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Rangers Still Don't Know if There's More to Confounding Brett Howden


Phil

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Critically, does Howden have it in him to be productive enough to merit top-nine minutes, or is he going to settle into a fourth-line role that hardly seems befitting of the young, developing first-rounder, especially playing for a coach who has generally viewed the fourth line as a repository for mismatched players?

 

It?s interesting. Had the Rangers been either a little bit better or a little bit worse last season, and this applies pretty much from the get-go, then Howden probably would have been in the AHL because that?s where he would have had the opportunity to sprout his wings in a top-six role.

 

The last two years, the attention has been focused on Lias Andersson and Filip Chytil, the centers selected by the Blueshirts in the first round of the 2017 draft. What?s best for their development, New York or Hartford? Should they play in the middle or the wing? What about their linemates, what about their minutes? At times, and certainly as applies to Andersson, it has had the hallmarks of a soap opera.

 

But that kind of discussion about Howden, selected 27th overall by Tampa Bay in 2016, has largely been hidden from the public arena, though we assume it has been a topic of conversation behind the closed doors of the executive suite.

 

I?m kind of baffled by Howden?s lack of productivity, only 15 goals and 27 assists in 136 NHL career games. He has good enough size and strength, it appears as if he knows where he wants to go, and, actually, he?s pretty decent going to net and scooping up loose change. But he probably doesn?t play fast enough and he may not think the game quickly enough to be on time, though he has been an adequate penalty-killer, albeit on a unit that is well below average. There is some sort of a disconnect in Howden?s game. Perhaps some of it is confidence.

 

Because here is the thing: Advanced stats, at least the ones that are publicly available, paint Howden as one of the very worst players in the NHL. This season?s 40.4 Corsi ranked dead last among the 230 forwards with at least 725 minutes at five-on-five, and his two-year Corsi of 41.36 also ranked last among the 235 forwards with at least 1,500 minutes of full-strength hockey. The stat may not be dispositive, but being last among 230 or 235 can?t be good. There is xGF and GAR, and Howden does not grade well in the more esoteric numbers, either.

 

https://nypost.com/2020/03/29/rangers-still-dont-know-if-theres-more-to-confounding-brett-howden/

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Blueshirts Brotherhood mobile app powered by Tapatalk

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Bottom 6, while better recently, is a reason theyre on the outside looking in

 

Sure but the team as a whole progressed dramatically. Bottom 6 was much improved as the year went on, Howden included. Hard to pin blame on a player or two, considering they were all bad (aside from two players) for the first half.

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Sure but the team as a whole progressed dramatically. Bottom 6 was much improved as the year went on, Howden included. Hard to pin blame on a player or two, considering they were all bad (aside from two players) for the first half.

 

No, but when Quinn did what most of us were screaming for months, and didn’t have Haley and Smith as regulars, and Howden down to the 4th,the team improved.

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My gut feeling is that once Howden is sent to the AHL, he stays there.

I'm not seeing a guy with the skillset required to dominate that league in a top 6 role. I think he'll be just fine, but not nearly enough to make people think this is a guy that has to come back up.

He's perfectly interchangeable with loads of the guys playing for the Wolfpack, and I don't think the Rangers would be worse off if any number of them took his place on the roster this season.

If anything, his time in Hartford should be used to work on his defensive play. He's often been branded as some sort of 2 way/200 foot player but his play in the d-zone is terrible.

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I'm with you Gravesy. There's probably isn't a lot more than he's shown to date here. A guy you can plug in most likely on the 4th line who won't bring much of anything to speak of on either side of the puck. To me he's running on borrowed time that for some reason Quinn has allotted him. The stats mention in the article are absolutely dreadful. It speaks volumes when you're dead last or close to it league wide in anything eye opening. His biggest asset is probably that he's cheap. I don't think he's a guy that would be missed should he ever get sent down.
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What a bad trade, even without any perspective of time. McDonaugh and Miller, both of whom had term, represented about double the value of Stepan and Raanta, yet we somehow got less in value back for the former than the latter. ADA had some issues, but he was a better prospect than Howden. We got a pick at the very end of the first round from TB versus a No. 7 from AZ. Names? Nuf said. I'm afraid that with our big contracts, we are going to be locked into using cheap young labor that ultimately doesn't amount to much, like Howden, to fill out the forward slots.
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What a bad trade, even without any perspective of time. McDonaugh and Miller, both of whom had term, represented about double the value of Stepan and Raanta, yet we somehow got less in value back for the former than the latter. ADA had some issues, but he was a better prospect than Howden. We got a pick at the very end of the first round from TB versus a No. 7 from AZ. Names? Nuf said. I'm afraid that with our big contracts, we are going to be locked into using cheap young labor that ultimately doesn't amount to much, like Howden, to fill out the forward slots.
Have to agree. Now we're still short a left side D and Miller maybe makes a nice compliment to Panarin/Strome.

 

A trade that didn't need to be made, really.

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