Speculation: Roster Building thread - Part XVII - (TDL is March 7th)

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Michael McCarron? Rangers need a bottom 6 defensive center badly. Good face off ma. Another behemoth. Nashville is crippled offensively but I always notice McCarron when I watch them

Edstrom-McCarron-Rempe line would be fun to watch



Would love McLeod.
 
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Take a guess who this refers to:

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Take a guess who this refers to:

View attachment 983801
We all know it’s Lindgren. But we were also just informed that THESE fancy stats aren’t the good ones, so there’s no validity in this one either.

And just so we’re clear, I am NOT saying trade Fox. I’m saying we SHOULD tear it all the way down and IF that happened, then I would trade Fox, but I haven’t ever said to trade him short of a full scorched earth rebuild. All I have said is that he’s not nearly as anointed in my book as he is in some. I’ve pretty consistently called him a top 10 D, but I don’t think he’s top 5 anymore and even THAT offends some people here.
 
It's not hate. We discuss every little thing about every player. However, if you mention Adam Fox, then it's hate. Every player is fair game except for Fox?

Dan Rosen and Vince made those comments about Fox. All of them are true. Other American D have surpassed Fox on the U.S. depth chart. Did you watch the games? There are other American D coming along for next year. Fox seems to have trouble when the games become fast and physical. It's been true the last two playoff appearances. Fox looked like a fish out of water in the 4 Nations. He does look slower. Who is this ideal mythical partner for Fox? He needs to be big and physical. He needs to be able to skate well. He needs to be a good defender too. Fox is not one of top 3 D in the league.

You Fox people are not being objective. If Fox played for the Devils, nearly everyone on this board would point out every flaw. Fox plays for the Rangers and some of us should bury our heads in the sand pretending everything is fine.


Pat Flatley.

The only people not being objective are those who think Brock Faber is a better player than Fox. I’m sure he’s now a lock to make Team USA due to his “impressive performance”. Every dumb hockey trope in the book coming to a head on that one.
 
We all know it’s Lindgren. But we were also just informed that THESE fancy stats aren’t the good ones, so there’s no validity in this one either.

And just so we’re clear, I am NOT saying trade Fox. I’m saying we SHOULD tear it all the way down and IF that happened, then I would trade Fox, but I haven’t ever said to trade him short of a full scorched earth rebuild. All I have said is that he’s not nearly as anointed in my book as he is in some. I’ve pretty consistently called him a top 10 D, but I don’t think he’s top 5 anymore and even THAT offends some people here.
I don't think we're necessarily that far off here.

I obviously do think he can get back to Norris level, but with the injuries, maybe he won't.

I mentioned before that if you really tear it down, he kind of just falls out of the timeline, so if that were the scenario, I would be open to it, depending on how bad it got.

It's not necessarily you doing this, but I do think people pile on him. He's been a bit off and now people are looking for it, and really noticing things, and as a whole, the criticism has probably been outsized compared to what's actually happening. If you sit there looking for flaws, you're gonna see flaws, and I think some people just need to chill a bit.

Like he makes a mistake and then he stands there with a sourpuss. Everyone does that.
 
Im not an analytics guy but its obvious why Lindgren's numbers look like shit and Fox's look good. Every time Lindgren touches the puck in the offensive zone, the play dies. Every time Fox touches the puck in the O-zone, a scoring chance happens. When they are together in the D-zone, its like 2 little boys trying to hang on to bigger forwards for dear life. One guy is constantly on his ass, and the other is being double teamed by forecheckers. No team would play Ryan Lindgren in their top 4 except the Rangers. Because playing with your friends is more important than winning.
 
I don't think we're necessarily that far off here.

I obviously do think he can get back to Norris level, but with the injuries, maybe he won't.

I mentioned before that if you really tear it down, he kind of just falls out of the timeline, so if that were the scenario, I would be open to it, depending on how bad it got.

It's not necessarily you doing this, but I do think people pile on him. He's been a bit off and now people are looking for it, and really noticing things, and as a whole, the criticism has probably been outsized compared to what's actually happening. If you sit there looking for flaws, you're gonna see flaws, and I think some people just need to chill a bit.

