GDT: Training Camp 2021: Everyone Else Too Lazy to Make a Thread

[Glen Sathers Cigar]

Our biggest weakness is not even so much the actual left defensemen IMO. It’s the overall lack of defensively responsible forwards. It’s just a big issue and it’s less about the guys not being good and more about them being so young and having to learn. But they need someone to teach them Most offensively gifted kids never play defense until they get to the pros. They just have to learn. I love getting Martin for that reason. Yes he’s coaching the defense but he will be working with Quinn with the boys on structure overall for sure.

honesrly right now panarin Mika and buchy are probably our most reliable guys defensively up front scary.

rooney too. Phil DiGi another plug but that’s why he got Mins last year.

You hit the nail right on the head here.

 

[KirkAlbuquerque]

If we’re not giving captain to Laf yet, and we had to make a decision, I don’t see how you don’t give it to Mika. I really don’t understand the Kreider for captain argument at all. He’s always been a quiet guy, and yea before you say lead by example, so does Mika....so what else does he bring to the table besides soon being our third best left winger?

 

[Oscar Lindberg]

The quote from Quinn on naming a captain makes it sound like they don’t plan to name one. If they were gonna make Mika or Kreider captain it would have happened by now

Seems pretty clear they’re holding it until they think Laf is ready

 

[Larrybiv]

If we’re not giving captain to Laf yet, and we had to make a decision, I don’t see how you don’t give it to Mika. I really don’t understand the Kreider for captain argument at all. He’s always been a quiet guy, and yea before you say lead by example, so does Mika....so what else does he bring to the table besides soon being our third best left winger?

I would bet any amount of money that he isnt "that quiet" in the room. It isnt "how much you say", its more WHEN and the context of WHEN its mostly needed.
Remember, its well documented that Hank was our in house leader. Out of respect maybe Chris kept his thoughts to himself and just added a bit here and there.
Probably was more loquacious last season (especially after his signing), picking up steam + No Hank.....= Captain
Home grown, been here the longest and NEW contract. Whats so hard to understand about that? Mika is Alternate, they're buddies.....no problem.

What "if" we dont cough up what Mika wants? Make him Captain, and then trade him? Then again, wouldnt be the 1st time.

 

[ColonialsHockey10]

You don’t name a guy who shows up 65% of the time captain, no matter how good he is when he shows up. That’s literally the opposite of leading by example.

I don’t understand how people have difficulty grasping this.

What kind of message does it send to the guys when it’s Round 1 of the playoffs and your captain is inexplicably a ghost?

 

[HockeyBasedNYC]

I think it's smart to hold onto the captaincy for a number of reasons. No reason to rush it onto someone's sweater.

 

[ColonialsHockey10]

I think it's smart to hold onto the captaincy for a number of reasons. No reason to rush it onto someone's sweater.

And there’s extra incentive not to rush it when there’s nobody deserving of it.

 

[OverTheCap]

There's always been speculation that the captaincy was burdensome for McDonagh and it affected his performance.

I don't think the Rangers want to go through that again. I'm fine with them holding off on naming a captain until they are certain the player is deserving of it and can handle the responsibility.

 

[KirkAlbuquerque]

The quote from Quinn on naming a captain makes it sound like they don’t plan to name one. If they were gonna make Mika or Kreider captain it would have happened by now

Seems pretty clear they’re holding it until they think Laf is ready

So no captain for the next 3 years, minimum?

 

[Kravtsov420]

I would bet any amount of money that he isnt "that quiet" in the room. It isnt "how much you say", its more WHEN and the context of WHEN its mostly needed.
Remember, its well documented that Hank was our in house leader. Out of respect maybe Chris kept his thoughts to himself and just added a bit here and there.
Probably was more loquacious last season (especially after his signing), picking up steam + No Hank.....= Captain
Home grown, been here the longest and NEW contract. Whats so hard to understand about that? Mika is Alternate, they're buddies.....no problem.

What "if" we dont cough up what Mika wants? Make him Captain, and then trade him? Then again, wouldnt be the 1st time.

That’s also why I prefaced what I said by saying Laf should be the captain. Maybe new glasses for you.

 

[cwede]

There's always been speculation that the captaincy was burdensome for McDonagh and it affected his performance. I don't think the Rangers want to go through that again. I'm fine with them holding off on naming a captain until they are certain the player is deserving of it and can handle the responsibility.

this is my concern re naming Zib, why complicate what's working great (with him)

if sooner, give it to Kreids for few years, then Kisio-him
and give it Laf(Kakk, Fox, Barron, Schneider, Robertson...) if/when that young guy asserts his presence and leadership, earns it, and seems to be able to handle it

 

[Algernop Kreider]

Yeah honestly some of the analytics stuff when projecting young players makes me...nervous? I dunno, I don't like the "well this 18 year old didn't do well so he's probably f***ed time to move on" feeling I get from some of these analysis.

Dom acknowledges all of this though. It's pretty obvious that there are some cases that it wouldn't be reasonable to expect a model to reflect, and Dom pretty gives us the raw output without making special exceptions, and then explains clearly where the model is especially likely to be wrong, thereby giving us all of the available information. I think this is the best way to approach these kinds of things, and from reading Dom's work, his modeling really does seem to have something real behind it.

 

[I Eat Crow]

The quote from Quinn on naming a captain makes it sound like they don’t plan to name one. If they were gonna make Mika or Kreider captain it would have happened by now

Seems pretty clear they’re holding it until they think Laf is ready

This is what I'd do. Keep it rotating 3 A's this year. Give it to Lafreniere to start next year. He'll be ready for it. This kid's going to be our 2nd best forward by the end of the year. Take that to the bank.

