Speculation: Roster Building Thread : Part XVI (Playoffs or Retool?)

Keep losing. It will be hard for Drury to justify trading for a soon to be 32 year old player with major term remaining when the team is not a legit contender. If you think this team can be changed with a few moves here and a cosmetic change there, I don't know what you are missing. I was ready to write watching but people rely more on the advanced stats than the eye test. The player can be garbage but the advanced stats can say something different and those numbers supersede everything else.

All of the Rangers big money forwards have failed to live up to their salaries. Is it a fluke? Is it age? They hog up all of the time on the power play. Laviolette keeps rolling them out there. They don't change when there is an opportunity to change until there are 20 seconds remaining on the PP.
Preach it.

The failure of the big money forwards is multiple things. One certainly is age. People don’t want to accept it but players decline statistically when they hit 30-ish.

Even Kreider wasn’t the same player, but he managed to remake himself (against the odds) into a different kind of player (master of deflections). If he hadn’t done that his stats would have fallen off long ago. Most players can’t completely change how they play after 30. A few lucky ones can extend their elite prime until the mid 30s (Panarin has) and even fewer can approach 40 playing at a very high level (Marty St Louis). But most of them experience a substantial percentage decrease in their production at around or shortly after 30: that’s why handing out an 8 year deal to a 30 year old is a terrible idea. Ideally you’d like to give like a 7 year deal to a 27 year old. You have to pay for some bad years to get the good years of a player, but you want to minimize that. Mika Zibanejad, a fragile, injury-history player with a lot of miles who always projected to be an early decliner, NEVER should have been given a long, long, immovable contract at age 29 or whatever. The short term setback from losing (trading, if you are smart, to recoup assets, rather than letting him walk) is always less harsh than the back end being stuck with him.

But it’s not just age. There is something rotten in NY. The team has never in my lifetime been able to organically develop young forwards. It’s more than bad luck or “some players just bust.” It’s more than just the four top-10 forwards in a row during our rebuild that busted or underachieved (Andersson, Kravtsov, Kakko and Lafreniere). The entire history of the NY Rangers is defined by inability to draft and develop a star forward, especially centers. And even the star forwards we import USUALLY are worse than expectations when they get here (Gaborik, Nash).

The ONE success story in the past 30 years of a first round forward we drafted who became a legit star-level player (kind of) is Chris Kreider. And even he took forever (mid-late 20s, suggesting he overcame organizational hurdles through personal perseverance) and kinda topped out as a 30-30 type, which is far from a super star. Other teams find Brayden Point in the third. But JT Miller had to go elsewhere to find out how to become great. Sure, he didn’t figure it out in Tampa either, so it’s not a “Rangers have this problem and everyone else bats 1.000” issue, but, at the same time, doesn’t that demonstrate that the Rangers were unable to provide the guidance to Miller to get him to mature on their watch? With Tampa, yeah, it happened for him there too. For the Rangers, it seems to be every single young forward. Red lights should be flashing at management here.

Whether it’s a country club atmosphere that discourages hard work, the bright lights of Manhattan being a distraction, not enough hard coaches who will keep the players in line, or some sort of deep rooted organizational philosophy of falling back to support the habitually-employed star goaltender that we always seem to have, something is preventing the development of 5v5 offensive dominance that almost all Cup winners have.

They have to figure that out too. Then they need probably 4-5 more young building block pieces in addition to the ones they already have in the building. They have a tall task in front of them if they want to win a Cup. If they just want a round or two of playoff revenue, then sure, add JT Miller. He might help with that for a season or two and then they can find the next bandaid easily because finding bandaids isn’t hard.
 
Last edited:
Preach it.

The failure of the big money forwards is multiple things. One certainly is age. People don’t want to accept it but players decline statistically when they hit 30-ish.

