he didn't miss any games (played a full 82 game slate) and you'd think that a team that had a spot solidified would have worked a bit to get him some rest down the stretch if he were really hurt.

The 2nd comment of this Reddit thread dives in the tendinitis factor a bit

https://www.reddit.com/r/hockey/s/ZenxgBS1aD