Speculation: Roster Building Thread - Part XXI

[JimmyG89]

Wow big difference. You should know better. The 1992 team finished first in the Patrick Division with 105 points and with better goaltending in the Pitt series could easily have advanced to the conference finals if not further. They also made the playoffs the prior 3 seasons. This team has done squat and has a bunch of question marks whereas the 1992 team had a solid nucleus and solid leadership with both a veteran and youth presence. Not even close.

Might be different sports, but we did just see the Suns make a run to the finals on the backs of their high picks and getting Chris Paul to lead them. Hadn't made the postseason in 10 years before this one.

I'm not saying that the Rangers are going to be the Suns, but the team is built much more like that with having a few big time vets and young guys that have developed very quickly in their roles. Hell, the 2015 Mets went from trash to in the World Series the next year. It can happen quickly

Could be like the Browns this past football season where they went from average the year before to the 2nd round of the playoffs and coming pretty close to beating the Chiefs on the road.

All it takes is for Lafreniere or Kakko to blossom along with improvements from Miller while Shesterkin stays healthy. There was not much missing from this squad making the postseason. Depth overall is an issue still. Hopefully over the course of the season, with the young guys on the team pushing forward and the youth in Hartford maybe pushing for spots, we could have the depth needed for a postseason run.

 

[duhmetreE]

You know what would be awesome?

If the FO doesn't do anything about the C position, they give Kravtsov a look there, he takes off and we don't have to talk about this shit again.

Mika-Kravtsov-Chytil/Goodrow

then @EdJovanovski can finally drop Buch

 

[Shesterkybomb]

Might be different sports, but we did just see the Suns make a run to the finals on the backs of their high picks and getting Chris Paul to lead them. Hadn't made the postseason in 10 years before this one.

I'm not saying that the Rangers are going to be the Suns, but the team is built much more like that with having a few big time vets and young guys that have developed very quickly in their roles. Hell, the 2015 Mets went from trash to in the World Series the next year. It can happen quickly

Could be like the Browns this past football season where they went from average the year before to the 2nd round of the playoffs and coming pretty close to beating the Chiefs on the road.

All it takes is for Lafreniere or Kakko to blossom along with improvements from Miller while Shesterkin stays healthy. There was not much missing from this squad making the postseason. Depth overall is an issue still. Hopefully over the course of the season, with the young guys on the team pushing forward and the youth in Hartford maybe pushing for spots, we could have the depth needed for a postseason run.

I think depth has been addressed fairly well, with the roster right now we still have Barron, McGregg, Hunt, Gauthier, Jones, Schneider and Tinordi on the outside looking in.

 

[Shesterkybomb]

I think with a competent partner he will be a good player for the duration. There was an article that showed when he played with Morrissey he played well. Part of it was chemistry as they played together for 3 years, and part of it was they were both pretty good. As our left side continues to grow and he meshes with a partner, I think he'll get closer to what he used to be.

I don't think he'll ever be worth the $8M, but he'll be more tolerable if he's playing like a bonafide top-4 guy.

Article for those interested - By the numbers: Why Jacob Trouba and Josh Morrissey have struggled without each other

He actually played well with Smith before Covid hit i thought.

 

[I Eat Crow]

I think the chances of Trouba finishing contract in New York are extremely high.

Disagree. If Schneider is kept and is the real deal, Trouba becomes a very expensive redundancy.

 

[Leetch3]

Disagree. If Schneider is kept and is the real deal, Trouba becomes a very expensive redundancy.

having multiple good dmen doesn't make it a redundancy

 

[fm]

who's the other good dman in this hypothetical? schneider and who

 

[NYRFANMANI]

I'm fairly certain that the Rangers will have to trade Lindgren next year to make any of this work. Which is a bummer.

Yeah no. I get it, we will be cap struck soon, but you just don't trade a player like that. Can't imagine them dealing such a good contract. It would be just an amateur move.

Nemeth will free up cap space, if need be. Blais maybe dealt at some point, so we don't re-sign him to a shitty deal. Georgie at some point gone too.

The team is pretty much set for next season and we have 8.8m in cap space, let's say 8m once Hajek signs. That's basically what we have to pay Foxy.

In conclusion, yes we are f***ed, but for the love God don't trade Lindgren!!

 

[Machinehead]

Why would they trade one of their cheapest players for cap space?

 

[GoAwayPanarin]

Wow big difference. You should know better. The 1992 team finished first in the Patrick Division with 105 points and with better goaltending in the Pitt series could easily have advanced to the conference finals if not further. They also made the playoffs the prior 3 seasons. This team has done squat and has a bunch of question marks whereas the 1992 team had a solid nucleus and solid leadership with both a veteran and youth presence. Not even close.

I don't see all the "question marks" that you speak of.

All of their macro stats were that of what you'd expect of a playoff team (even more so when you consider that they finished in the top half of the league in PP after hovering around the bottom 3 slots for half of the season.) They've become more well rounded, most of their young guns have gotten more games under their belt and they've hired an actual NHL caliber coach. This group too has a solid nucleus with both a veteran and youth presence. Leadership group is TBD.

I guess if you obsess over the importance of the center ice position then maybe, but even there it doesn't really hold up. They had 2 centers who finished top 20 in scoring in the league last year (this is with Zibanejad basically being a non factor for half of the season) and Chytil pacing 40+ points while getting significantly less ice time then the guys ahead of him (and yes he is a center. Hes played pretty much every second of his pro career there. Him being more of a winger in the eyes of anyone is because they're used to the traditional definition of a center, that isn't really a thing anymore. Plus we have wingers who do more of the traditional center stuff anyway.)