Even Kreider wasn’t the same player, but he managed to remake himself (against the odds) into a different kind of player (master of deflections). If he hadn’t done that his stats would have fallen off long ago. Most players can’t completely change how they play after 30. A few lucky ones can extend their elite prime until the mid 30s (Panarin has) and even fewer can approach 40 playing at a very high level (Marty St Louis). But most of them experience a substantial percentage decrease in their production at around or shortly after 30: that’s why handing out an 8 year deal to a 30 year old is a terrible idea. Ideally you’d like to give like a 7 year deal to a 27 year old. You have to pay for some bad years to get the good years of a player, but you want to minimize that. Mika Zibanejad, a fragile, injury-history player with a lot of miles who always projected to be an early decliner, NEVER should have been given a long, long, immovable contract at age 29 or whatever. The short term setback from losing (trading, if you are smart, to recoup assets, rather than letting him walk) is always less harsh than the back end being stuck with him.

But it’s not just age. There is something rotten in NY. The team has never in my lifetime been able to organically develop young forwards. It’s more than bad luck or “some players just bust.” It’s more than just the four top-10 forwards in a row during our rebuild that busted or underachieved (Andersson, Kravtsov, Kakko and Lafreniere). The entire history of the NY Rangers is defined by inability to draft and develop a star forward, especially centers. And even the star forwards we import USUALLY are worse than expectations when they get here (Gaborik, Nash).

The ONE success story in the past 30 years of a first round forward we drafted who became a legit star-level player (kind of) is Chris Kreider. And even he took forever (mid-late 20s, suggesting he overcame organizational hurdles through personal perseverance) and kinda topped out as a 30-30 type, which is far from a super star. Other teams find Brayden Point in the third. But JT Miller had to go elsewhere to find out how to become great. Sure, he didn’t figure it out in Tampa either, so it’s not a “Rangers have this problem and everyone else bats 1.000” issue, but, at the same time, doesn’t that demonstrate that the Rangers were unable to provide the guidance to Miller to get him to mature on their watch? With Tampa, yeah, it happened for him there too. For the Rangers, it seems to be every single young forward. Red lights should be flashing at management here.

Whether it’s a country club atmosphere that discourages hard work, the bright lights of Manhattan being a distraction, not enough hard coaches who will keep the players in line, or some sort of deep rooted organizational philosophy of falling back to support the habitually-employed star goaltender that we always seem to have, something is preventing the development of 5v5 offensive dominance that almost all Cup winners have.

They have to figure that out too. Then they need probably 4-5 more young building block pieces in addition to the ones they already have in the building. They have a tall task in front of them if they want to win a Cup. If they just want a round or two of playoff revenue, then sure, add JT Miller. He might help with that for a season or two and then they can find the next bandaid easily because finding bandaids isn’t hard.

The team has terrible leadership. Panarin doesnt speak to the media and is allowed to do his own thing on the ice by every coach because of how much he's paid. Not to mention he knows Dolan will always stand by him (Wilson incident, Russia allegations leave of absence, firing both Quinn and Gallant, etc.). Why are we shitting on Lafreniere when he's learned under Panarin? Blueline turnovers and pulling up at the halfwall to avoid contact if you do gain the zone.

Meeka and Cryder are way more complicated but equally disappointing. Both guys are delusional with what they say, going back to Mika saying he did a good job on Barkov in the break-up day media scrum last year (LOL). Kreider last night falling on the sword like a martyr like he hasnt been playing lazy hockey for the entire season. What a hero! It's that type of evidence that shows you the locker room and players are completely removed from the reality of the situation. The fact that this leadership group was shocked that drury would try to get out from Goodrow and Trouba is crazy. It's like they sat through the rebuild so they feel entitled to the fruits of it. Thats why the 3 of them get more ice time when they make mistakes and players like Laf, Chytil and Cuylle are stapled to the bench during important offensive minutes. That's why they havent developed quickly enough to cover for the veterans decline.

The team needs a leader, because they have none. Trouba wasnt one either, he just liked the spotlight. Getting rid of the 3 Stooges is a much more pressing issue than trading for JT Miller, and that should be their priority. They'll be a much better team without them, regardless of who the replacements are.
 
Keep losing. It will be hard for Drury to justify trading for a soon to be 32 year old player with major term remaining when the team is not a legit contender. If you think this team can be changed with a few moves here and a cosmetic change there, I don't know what you are missing. I was ready to write watching but people rely more on the advanced stats than the eye test. The player can be garbage but the advanced stats can say something different and those numbers supersede everything else.

