Tribute What would your all time Rangers team look like?

[Notabaguette]

What would your all time Rangers team look like?

Graves Messier Kovalev
Panarin Ratelle Gilbert
Esposito Gretzky Jagr
Bure Lindros Bathgate
Leetch Park
Harvey Zubov
Howell Ruotsalainen
Richter
Lundqvist

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[HFBS]

You left out Lafleur, Marcel Dionne, Ken Hodge, Jari Kurri and Marty McSorely.

 

[Ben Grimm]

- Mark Messier - Bill Cook
- Jean Ratelle - Andy Bathgate
- Frank Boucher - Rod Gilbert
- - Bryan Hextall

Brian Leetch - Brad Park
Ching Johnson - Harry Howell
-

Henrik Lundqvist
Eddie Giacomin

This is all I have right now. Fine, Messier is a Ranger. I like how this great thread was started exactly at midnight.

 

[eco's bones]

One of the problems with all these nostalgia threads is there may be a poster or two here who actually saw some Rangers teams back in the 50's and maybe a half dozen or so who remember from the 60's and then 15 or 20 go back into the 70's. So how do we really go about appreciating even the Cook brothers, Frank Boucher, Ching Johnson let alone Earl Seibert, Babe Siebert, Art Coulter, Neil Colville, Lynn Patrick, Chuck Rayner, Buddy O'Connor, Edgar Laprade, Babe Pratt, Clint Smith etc. These are all guys who spent significant parts of their careers with the Rangers and ended up in the Hall of Fame. And if we're going to include guys like Bure, Gretzky, Harvey, Dionne, Lafleur whose better part of their careers were spent with other teams well there's also Howie Morenz, Doug and Max Bentley, Bill Gadsby, Boom Boom Geoffrion, Tim Horton and Jacques Plante. Just saying. I mean Howie Morenz only played briefly with us but he was kind of the Brett Hull, Alex Ovechkin of his day.

The Rangers team that won the cup in 1940 was a team on the verge of seriously contending for multiple Cups. All that hit the skids with WWII. Most of that team served in the military during the war. Red Garrett was killed. That couldn't be said for some other teams and the Rangers went from what could have been a powerhouse into pretty much a farce during the war years. A lot of those players returned at the conclusion of the war but most of them had lost something at that point.

Anyway I started following the Rangers in the early 70's and this is another thing. The difference between how the game was played in the early 70's and how it was played in the 1990's is massive and the differences are massive again from the 1990's to today. So it would also have been massive from the 1920's to Bobby Orr's time. It's kind of the same game but there are also significant differences in equipment, coaching, rules/officiating, training, skill levels, size/physical play/$ or remuneration from era to era. The greater influence of the European skating/skill game today for instance has kind of pushed a lot of the physical goon happy concussion inducing North American game of the late 90's into the background. Shit happens and things will evolve whether we like it or not.

 

[SA16]

One of the problems with all these nostalgia threads is there may be a poster or two here who actually saw some Rangers teams back in the 50's and maybe a half dozen or so who remember from the 60's and then 15 or 20 go back into the 70's. So how do we really go about appreciating even the Cook brothers...

You don’t and you shouldn’t. That’s why it’s YOUR all time team and should only consist of guys you’ve actually seen. Someone who is older will have a different team.

 

[eco's bones]

You don’t and you shouldn’t. That’s why it’s YOUR all time team and should only consist of guys you’ve actually seen. Someone who is older will have a different team.

I agree. But I'd also add there's really no good way of comparing Rod Gilbert with Artemi Panarin or Mika Zibanejad with Jean Ratelle. Zibanejad actually reminds me of Kopitar 5 or 6 years ago. Panarin reminds me of Gretzky--not in respect to point production or position but in respect to crossing over the enemy's blue line and curling away with the puck and finding time and space to make a play. But really from 1971-72 to 2019-20 that's a challenge too and there is so much time between then and now that a lot gets foggy.

 

[SA16]

I agree. But I'd also add there's really no good way of comparing Rod Gilbert with Artemi Panarin or Mika Zibanejad with Jean Ratelle. Zibanejad actually reminds me of Kopitar 5 or 6 years ago. Panarin reminds me of Gretzky--not in respect to point production or position but in respect to crossing over the enemy's blue line and curling away with the puck and finding time and space to make a play. But really from 1971-72 to 2019-20 that's a challenge too and there is so much time between then and now that a lot gets foggy.

I think you just need to compare them relative to other players who played at the same time. In reality the players of today are for the most part much better than the players in the past but they have advantages guys in the past didn't have.

 

[Ratelleitlikeitis]

Hadfield Ratelle Gilbert
Vickers Tkaczuk Kovalev
Graves Messier Jagr
Gartner Bathgate Sandstrom

Park Leetch
Howell Greschner
Zubov McD

Henrik
Richter

 

[FoxyClean]

You left out Lafleur, Marcel Dionne, Ken Hodge, Jari Kurri and Marty McSorely.

