Br4d

Zibanejad is a good defensive center also.

Half the benches wound up finishing game 2 in the locker room and that BTW was exactly the point at which Panarin turned into a big zero for the series. He actually played very well in game one and I thought he was the best player on the ice and posted that. Then things got really chippy in game two and that's all she wrote about Panarin for the series. Open your eyes and look at what's happening. You're too siloed on your opinions.

Right now the Rangers have too many Chiefs and not enough Braves.

You are in love with a flashy player who puts up a lot of points, mainly assists, in the regular season. This is understandable because the Rangers have been bad at developing offensive forwards for most of our lifetimes at this point and I've been watching since '72 so that's a long time. However that player does not do much else to help the Rangers and he's developed the bad habit of vanishing when things get gritty on the ice. This recently spiked into a total vanishing act in the playoffs against the Devils. If Panarin was half the player you think he is we'd have moved on into round 2. It's time for the Rangers to recognize that Panarin has given us all that he is capable of and find a move to improve the team and cap situation that is amenable to him and gets him to waive the NMC. It doesn't get any better from here on out with him on the team. It just stays the same and then declines a bit because soon he is going to be a soft old player and those are the worst types to try to build around.

If we do that we're going to run into a team eventually that does not have 4th line players on line 2 for their toughness and then he'll be a liability on the ice. This team is just poorly constructed right now. We're poorly constructed because our best LW is a shrinking violet in the spotlight and he doesn't fit well on our 1st line anyway. Everything else devolves from that because the cap space he occupies makes it very hard to work around him on the roster without making endless deadline deals. Yes, Igor has been the main reason we've managed the trick during the last two regular seasons but he can't make up that much of a difference in the playoffs.

If you're planning to play Goodrow at 2RW then you're also planning to sign Kane and LTIR him until the deadline. The two moves go hand in hand because when Kane comes back Goodrow slots back down on the 4th line.

Well, he was 23 last season. That gives him a little room to improve before he enters his prime. What I saw from him last season was a dangerous gunslinger who took shots from all angles and looked to be developing the ability to send a hard shot from virtually anywhere in the 180 degrees in front of the goalie.

I just disagree with the general premise here. He's not flashy, or rarely so, but he is just a step off being great. It's hard to see but the overall numbers really do not lie.

Chytil was always one of those young guys we were looking to take the next step and despairing when he didn't do that. Well in 2023 he took the next step. That's a huge thing because sometimes those guys just never take that next step and he was getting close to the age where you start to wonder. 4 flat seasons and then he took the step. It's very reasonable to expect him to maintain or better his performance next season.

It's not a question of 3rd season. It's a question of 3rd season at age 21. There's a big difference between establishing a baseline of .2 even strength goals per game in 14:25 TOI at 21 and doing the same thing at 24. This is because most players who have established that they can score at even strength at age 21 are going to see a significant increase in their scoring abilities over the next few years as they grow in confidence and increase their ability to maintain an edge against a peer group that they are catching up to in mental acuity and physical strength. The 24 year olds that have established that 3rd year baseline have much less potential to grow because they are already closer to the peer group in both qualities than the 21 year olds and yet they are still producing at only marginally successful levels. Why did Alexis Lafreniere look much better in Juniors than he does now? Because he was equal in development to the peer group he was playing against. As a boy it is easier for your skills to stand out against other boys. In the NHL Laffy has not yet had the experience of playing at equal standing because he's been 19, 20 and 21 playing against a peer group of mostly 25, 26 and 27 year olds with a curve on age on each side of that distribution. these are guys that know the ropes for the most part and have the toughness of men while he has still been a young man. All of this is putting aside the arguments of #1OA because usually those guys are tremendously advanced in terms of their skills and ability to cope with playing against people who out-weight them experientially so to speak. I don't argue at any point that Lafreniere is going to be a typical #1OA who blows away the NHL because clearly he is not that. However when he has his skates firmly on the ice as he matures he is likely to be a very good hockey player, given the way that we have seen him approach contact and scoring opportunities as a young man. If he turns into a 60, 70, 80 point guy that is nothing to turn our noses up at. How often have we developed that kind of player in the system?

Chytil is maybe the second or third most valuable long-term asset the Rangers have right now depending on how you view the various kids. Fox is the only asset that is clearly more valuable from a long-term perspective.