All of the Rangers big money forwards have failed to live up to their salaries. Is it a fluke? Is it age? They hog up all of the time on the power play. Laviolette keeps rolling them out there. They don't change when there is an opportunity to change until there are 20 seconds remaining on the PP.

I don't think it will be hard for Drury to justify it at all when that player has 5 more years on his deal and is likely to come cheaper than he should due to his NMC and the friction going on there. It may be hard for you to justify it but that's because you just project your opinion onto everyone else.

The team has terrible leadership. Panarin doesnt speak to the media and is allowed to do his own thing on the ice by every coach because of how much he's paid. Not to mention he knows Dolan will always stand by him (Wilson incident, Russia allegations leave of absence, firing both Quinn and Gallant, etc.). Why are we shitting on Lafreniere when he's learned under Panarin? Blueline turnovers and pulling up at the halfwall to avoid contact if you do gain the zone.

Meeka and Cryder are way more complicated but equally disappointing. Both guys are delusional with what they say, going back to Mika saying he did a good job on Barkov in the break-up day media scrum last year (LOL). Kreider last night falling on the sword like a martyr like he hasnt been playing lazy hockey for the entire season. What a hero! It's that type of evidence that shows you the locker room and players are completely removed from the reality of the situation. The fact that this leadership group was shocked that drury would try to get out from Goodrow and Trouba is crazy. It's like they sat through the rebuild so they feel entitled to the fruits of it. Thats why the 3 of them get more ice time when they make mistakes and players like Laf, Chytil and Cuylle are stapled to the bench during important offensive minutes. That's why they havent developed quickly enough to cover for the veterans decline.

The team needs a leader, because they have none. Trouba wasnt one either, he just liked the spotlight. Getting rid of the 3 Stooges is a much more pressing issue than trading for JT Miller, and that should be their priority. They'll be a much better team without them, regardless of who the replacements are.

Panarin spoke to the media yesterday lol
 
I don't think it will be hard for Drury to justify it at all when that player has 5 more years on his deal and is likely to come cheaper than he should due to his NMC and the friction going on there. It may be hard for you to justify it but that's because you just project your opinion onto everyone else.



Panarin spoke to the media yesterday lol

Where? I'd love to read or hear it.
 
The team has terrible leadership. Panarin doesnt speak to the media and is allowed to do his own thing on the ice by every coach because of how much he's paid. Not to mention he knows Dolan will always stand by him (Wilson incident, Russia allegations leave of absence, firing both Quinn and Gallant, etc.). Why are we shitting on Lafreniere when he's learned under Panarin? Blueline turnovers and pulling up at the halfwall to avoid contact if you do gain the zone.

Meeka and Cryder are way more complicated but equally disappointing. Both guys are delusional with what they say, going back to Mika saying he did a good job on Barkov in the break-up day media scrum last year (LOL). Kreider last night falling on the sword like a martyr like he hasnt been playing lazy hockey for the entire season. What a hero! It's that type of evidence that shows you the locker room and players are completely removed from the reality of the situation. The fact that this leadership group was shocked that drury would try to get out from Goodrow and Trouba is crazy. It's like they sat through the rebuild so they feel entitled to the fruits of it. Thats why the 3 of them get more ice time when they make mistakes and players like Laf, Chytil and Cuylle are stapled to the bench during important offensive minutes. That's why they havent developed quickly enough to cover for the veterans decline.

The team needs a leader, because they have none. Trouba wasnt one either, he just liked the spotlight. Getting rid of the 3 Stooges is a much more pressing issue than trading for JT Miller, and that should be their priority. They'll be a much better team without them, regardless of who the replacements are.
I generally don't put a lot of stock into intangibles over talent, having talent is more important (or at least, it should be easier to find an undertalented guy to be a leader once you have the requisite talent in hand), but, the organization definitely needs a leader. Whether that's on the ice or in the front office or (probably) both, I don't know.

The Rangers have had a lot of success and they built a very good team, but they did it largely through three specific things: They have found back-to-back Hall of Fame caliber goaltenders in late rounds, Adam Fox grew up a Rangers fan and wanted to come here, and Panarin was a generational free agent signing.