Like he makes a mistake and then he stands there with a sourpuss. Everyone does that.

That’s kinda my problem with a lot of the eye test folks here. They look at Fox and think “Oh, he’s small, slow, and not physical, he must not be good defensively.” And then as they watch him, they’re subconsciously picking up more on the standard miscues that every player has.

I think it was particularly evident with Miller-Fox earlier this year. Every game Miller makes some headscratching dumb play, and a lot of those were ending up in our net. But looking past those big, highly visible moments, and the Rangers were absolutely crushing the other team in those minutes. And then we separated the two, and their minutes got a lot more boring. But also spent a lot more time in our zone and allowing more goals in the process.
 
That’s kinda my problem with a lot of the eye test folks here. They look at Fox and think “Oh, he’s small, slow, and not physical, he must not be good defensively.” And then as they watch him, they’re subconsciously picking up more on the standard miscues that every player has.

I think it was particularly evident with Miller-Fox earlier this year. Every game Miller makes some headscratching dumb play, and a lot of those were ending up in our net. But looking past those big, highly visible moments, and the Rangers were absolutely crushing the other team in those minutes. And then we separated the two, and their minutes got a lot more boring. But also spent a lot more time in our zone and allowing more goals in the process.
Can both things not be true? My eye test tells me Fox IS small, slow & not physical enough, but he's also a very good defender.
 
Can both things not be true? My eye test tells me Fox IS small, slow & not physical enough, but he's also a very good defender.

Oh, for sure. It’s just a matter of knowing your biases and accounting for them in your evaluation of someone’s play on ice. I think all 3 of those things are fairly objectively true, tbh, so then I say “well how does he make those factors matter less? how does his play make up for them?“ and I go from there
 
I’d be interested in McLeod I’m just not sure why he’s available

He’s 25 and Buffalo moved good prospects to get him, doesn’t make a ton of sense
 
We all know it’s Lindgren. But we were also just informed that THESE fancy stats aren’t the good ones, so there’s no validity in this one either.

And just so we’re clear, I am NOT saying trade Fox. I’m saying we SHOULD tear it all the way down and IF that happened, then I would trade Fox, but I haven’t ever said to trade him short of a full scorched earth rebuild. All I have said is that he’s not nearly as anointed in my book as he is in some. I’ve pretty consistently called him a top 10 D, but I don’t think he’s top 5 anymore and even THAT offends some people here.
That's fine w me, nothing offensive there.

I think your earlier discussions of the player have some interesting spaces for exploration. Like just you posting those player cards, presumably making the point that Fox is far from unanimously seen as a top-tier defender...

First of all, he still grades out overall better than every player you posted aside from Makar and Hughes whom no one has said Fox is better than. So it seems like you're now trying to argue in two different directions at once:

Either Dom's model here captures defensive impact accurately and Fox is a worse defender than Makar, Hughes, Morrissey and Heiskenen (while still being a net positive overall, worth saying).

Or, Dom's model does not accurately capture the players overall impact because it would say that Fox IS in fact a top 5 defenseman in the world THIS season.

If course the third option is that you think there's profound issues with the offensive evaluation, which id be curious to hear. And then there's the fourth, that you think it's all bunk, in which case why introduce it?

There's room for really interesting conversation about the models, about what "defensive impact" is, and much more, but instead, as so often happens, the "conversation" is still-born bc people are stuck arguing about how they would personally write a list, essentially what overall a player should be in NHL 25.

You used those screen caps. I included Lindgren's because... Well aren't you at least curious as to how Fox, being not only slow and small, but also spending 2/3 of his 5v5 minutes with a player with Lindgren's outsized negative impact by the same model... I mean how do you make sense of that difference? Fox spent 29% of his 5v5 minutes with K'Andre this year and the goalies saved 1% more of the shots than when it's lindgren-Fox. Just for further context Miller himself has a net -2.8 defensive rating on those cards!
 
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I’d be interested in McLeod I’m just not sure why he’s available

He’s 25 and Buffalo moved good prospects to get him, doesn’t make a ton of sense

I haven’t heard that he IS available, but he makes sense. If they were to move him, the only reason I could see would be that he’s an RFA and may be playing hardball about extending there.
 

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