Today I learned Jari Kurri and Marty McSorley were Rangers.

 

[EdJovanovski]

MY team so not players who were here in like the 90s before I was born

Panarin - Namestnikov - Jagr
Nash - Zibanejad - Gaborik
Kreider - Stepan - Zuccarello
Avery - Brassard - Buchnevich

Staal - DeAngelo
McDonagh - Girardi
Klein - Stralman

Lundqvist
Shesterkin

I know Messier & Leetch played in my lifetime but that was before I’d have memory of them and I was a Canucks when when I was little.

 

[HFBS]

Today I learned Jari Kurri and Marty McSorley were Rangers.

New York Rangers: The ten worst trades in franchise history

 

[eco's bones]

New York Rangers: The ten worst trades in franchise history

I don't hate Espo but it seemed like every year he'd start the year by saying something along the lines of 'I'm finally over not being a Boston Bruin and am fully on board the Ranger train'----shit like that. We brought in a lot of his buddies. I think Sanderson actually beat him to New York but there was also Vadnais who came along with him, Hodge, Don Awrey and Dallas Smith. He was lonesome and he didn't get along with Rod Gilbert. Think about it...Rod Gilbert wore No. 7---that was Espo's number. That's where the 77 comes in. They were fighting with each other until the day Gilbert retired. Espo was a good leader guy though and led us to the '79 Cup finals. He was a real big part of that.

Yeah Ken Hodge got 62 points that one year but he kind of sucked anyway. He was really slowing down. Awful f***ing trade. Middleton would go on to be just about the best forward on a Bruins team that made several runs to the Cup finals. FWIW Don Cherry made him a better all around player. Early on he dropped the nickname 'The Stork' on Rick because of his penchant for screening goalies and lifting his leg to let the shot through. It wasn't long before he was actually blocking the shot though and he became a superb penalty killer besides being a major league offensive threat. WTF.

As a bit of tangential bullshit trivia crap Middleton started balding rather early and I think he owns barber shops.

 

[Machinehead]

Weighing tenure, as well as an attempt to make cohesive lines, I'd go with something like this:

Hadfield-Ratelle-Gilbert
Panarin-Messier-Jagr
Cook-Boucher-Cook
Graves-Tkaczuk-Bathgate

Leetch-Neilson/Seiling
Park-Zubov
Howell-Ruotsalainen

Lundqvist
Richter

-I know Panarin hasn't had a long tenure but TELL ME YOU WOULDN'T WANT TO SEE THAT!

-Bun Cook wasn't really all-time great but the Bread Line was the best line in hockey. Why f*** with it?

-Tried to do the D by handedness. Jim Neilson shot left but I think played to the right of Rod Seiling who also shot left (could be the other way around) but I think either one would compliment Leetch nicely, so whichever one actually played right.

-Even in an all-star team, I like having a 4th line that will bang and defend, which Graves and Tkaczuk fit. Bathgate more of a scorer but I couldn't leave him off.

 

[Cag29]

What would your all time Rangers team look like?

Graves Messier Kovalev
Panarin Ratelle Gilbert
Esposito Gretzky Jagr
Bure Lindros Bathgate
Leetch Park
Harvey Zubov
Howell Ruotsalainen
Richter
Lundqvist

Hadfield. Tkachuk. Beck. Mcd.

 

[Elliman]

I’M rolling training camp & preseason lines cause it’s my team and I’m bored as hell.

Graves - Messier - Kovalev
Panarin - Gretzky - Jagr
Shanahan - Lindros - Fleury
Haglein - Zibanejad - Gartner
Zuccarello - LaFontaine - Bure
Tikkanen - Avery - Barnaby
Kreider - Stepan - Larmer
Nash - Dubinsky - Gaborik
Naslund - Nedved - St. Louis
Duclair - Weight - Amonte
Matteau - Drury - Callahan
Robitaille/Stevens - Gomez/Holik - Zherdev
Straka - Nylander - Verbeek

Langdon - Hollweg - Kocur - Purinton - McSorley
King - Stock - Domi - Cairns - Kasparitis
Prust - Boogard - Orr - Beaukeboom- Samuelsson

Leetch - Beaukeboom
Ulf Samuelsson - Zubov
Kasparaitis - Fox
McDonagh - deAngelo
Staal - Girardi

Richter
Lundqvist
Shestorkin

 

[Kocur Dill]

Graves - Messier - Fleury
Verbeek - Zibanejad - Jagr
Shanahan - LaFontaine - Zuccarello
Barnaby - Nemchinov - Kocur

Leetch - Beukeboom
Kasparitas - Zubov
McDonagh - Girardi

Lundqvist
Richter

Black aces: Hlavac - Nedved - Dvorak
But only as the Czechmates, because they, imo, were only worth consideration as a 123 line.