The Rangers will always find free agents to come here, even free agent forwards, like Gaborik and Nash (yes, Nash was a trade), but you're not always going to find a Panarin at low-mileage age 27 who wants to come aboard and enter the Hall of Fame portion of his career for you.

Those are three fortuitous circumstances that should have been in CONJUNCTION with a properly built foundation that put them over the top. Imagine, if you will, that Andersson had become a quality middle-six center, that Kravtsov had become even a 40 point winger, and that Kakko had turned into Matt Boldy and Lafreniere had turned into Tim Stutzle.

We'd have a Cup and would probably be favorites to repeat this year.

Instead, every single one of our foundational additions has crumbled.

Maybe that's leadership. I dunno. It's something.

This rebuild should have turned out way better than it has. We had the best prospect pool in the league after winning the Lafreniere lottery. Everything was pointing in our favor at that moment in time. Since then, everything has come up snake eyes.
 
I generally don't put a lot of stock into intangibles over talent, but, the organization definitely needs a leader. Whether that's on the ice or in the front office or (probably) both, I don't know.

The Rangers have had a lot of success and they built a very good team, but they did it largely through three specific things: They have found back-to-back Hall of Fame caliber goaltenders in late rounds, Adam Fox grew up a Rangers fan and wanted to come here, and Panarin was a generational free agent signing.

The Rangers will always find free agents to come here, even free agent forwards, like Gaborik and Nash (yes, Nash was a trade), but you're not always going to find a Panarin at low-mileage age 27 who wants to come aboard and enter the Hall of Fame portion of his career for you.

Those are three fortuitous circumstances that should have been in CONJUNCTION with a properly built foundation that put them over the top. Imagine, if you will, that Andersson had become a quality middle-six center, that Kravtsov had become even a 40 point winger, and that Kakko had turned into Matt Boldy and Lafreniere had turned into Tim Stutzle.

We'd have a Cup and would probably be favorites to repeat this year.

Instead, every single one of our foundational additions has crumbled.

Maybe that's leadership. I dunno. It's something.

This rebuild should have turned out way better than it has. We had the best prospect pool in the league after winning the Lafreniere lottery. Everything was pointing in our favor at that moment in time. Since then, everything has come up snake eyes.

There is a reason the team covets Brady Tkachuk. There's a reason they are interested in JT despite the warts. They want guys who dont turn the other cheek and slump their shoulders when the other team starts to take it to them. They need veteran leaders who will encourage our young guys to go to the dirty areas and battle for position. The issue is at the top with this roster. we pay Panarin, Mika and Kreider 26.5 million a season to be passengers and get charity PP time where they dont adjust and lose us games.
 
I generally don't put a lot of stock into intangibles over talent, having talent is more important (or at least, it should be easier to find an undertalented guy to be a leader once you have the requisite talent in hand), but, the organization definitely needs a leader. Whether that's on the ice or in the front office or (probably) both, I don't know.

The Rangers have had a lot of success and they built a very good team, but they did it largely through three specific things: They have found back-to-back Hall of Fame caliber goaltenders in late rounds, Adam Fox grew up a Rangers fan and wanted to come here, and Panarin was a generational free agent signing.

The Rangers will always find free agents to come here, even free agent forwards, like Gaborik and Nash (yes, Nash was a trade), but you're not always going to find a Panarin at low-mileage age 27 who wants to come aboard and enter the Hall of Fame portion of his career for you.

Those are three fortuitous circumstances that should have been in CONJUNCTION with a properly built foundation that put them over the top. Imagine, if you will, that Andersson had become a quality middle-six center, that Kravtsov had become even a 40 point winger, and that Kakko had turned into Matt Boldy and Lafreniere had turned into Tim Stutzle.

We'd have a Cup and would probably be favorites to repeat this year.

Instead, every single one of our foundational additions has crumbled.

Maybe that's leadership. I dunno. It's something.

This rebuild should have turned out way better than it has. We had the best prospect pool in the league after winning the Lafreniere lottery. Everything was pointing in our favor at that moment in time. Since then, everything has come up snake eyes.
you can't fix all of this in one season. Just get Lindgren off my team.
 
  • Like
Reactions: gump116
Let's not forget that while a lot of the focus is on what is wrong with the forwards, our current iteration slate of young defensemen have drastically underachieved besides Fox as well.