 

[GoAwayPanarin]

This is what I'd do. Keep it rotating 3 A's this year. Give it to Lafreniere to start next year. He'll be ready for it. This kid's going to be our 2nd best forward by the end of the year. Take that to the bank.

If he's our 2nd best forward at the end of the year Zibanejad either took a sizable step back or we're dope AF.

 

[I Eat Crow]

If he's our 2nd best forward at the end of the year Zibanejad either took a sizable step back or we're dope AF.

We're going to be the latter offensively. Each of the top 3 lines is going to have a difference maker if all of Zib, Panarin, and Lafreniere stay healthy and Quinn chooses to keep them all on separate lines.

I have a hunch that Lafreniere is going to start the first 20 or so games slow and then be a point per game player over the home stretch. 35 or so points over the course of the 56 games playing all situations.

I think we see a small drop off from Zibanjead in terms of points.

 

[aufheben]

Dom's model is interesting to look at. He fully acknowledges limitations, like the difficulty with projecting small-sample goaltending performances and evaluating players like Kakko who were absolutely terrible but anecdotally project to much better. For someone like Kakko, there's not much in the way of statistical modeling that can be done to project him going from being awful to a solid contributor; we all know it can happen but this is a model, not just a dude's best guesses. This is one of the large reasons there's a lot of variance attributed to the team is his model, and he outright says that the Rangers are tough to predict as any outcome--the team exploding as multiple young players emerge, the team maintaining more of a status quo, the team struggling, etc.--are all very plausible.

I'd honestly rather read a season preview with projections based on a statistical model, even one with limitations, than one where it's just some dude with only a cursory knowledge of all of our players speculating on what will happen.

Subscribing to The Athletic is worth it for Dom Luszczyszyn alone, IMO.

For those curious:

Welcome to New York, where any given player is projected to be either really good or really bad, with very little in between. The Rangers currently have three skaters in the elite tier, a distinction only shared by seven other teams. Those teams are projected to earn 71.6 points on average this season, a 105-point pace with not a single team below 68 points, a 100-point pace. At 60 projected points, the Rangers are an outlier. It’s because the team also has five players projected to be below replacement level, a distinction shared by only four other teams. Those teams are projected to earn 51.8 points on average, a 76-point pace, with no team above 55 points, an 81-point pace. Again, the Rangers are an outlier.

Goes on to state that those five below-replacement-level players hurt the team as much as Zibanejad helps the team.

tl;dr: our players are either GOAT or WOAT.

 

[cwede]

...Give it to Lafreniere to start next year. He'll be ready for it. This kid's going to be our 2nd best forward by the end of the year. Take that to the bank.

If you said 3rd I wouldn't be so curious.
But hoping Kakko blossoming, Kreider without the expiring contract, Chytil continuing to trend up, raises the bar for everyone

 

[GoAwayPanarin]

We're going to be the latter offensively. Each of the top 3 lines is going to have a difference maker if all of Zib, Panarin, and Lafreniere stay healthy and Quinn chooses to keep them all on separate lines.

I have a hunch that Lafreniere is going to start the first 20 or so games slow and then be a point per game player over the home stretch. 35 or so points over the course of the 56 games playing all situations.

I think we see a small drop off from Zibanjead in terms of points.

I think thats a given.

he really shot the lights out in the 2nd half and almost got himself back into the Richard race.

When he hit 30, I didn't think he had a prayer at getting to 40.

 

[WojtekWolski86]

Smitty blows away Johnson. Hes a lot more valuable to this team than people give him credit for. One of the very few that will throw down his gloves to protect his teammate. Many, many here, still have a hard on for coming into camp out of shape. Yeah, I was pissed too, but get over it already. I like him, and not very many would switch.....check that..... PLAY 2 positions at a moments notice. That in itself is Mastercard priceless.

Smitty is like Strudwick and Emminger but with Redden's contract. He shows flashes on the PK holding the line and at times on the 3rd pair or even when him and Brady had that great playoff showing.

His problem is he does a seriously bone headed pinch or penalty at least once a game.

 

[aufheben]

So no captain for the next 3 years, minimum?

Landeskog was named captain at 19-years-old after completing one NHL season.

 

[I Eat Crow]

Landeskog was named captain at 19-years-old after completing one NHL season.

It's funny that you mention Landeskog. I think that they're actually not at all dissimilar players in terms of style and personality. Only exception of Lafreniere having a higher offensive ceiling. I see Lafreniere following a very similar trajectory in terms of impact. Captain in his second year as a member of the team because of leadership qualities out the wazoo. Immediate contributor at both ends of the ice. Left winger. The parallels are there.

 

[will1066]

Landeskog was named captain at 19-years-old after completing one NHL season.

Hockey's different here.

 

[KirkAlbuquerque]

Landeskog was named captain at 19-years-old after completing one NHL season.

yeah and so was McDavid and Crosby, difference is those teams were garbage rebuild from scratch teams with no veterans that had any future with the team. We already have Panarin, Zib, Kreider, and Trouba here for the long haul.

 

[Kovalev27]

Giving 19 or 20 year olds captaincy is a good way to make sure you don’t make the playoffs for a while and at the same time give a responsibility to a child that shouldn’t have it

 

[Crease]

Jagr was captain for 2 years and Drury was captain for 3. So it is not like the Rangers are against short term captains as a rule. But it is awkward to demote someone from C to A, and I don’t think the Rangers expect to move Kreider or Zibanejad anytime soon.