Speculation: Roster Building Thread - Part XXXIII - 2 months until TDL

[jay from jersey]

The last thing both sides have publicly said and what insiders said is that they are certainly open to reconciliation and that the goal is for him to play for the Rangers. May be lip service but who knows. I'd say it's certainly higher than a 0.0001% chance lol. The Rangers didn't need to allow him to be loaned to the KHL, they were not contractually obligated to do so. Them doing that may have been extending an olive branch and showed they were willing to work with him. They could've moved him for peanuts or let him rot, and for such a brash organization that isn't afraid to make bold moves... makes me think they're not too keen on giving up on him yet

they both publicly said they are open to reconciliation because they are trying to put lipstick on a pig situation.
Drury let him play in Russia because if he played well, he’d increase his battered trade value. It’s worked up to this point.
They could have let him rot. But then you get absolutely nothing in return.
This is basically the same thing they did with lias before they shipped his ass to LA.
The gamble worked, and kravy has played well. He could have also been demoted over there. If that was the case, he’d still be traded. But just for less.
The most likely scenario is kravtsov is an add on sweetener part of a larger trade to bring back more value.
Teams will absolutely be interested in adding him as that. He wouldn’t be the main piece, but he’ll provide boom/bust value at a discount for them.
Plus he’s still cheap and has control.

 

[Alluckks]

I’ll just say I vehemently disagree with the fact that he bombed last night. He was under siege for at least 2/3 of the game.

He also stickhandles like the puck is a live grenade

Igor's ability with the puck on his stick, both in getting it back to him during play and also stopping end arounds on the boards, can help a lot against teams that have strong possession in the offensive zone, like what Carolina does

 

[cheech70]

Reeves, Nemth and Rooney need to take K2 out for a couple drinks and let him loosen up a bit. Laf is on his way...

 

[NYR Viper]

Gauthier

 

[TheGortonConspiracy]

If the second half of the season is more of the same for the big 3 prospects (KK, Laf, Chytil), I wonder if we see one of them taken off the "untouchable" list. At a certain point it becomes a gamble holding onto these 3 big ticket prospects, and not cashing in one of them for some tangible, fungible value. What exactly is the market for these players? It would likely be a swap with a prospect of similar caliber that is performing at a similar level.

Of course there is always the possibility of a package deal that includes one of them, a la Slats. But those seem to be more and more rare each year

 

[wafflepadsave]

These guys can’t hang with the big dogs of the NHL. Giving up huge assets at the deadline would be a Sather Dark Ages move. Such decisions are why we have won 1 cup in 80 years!

Absolutely

 

[Alluckks]

Gauthier

Gauthier drives the net really well, so fancy stats will give him big ups for that. But his ability to put the puck in the net is about as limp as a dying man's handshake.

 

[wafflepadsave]

Let's be buyers because we're such amazing contenders that we're a JT Miller away. f*** that noise. Carolina showed us we're complete frauds.

Yep

 

[TheGortonConspiracy]

Gauthier

Yes, Gauthier gets the puck and brings it to the net (usually when matched up against bottom half of opposing teams). Absolutely no vision or passing ability

 

[Alluckks]

Lehkonen
Chychrun
Reilly Smith
Carpenter or someone for 4th line

Smith would be the only true rental and we are one of the few teams that can absorb that kind of cap and Vegas needs to unload it. Blais takes Smith's spot next year on the RW when he walks. We are one of the few teams at the top of the standings that can have the whole team around for 2+ years.

Kreider Zib Smith
Panarin Strome Kakko
Laf Goodrow Lehkonen

Chych Fox
Miller Trouba
Lindgren Schneider

Leave Fox and Chych off of the PK, save their time there

 

[Avery16]

Gauthier

That gap tho

 

[NYR Viper]

I wasn’t advocating for Gauthier although he does seem to create some plays around the net, just that another team may still look at him and see potential of someone who can create offense

 

[NYR Viper]

Lehkonen
Chychrun
Reilly Smith
Carpenter or someone for 4th line

Smith would be the only true rental and we are one of the few teams that can absorb that kind of cap and Vegas needs to unload it. Blais takes Smith's spot next year on the RW when he walks. We are one of the few teams at the top of the standings that can have the whole team around for 2+ years.