DeAngelo was a headcase. Trouba was never a smart signing and was never as good as people thought he was, but he got old and unplayable to a far worse degree than people expected, sooner than expected.

But damn, Ryan Lindgren is 26. Why is he so f***ing bad? He shouldn't be this terrible. There was a time when he put up first pair defensive metrics, even if his offense was a black hole.

Zach Jones hasn't developed. Matt Robertson hasn't developed. Nils Lundqvist didn't develop. Schneider is... kind of .... ok as a middle pair defender? And K'Andre Miller has regressed.

We have struck out on developing our defensemen too.
 
Last edited:
There is a reason the team covets Brady Tkachuk. There's a reason they are interested in JT despite the warts. They want guys who dont turn the other cheek and slump their shoulders when the other team starts to take it to them. They need veteran leaders who will encourage our young guys to go to the dirty areas and battle for position. The issue is at the top with this roster. we pay Panarin, Mika and Kreider 26.5 million a season to be passengers and get charity PP time where they dont adjust and lose us games.

I feel like going after the younger Tkachuk brother is a copycat move that won't work in our favor as well as it did for Florida (they won a Cup with him as one of their best two forwards, or so, and we lack their other foundational pieces). But maybe it's a step in the right direction.

It's also hard for me to hate on Panarin because, well, it's ok to have SOME perimeter players when those perimeter players score 110 points.

The problem is spending $15 million on Mika and Kreider when Mika and Kreider don't deliver often enough. Yes, Kreider saved us against Carolina. Then he disappeared against Florida. So he is what he is... not a Cup winning caliber player. He's a second round playoff player.

Where’s he shooting from ? Seems he’s never anywhere near scoring areas this season compared to last year

I think that's a problem. He's never had a great shot, but through his smarts he's been able to put up 10-15 goals. He's not making the plays.

Who knows? Right now there are a lot of problems on this team. He's a guy I'm not in a rush to get rid of.
 
Last edited:
Where’s he shooting from ? Seems he’s never anywhere near scoring areas this season compared to last year
He had a shot last night from the crease with an xG of 0.22. It didn't go in because of course it didn't. I repeat myself every day on shooting percentage. It's undefeated. He's gonna score 10 goals on 12 shots at some point and everyone will be surprised.
 
I generally don't put a lot of stock into intangibles over talent, having talent is more important (or at least, it should be easier to find an undertalented guy to be a leader once you have the requisite talent in hand), but, the organization definitely needs a leader. Whether that's on the ice or in the front office or (probably) both, I don't know.

The Rangers have had a lot of success and they built a very good team, but they did it largely through three specific things: They have found back-to-back Hall of Fame caliber goaltenders in late rounds, Adam Fox grew up a Rangers fan and wanted to come here, and Panarin was a generational free agent signing.

The Rangers will always find free agents to come here, even free agent forwards, like Gaborik and Nash (yes, Nash was a trade), but you're not always going to find a Panarin at low-mileage age 27 who wants to come aboard and enter the Hall of Fame portion of his career for you.

Those are three fortuitous circumstances that should have been in CONJUNCTION with a properly built foundation that put them over the top. Imagine, if you will, that Andersson had become a quality middle-six center, that Kravtsov had become even a 40 point winger, and that Kakko had turned into Matt Boldy and Lafreniere had turned into Tim Stutzle.

We'd have a Cup and would probably be favorites to repeat this year.

Instead, every single one of our foundational additions has crumbled.

Maybe that's leadership. I dunno. It's something.

This rebuild should have turned out way better than it has. We had the best prospect pool in the league after winning the Lafreniere lottery. Everything was pointing in our favor at that moment in time. Since then, everything has come up snake eyes.
The best prospect pools belonged to us and the LA kings. Both organizations got almost nothing out of them
 
  • Like
Reactions: mas0764
Keep losing. It will be hard for Drury to justify trading for a soon to be 32 year old player with major term remaining when the team is not a legit contender. If you think this team can be changed with a few moves here and a cosmetic change there, I don't know what you are missing. I was ready to write watching but people rely more on the advanced stats than the eye test. The player can be garbage but the advanced stats can say something different and those numbers supersede everything else.