I too would like to replace Strome with a more well rounded option. The thing is, we probably already have that on the roster, all that needs to happen is for said player to play more.

I do agree that its not fair to compare this group to the team that won the presidents trophy a year before completely shitting all over themselves, but they're also far better than you make them sound.

 

[will1066]

He actually played well with Smith before Covid hit i thought.

He was also quite good down the stretch until he was murdered in the Isles game.

 

[NYRFANMANI]

Why would they trade one of their cheapest players for cap space?

I don't know. But we live in bizarro world, so ...

 

[bbny]

I think with a competent partner he will be a good player for the duration. There was an article that showed when he played with Morrissey he played well. Part of it was chemistry as they played together for 3 years, and part of it was they were both pretty good. As our left side continues to grow and he meshes with a partner, I think he'll get closer to what he used to be.

I don't think he'll ever be worth the $8M, but he'll be more tolerable if he's playing like a bonafide top-4 guy.

Article for those interested - By the numbers: Why Jacob Trouba and Josh Morrissey have struggled without each other

Therein lies the problem. $8M defensemen shouldn't need specific partners in order not to struggle. They should elevate their partners. That's not to say there aren't optimal partners, but it shouldn't be as large of a difference in performance for an $8M guy as it is with Trouba. This is why it's hard for me to see him finishing the contract here, barring a significant elevation in his play.

An example of what I mean is that I'm fairly certain Fox could have played with Marc Staal and still played like a top pairing defenseman this year, because he's just that good.

 

[and 99 others]

I had a dream last night that the Rangers announced a 6yr x 9M extension for Fox and HFboards server permanently crashed

 

[rangerfan_79]

I had a dream last night that the Rangers announced a 6yr x 9M extension for Fox and HFboards server permanently crashed

It's crashed for less.

 

[NYR]

I think the chances of Trouba finishing contract in New York are extremely high.

Trouba is far from the problem.

 

[mas0764]

having multiple good dmen doesn't make it a redundancy

Of course not but we have more than we can use and Schneider replicates what Trouba brings rather nicely and for much cheaper.

 

[NYR]

I think quite a few are going to be disappointed in Blais simply for the fact that it was Buch that went the other way.

That said, I would put him in the "project w/ upside" category but at the end of the day, he's just a 4th line plug and should probably be viewed as such.

 

[mas0764]

The Kreider contract looked bad on the day it was signed, long before we won the draft lottery and added Lafrenière.

Agreed. It was very obviously bad foresight even at the time.

 

[mas0764]

The 3rd pair isn't the problem. Sheltering him at ES is what would be best for him and the team, especially off the bat.

The issue is he won't get on PP1 as long as Fox is here. Thats going to be where he makes his biggest impact in this league.

I'm confused as to why that's an issue.

So what, if we had a second Adam Fox we can't use him and have to trade him away? That's silly. Nils is going to be better than most other defensemen we currently employ. He can have their minutes.

 

[Riche16]

Therein lies the problem. $8M defensemen shouldn't need specific partners in order not to struggle. They should elevate their partners. That's not to say there aren't optimal partners, but it shouldn't be as large of a difference in performance for an $8M guy as it is with Trouba. This is why it's hard for me to see him finishing the contract here, barring a significant elevation in his play.

An example of what I mean is that I'm fairly certain Fox could have played with Marc Staal and still played like a top pairing defenseman this year, because he's just that good.

I don't think it's so much "Trouba needs a specific partner to be good" as much as it's "Trouba isn't so good that he can make up for ANY deficiency his partner may have"

We saw what he could do with a rookie Miller playing good to then ok to then not so good.

Trouba w a steady, decent partner isn't an issue.

Trouba with Jack Johnson? Not so much

 

[GoAwayPanarin]

I don't get all this Trouba hate. He was quietly very good last season while being paired with a rookie that a quarter of this board thinks is terrible because he had some tough patches and apparently doesn't hit anyone.

Kreider is a much bigger problem than he is.

 

[DudMan28]

Therein lies the problem. $8M defensemen shouldn't need specific partners in order not to struggle. They should elevate their partners. That's not to say there aren't optimal partners, but it shouldn't be as large of a difference in performance for an $8M guy as it is with Trouba. This is why it's hard for me to see him finishing the contract here, barring a significant elevation in his play.

An example of what I mean is that I'm fairly certain Fox could have played with Marc Staal and still played like a top pairing defenseman this year, because he's just that good.

Yeah for sure. He'll never be worth the $8m. But it's a little different than we've had in the past with Staal/Girardi being boat anchors and having horrible contracts. His contract sucks but hopefully he can return to a top 2/4 guy with the right partners.

Will also make it easier to move him if we retain a bit.

 

[GoAwayPanarin]

I'm confused as to why that's an issue.

So what, if we had a second Adam Fox we can't use him and have to trade him away? That's silly. Nils is going to be better than most other defensemen we currently employ. He can have their minutes.

He's not a second Adam Fox. Trust me I'd have no problem with another Fox.

 

[haohmaru]

Yeah for sure. He'll never be worth the $8m. But it's a little different than we've had in the past with Staal/Girardi being boat anchors and having horrible contracts. His contract sucks but hopefully he can return to a top 2/4 guy with the right partners.

Will also make it easier to move him if we retain a bit.

If Nurse is getting 9.25, Trouba's a steal @ 8M.