Speculation: Roster Building Thread: Part XXXVIII

[Shesterkybomb]

I can’t help but feel Brassard could be a relatively low risk, decent reward kind of signing.

I think he’s better than his play and numbers this season. If you can create an environment where he’s comfortable, and get him back to the 20 goal, 40 point level, there’s potential value at the TDL to be had.

If not, and he’s truly on the decline, I don’t see the money or terms being a problem anyway.

He isnt, his foot speed is becoming more and more of a problem as he ages. I'm sure we can find someone with younger legs than going through the rolodex of former rangers.

 

[Shesterkybomb]

I gotta say, the more I consider the matter, the more I think both Kreider and Skjei are gone this offseason. Then, I think both Vesey and Fast go during next season.

The plan is so clearly to build around the (currently) 23-and-under players, with only select veterans kept due to key roles/leadership/contract situation. I think they keep Zibanejad as the captain and leader, along with Namestnikov (Swiss army knife), and Strome (reclamation project, example to younger guys of perseverance) up front, and then obviously the 3 contracts on D, plus Hank as the all-time Ranger.

I doubt Skjei goes anywhere but I do think Vesey, Fast and Namestnicov will all be gone by the deadline. Kreider is dependent on if they can sign him this summer to a reasonable contract in the 5 year range or not.

 

[Thirty One]

If the Rangers end up getting Kakko I would look into signing Donskoi. Pay the AAV to keep it to a 2 year deal. They can talk about whatever Finnish people talk about.

 

[Kakko Schmakko]

I would wait it out. Fox doesn’t want to sign there or he would have. We don’t have to give them anything. We just need to wait and see.

He might not want to sign with a team he is traded to either, that is why I wouldn't give up a lot for him.

 

[LaffyTaffy]

Any interest in Tyler Myers or Stralman? Dont know what Myers would be looking for on his next contract.

 

[FIRE DRURY]

If the Rangers end up getting Kakko I would look into signing Donskoi. Pay the AAV to keep it to a 2 year deal. They can talk about whatever Finnish people talk about.

4/10

I have higher expectations from you.

 

[FIRE DRURY]

Any interest in Tyler Myers or Stralman? Dont know what Myers would be looking for on his next contract.

Neither.

We have our “vets”. Staal, Shatty, Smith.

Skjei, ADA and Pionk. Hajek + Lindgren. Claesson might be brought back.

Don’t see the point in bringing in a vet. I fear it’ll take away opportunities for our young guys that should be playing as much as possible.

 

[TheDirtyH]

If the Rangers end up getting Kakko I would look into signing Donskoi. Pay the AAV to keep it to a 2 year deal. They can talk about whatever Finnish people talk about.

Sign him anyway. Donskoi's dumb underrated, especially by the Sharks.

 

[Shesterkybomb]

I don't expect us to add veteran players unless they are the 1 year deal cheap and a possible deadline trade away.

 

[Barnaby]

I would wait it out. Fox doesn’t want to sign there or he would have. We don’t have to give them anything. We just need to wait and see.

Hypothetically if he said "Rangers or bust, and I'll sit out a year for it." Doubtful.

Get ready to find out he's going to Boston or something for a late 2nd. He may very well prefer the Rangers but if they won't make a deal, then he might be happy to take his second or third option to burn the year off of his ELC. Adam Fox goes to Harvard... he can do math.

 

[Barnaby]

I just hope Adam Fox doesn't become Tim Erixon 2.0

 

[AIexisLafreniereNYR]

Yeah I don’t want to go all on unless we have an elite defense

 

[Amazing Kreiderman]

Besides the inability to delay instant gratification, what possible reason is there to sign literally any vet? Let's say he will be great and the term will be short enough not to be a problem (neither of which is possible for UFAs except Pouliot types), what's the point? We move down from 5 overall to 13th overall the next couple of years? It benefits us how exactly?

And then running up to the draft you will demand Gorts gives up real, valuable assets to move up from #13 to #5-8? So even if the UFA does great, the result is that we either draft late or lose assets to draft in the same spot?

It's different if this is done by young guys like Chytil and Kravtsov. They are (hopefully) our future core and I can live with a 13 overall pick instead of a 5 overall if it means Chytil is a first liner instead of third liner. But I dont want to live with Ty Dellandrea instead of Kravtsov because we just threw money at a 30 year old who will be a shell of himself by the time our youth matures.

Trade Kreider for picks/prospects, replace him with Panarin.

It fits the rebuild perfectly.

 

[Ola]

If the Rangers end up getting Kakko I would look into signing Donskoi. Pay the AAV to keep it to a 2 year deal. They can talk about whatever Finnish people talk about.

Ziba speaks Finnish. His mother is Finnish and they only communicate in Finnish.

Mika actually wanted to represent Finland in the WJCs, but IIHF rules prevented him from it.

Not that I have anything against Donskoi.

 

[Ola]

I hope we stop making idiotic conditional returns trades instead get real value in return, not some maybe.

I get what you mean. I think the Tampa condition was pretty bad, we just made a deal with them. That deal was conditional on us making the ECF. Then a little while later we accept a condition from them were they must win the Cup.

But if used properly, it can be a really good way to bridge different positions in the negotiations. Its hard to argue against it so to speak. You can argue that the acquiring team get what they paid for, or that the selling team got paid for what they gave up. You know, if Gorton is selling Zucc and Dallas buying, when negotiating the price Dallas will motivate their offer from the perspective of getting a rental while Gorts will label it as them getting a great shot at adding a really good top 4-5 forward long-term. From both sides its hard to shot down a proposal on turning a 2nd into a 1st if he signs with Dallas.