All of the Rangers big money forwards have failed to live up to their salaries. Is it a fluke? Is it age? They hog up all of the time on the power play. Laviolette keeps rolling them out there. They don't change when there is an opportunity to change until there are 20 seconds remaining on the PP.
The advanced stats people have been screaming at the top of their lungs that this team sucks since the first half of 22-23.

What absolute agenda-ridden nonsense.
 
He had a shot last night from the crease with an xG of 0.22. It didn't go in because of course it didn't. I repeat myself every day on shooting percentage. It's undefeated. He's gonna score 10 goals on 12 shots at some point and everyone will be surprised.
Has he even taken 12 shots in 2025? What are his totals looking like compared to this time last year?
 
I feel like going after the younger Tkachuk brother is a copycat move that won't work in our favor as well as it did for Florida (they won a Cup with him as one of their best two forwards, or so, and we lack their other foundational pieces). But maybe it's a step in the right direction.

The Rangers young core will vastly improve with team leaders who arent stuck in 2019. It's why I find the posts blaming Lafreniere and Fox so foolish. You're cutting off your nose to spite your face if you think they are the problem. I also would've liked to see Fox and Laf step up as leaders this year in their own right but that will never happen with Panarin and the Wonder twins on the roster.

If Kreider but being difficult with a trade, the rangers are going to give him the Trouba/Goodrow treatment to get him out. He has the same trade protection they did.

Id be absolutely stunned if Panarin is on the roster next year, especially if we dont make the playoffs.

And Zibanejad you just have to make it uncomfortable for him. trade his friends, take him off the PP, put him on the 3rd line. Do whatever you need to do for him to leave. Prob includes firing Lavi as well because he will go down with the ship playing these guys.

Where’s he shooting from ? Seems he’s never anywhere near scoring areas this season compared to last year

He's performing Swan Lake at the offensive blueline trying to get away from defenders instead of just getting a point shot through with players in front.
 
Has he even taken 12 shots in 2025? What are his totals looking like compared to this time last year?
He's on pace for 142. He took 136 last year and scored 17 goals.

There are other problems and they all wear 55 but #1 is luck.

He's 15 shots away from shooting below 1% on goaltenders. Give me 100 shots and I beat that. There's no way that's not just bad luck.
 
He's on pace for 142. He took 136 last year and scored 17 goals.

There are other problems and they all wear 55 but #1 is luck.

He's 15 shots away from shooting below 1% on goaltenders. Give me 100 shots and I beat that. There's no way that's not just bad luck.
That’s insane.
And iirc his one “real” goal actually bounced off of someone lol
 
The advanced stats people have been screaming at the top of their lungs that this team sucks since the first half of 22-23.

What absolute agenda-ridden nonsense.
Fox is overrated. He isn't 1/2 the D Hughes is. All of them except for a handful should be shipped out by management.

The Rangers young core will vastly improve with team leaders who arent stuck in 2019. It's why I find the posts blaming Lafreniere and Fox so foolish. You're cutting off your nose to spite your face if you think they are the problem. I also would've liked to see Fox and Laf step up as leaders this year in their own right but that will never happen with Panarin and the Wonder twins on the roster.

If Kreider but being difficult with a trade, the rangers are going to give him the Trouba/Goodrow treatment to get him out. He has the same trade protection they did.

Id be absolutely stunned if Panarin is on the roster next year, especially if we dont make the playoffs.

And Zibanejad you just have to make it uncomfortable for him. trade his friends, take him off the PP, put him on the 3rd line. Do whatever you need to do for him to leave. Prob includes firing Lavi as well because he will go down with the ship playing these guys.



He's performing Swan Lake at the offensive blueline trying to get away from defenders instead of just getting a point shot through with players in front.
We really need JT Messier to save us.
 
Fox is overrated. He isn't 1/2 the D Hughes is. All of them except for a handful should be shipped out by management.


We really need JT Messier to save us.

You brought him up. Not me. Literally said in the message before that he's not a priority for me because the 3 Stooges need to leave first. Keep trying to trade Adam Fox though. :thumbu:
 
  • Like
Reactions: bhamill

Ad

Upcoming events

Ad