Kreider Zib Smith
Panarin Strome Kakko
Laf Goodrow Lehkonen

Chych Fox
Miller Trouba
Lindgren Schneider

Leave Fox and Chych off of the PK, save their time there

I like this. I would like this more if Smith was retained somehow.

Small victory if they could make that work is perhaps Brendan comes back as a 6/7 d-man to play with his brother.

If the cost on Lehkonen is too high, go get Jarnkrok and just re-sign him

 

[IronBloodedLion]

I wonder if we could leave a trail of hot dogs for Phil Kessel tonight that lead to the Ranger locker room.

 

[Fitzy]

Georgiev doesn't have much value. He's a glorified rental because no team is going to tender the QO and he'll sign his next contract at maybe $1.5 million. He's also not that great.

Georgiev/Chytil/Kravstov is essentially the modern Roszival/Zherdev offer from when there were Heately rumors like 12-13 years ago.

I mean I know Heatley was declining but that offer still cracks me up to this day.

 

[Synergy27]

I know I rave about Kravtsov until the cows come home but we must give him the chance here. He is the anti-Kakko/Laf. He has that arrogance, he has the swagger, the cockiness. He thinks he's the best. Kakko is such a timid beta. Kravtsov has all the flash, dangles, skating that all the other young kids are showing around the league that we envy and wish laf/kakko showed

This is an underrated aspect of performance. You really need to believe in yourself to be the best. If you don’t believe it, it doesn’t matter how much skill you have.

Kakko clearly doesn’t believe it. Laf might, but he seems so dedicated to being a “pro” that he hides it.

 

[Clark Kellogg]

@nyr2k2 mentioned this on the Hartford/Jacksonville thread.

AHL TV is down to their mid-season rates. I think it's $40 if you just want the Wolf Pack games for the rest of the year. Does not include playoffs.

I will wait for February and see if there will be another price reduction.
Starting in February the Wolfpack will still have 35 regular season games remaining I believe.
I noticed there is an AHL.TV app on my Roku device so I can still get my hockey fix when the Makeup break starts and our team doesn’t have too many games that need to be made up.
https://www.watchtheahl.com/#/

 

[Boris Zubov]

Reeves, Nemth and Rooney need to take K2 out for a couple drinks and let him loosen up a bit. Laf is on his way...

On his way where? To Hartford?

 

[Ruggs225]

Lets go full crazy for lines tonight

panarin-zib-chytil
Laf-strom-kakko
Kreider-goody-gaut
Mckegg-rooney-reaves

D stays the same.

shesty.

 

[MarkMessyay11]

I’ll just say I vehemently disagree with the fact that he bombed last night. He was under siege for at least 2/3 of the game.

Game could have been 5 or 6-0 before the end of the 1st. Georgiev battled all night. Silly to blame him. Carolina is just a really really good f*cking team that’s firing on all cylinders right now…simple as that.

 

[HatTrick Swayze]

The Rangers need to make a decision on whether or not they think these veterans can lead them to a Cup or they take one step back to move one step forward.

I don't think this veteran group is good enough playoff performers to get the job done. I see them as the "Second Round Rangers" max which is what my friends and I used to call the Rangers prior to 94.

I'm with you, but they made that decision. Specifically, James Dolan made that decision last May. They extended Mika and are talking about extending Strome or giving up assets and potentially an UFA extension to Hertl who has had multiple knee surgeries.

I disagree with a lot of what seems to be looming and it may end up being too much to bear. But you can thank Jimmy boy for that.

 

[IDvsEGO]

Lets go full crazy for lines tonight

panarin-zib-chytil
Laf-strom-kakko
Kreider-goody-gaut
Mckegg-rooney-reaves

D stays the same.

shesty.

10-93-72
13-16-24
20-47-12
17-21-75

 

[EdJovanovski]

 

[bbny]

Kreider isn’t moving to the 3rd line, especially for a player who doesn’t deserve top 6 (Lafreniere).

 

[NYR Viper]

We saw what a good matchup 3rd line can do last night with Larentz-Staal-Fast. Over a 7 game series that’s a difficult matchup for anyone. The Rangers should be attempting to build that here. They have the personnel for a true top-6. They need 2 guys who can augment Goodrow on the 3rd line. LEHKONEN

The other guys who should be playing every night is Barron. Barron-Goodrow-Lehkonen.

Play Lafreniere in the top-6. Sink or swim time