OTOH, its not a water proof argument. Sure the upside/downside may objectively be fair, but Gorton on the receiving end loose all control of things the minute a trade is made.

 

[Amazing Kreiderman]

If the Rangers end up getting Kakko I would look into signing Donskoi. Pay the AAV to keep it to a 2 year deal. They can talk about whatever Finnish people talk about.

Kreider-Zibanejad-Kakko can be referred to as "the bilingual line"

 

[Ori]

Mika is a certain keep now and we can`t afford to move centers - so hopefully we get another top 1st #6-8 center pick in that 2019 draft.

 

[Ola]

I had no interest in Eric Karlsson before the playoffs started. Now I have been less.

I hope SJ loses 4-0 and he is like -4 in the next game so that he will come here at 7x7!!

Seriously though, j/k, it would have been one thing if we had a big hole organization wise at that position. If we were bound to like sign Alex Gologoski II to a 6-7m deal anyway. But compared to just 12 months ago, not to mention 24 months ago, the land lays just totally different in that regard. It seems almost likely that we will have TDA, Fox, Pionk, Lundkvist and Keane at that position in the organization going into next season. When we rank our young assets, if we were to look at both kids in the NHL and on the farm, those 5 constitute a huge slice of the assets we have.

What would a ranking of young assets -- if with young assets, we mean kids that can be here in 5+ years time and still be prime players -- look like, under the above conditions and assuming we get Kakko and Kreider is traded (skaters)? How is our depth chart really weighted?

This is of course highly subjective and done in a hurry, I am sure I also missed a player or two. But here is my ranking of our top 20 skaters, that are long-term assets. To make some more sense of it I've diveded them into 4 tiers, 5 players in each, where the 1st tier gets 4 pts, 2nd tier gets 3 pts, 3rd tier gets 2 pts and 4th tier gets 1 pts.

Top 20 Long-term assets

Tier 1
1. Ziba, C
2. Kakko, RW
3. Kravy, RW
4. Buch, RW
5. Skjei, LD

Tier 2
6. TDA, RD
7. K'Andre, LD
8. Chytil, C
9. Lias, C
10. Fox, RD

Tier 3
11. Hajak, LD
12. Howden, C
13. Lemieux, LW
14. Pionk, RD
15. Keane, RD

Tier 4
16. Lundkvist, RD
17. Vinnie L, RW
18. Rykov, LD
19. Lindgren, LD
20. Reunanen, LD

Center
1. Ziba
8. Chytil
9. Lias
12. Howden

LW
13. Lemieux

RW
2. Kakko
3. Kravy
4. Buch
17. Vinnie L

LD
5. Skjei
7. K'Andre
11. Hajak
18. Rykov, LD
19. Lindgren, LD
20. Reunanen, LD

RD
6. TDA
10. Fox
14. Pionk
15. Keane
16. Lundkvist

To break it down even more, using the points grading system described above, this is how each position scores on average -- I am totaling the wingers, Kravy, Kakko and co. can also play LW.

Average Center Score
Number of positions to fill: 4
Total points: 12
Avg Center Score: 3 pts/center position

Average Winger Score:
Number of positions to fill: 8
Total points: 15
Avg Winger Score: 1.25 pts/winger position

Average LD Score:
Number of positions to fill: 3
Total points: 12
Avg LD Score: 4 pts/LD position

Average RD Score:
Number of positions to fill: 3
Total points: 13
Avg RD Score: 4.33 pts/RD position

DEPTH-CHART STATUS
Of course this is super subjective, and done in a hurry, it's generalizing, but this is kind of how I see our positions rank:
RD -- Grade 4.33
LD -- Grade 4
Center -- Grade 3
Wing -- Grade 1.25

Getting a RD in Karlsson, that will play 1.30 each PP, just makes a lot less sense now than 18 months ago.

 

[Paulie Walnutz]

Erik Karlsson would be a disaster here. How many games did he miss this season? And people are trying to justify it by saying look how many points he had? That’s exactly the point, he can’t stay healthy and that contract will take him into his mid 30s. Have we not learned anything here guys?

 

[Ori]

LW position is weak, but Kakko can play LW if they move Kreider at draft day this summer.

 

[haohmaru]

Sign him anyway. Donskoi's dumb underrated, especially by the Sharks.

To be fair, he didn't score a goal in his last 30+ games. The Sharks have a reason to be down on him.

 

[haohmaru]

I had no interest in Eric Karlsson before the playoffs started. Now I have been less.

You forgot the "at league minimum" part.

 

[Ori]

LW is so weak that I can actually see Kreider sign that 4 years contract extension - he probably want to play in MSG next season, and he speak fluid russian which might help out Kratsov first NHL season as well. Why move him for 2019 center while our LW position is dangerously weak in our current farm system?

Ryan Strome or Nam can play that #2nd center role, but it`s a risk involved in that. We are still rebuilding and waiting for that #1st/2nd center position into 2020 draft.

 

[Blue Blooded]

LW is so weak that I can actually see Kreider sign that 4 years contract extension - he probably want to play in MSG next season, and he speak fluid russian which might help out Kratsov first NHL season as well. Why move him for 2019 center while our LW position is dangerously weak in our current farm system?

Ryan Strome or Nam can play that #2nd center role, but it`s a risk involved in that. We are still rebuilding and waiting for that #1st/2nd center position into 2020 draft.

Trade Kreider, sign Panarin.

 

[Jaromir Jagr]

Erik Karlsson would be a disaster here. How many games did he miss this season? And people are trying to justify it by saying look how many points he had? That’s exactly the point, he can’t stay healthy and that contract will take him into his mid 30s. Have we not learned anything here guys?

We haven't.