This is completely unfair. Anybody can get seriously hurt if they take a stick to the face.

How do you not see him as more than a 20 goal guy here? Lafreniere had 19 even strength goals at the age of 20. That suggests his ceiling is going to be about 40 when he's in his prime at 25 or so. If he actually improves a lot it'll probably be 50. There are so many people who post here who don't understand what career progressions look like in professional sports, let alone the NHL. Yes, the all-time greats score a lot early on and then go berserk in their primes. That fact has nothing to do with what Lafreniere's career progression looks like at this point. Lafreniere doesn't look anything like an all-time great. He's still very likely to score a bunch of goals in his career whether that is here or somewhere else.

Drury's window is probably 1.5 disappointing seasons in a row. I'd say starting now but I don't know how disappointed Dolan was in the Ranger's early exit this season. The GG departure feels more like Drury and GG blowing up at each other and the inevitable result when you're low dog on the totem pole. I say this because the shouting match between Drury and GG that was observed was after game 4 and I doubt Dolan was keyed in to anything at that point. It makes sense that whatever happened after game 4 made an encore appearance during the season end interview and that's all she wrote. Dolan was unlikely to be particularly raged about the Rangers-Devil's series outcome. Rangers still made a nice chunk of money for him this season and they always lose in the playoffs eventually save '94.

The ongoing upset with Lafreniere is largely based on his draft position. That's a sunk cost at this point. The question is whether or not he provides value at his AAV level and at this point he clearly does. The only way he becomes a real drag on the Rangers is if they are forced to pay him at a level much higher than his contribution level on the ice. In that situation maybe it makes sense to do something else with that cap space and get something in return for him instead of waiting for his production to maybe catch up to the amount he counts against the cap.

There is a good argument to be made for having the entire coaching staff outside of Benoit be prickly pears that keep the players on their toes. This is because outside of Igor nobody is giving the Rangers 100% of their capabilities right now. I love Mika but he's capable of more at 5v5 than we've seen. Same for Fox and definitely the same for Panarin.

Pay Day?

If you polled the board probably 50% would support the notion that he was running a donut-smuggling ring bringing Big Sugar into the lockerroom. But it's probably not anything that serious.

58 year olds are always at risk. They're usually very expensive compared to a likely new hire. It's also entirely possible that room is being made for a desired hire for the next head coach however sometimes it's just time.

Because he's a top pick who proved out and is now having some fragility issues. If he rebounds from those his prime should be really special. I'd rather keep Laffy and profit from that with the downside being 3rd line LW but I could see the Rangers deciding to move on. If they do decide to do that they'd better get a piece that really helps this window right now and could be a major star moving forward. That's Laine in a nutshell.

Last season Mika finally warmed up in round 1 after Trouba decked Crosby. Chytil got hot in round 2. Fox was good all around and after Trouba decked the 'Canes kid the Rangers got to the ECF. I don't think the case has been made that the Rangers have the talent in the room to win a cup at this point. They have nobody who is a genuinely great 5v5 player. There is not a single player on the roster that I would count on to take over a 7 game series and dominate. That's one of the pre-reqs in my opinion to have a chance at a cup. Igor doesn't count because goalies just don't do that for you in the modern NHL. I don't know that they ever did.

The kind of deal that I would make for Laffy if I had to trade him would be for Patrick Laine, with the caveat that you'd need to make some real cap space to do that. Laine probably represents what Laffy will be at 25 and he'd be an acceptable hedge between the build and go-for-it options. Why would Columbus do a deal like this? Because they're rebuilding and Laine has been fragile of recent years which hurts their continuity. Why would we do it? Because we're impatient idiots looking for the cotton candy right now dammit!

Because desperation to trade Laffy makes for some heavy beer goggles.

Drury just fired a coach who took the Rangers to the playoffs back to back seasons and not regular season flukes either year. If they take a step back now it will definitely put him in peril. If they take a step back with a retread coach it will look like he is flailing.

Trading Lafreniere in a deal in which the other team isn't taking the big risk would be like throwing the baby out with the bath water right now. If somebody wants to give us a top 6 RW + futures that's a possibility the Rangers would have to look at but we're talking a RW that has established 60+ points as his pace and 25-ish. Not a lot of those guys likely to float free and for good reason. Not a lot of former #1OA's who have 47 goals scored at 21 on 3rd line minutes and no power play floating free either.