Br4d

We're wasting third line minutes for what is essentially third line production. In my mind that's not a waste it's just a misuse of resources. We should be wasting 1st/2nd line minutes and PP1 minutes until we're sure that what we've got are third-liners. I'd much rather have Lafreniere-Chytil-Kakko on the ice next year than any line that includes Artemi Panarin. We know what he is and we know how what he is fails in the playoffs when the competition gets better and better instead of being the random NHL season churn.

Laffy has 47 goals at the age of 21. Kakko has 44 goals at 21. Patrick Kane is the only current Ranger with more goals scored at 21. Mika had 43.

He was the #1OA. Do the Rangers want to give him the best chance to succeed or do they want somebody else to get the opportunity? You can't really un-fuckup the last two seasons. The only thing you have some modicum of control over is what happens next. The Rangers BTW have a really bad record when making decisions like this. They have profited from a few other teams making mistakes in the other direction though.

Let me try to smooth this out a bit so you can understand where the people on this side of the issue are coming from. If Lafreniere had been taken by the typical team that gets the #1OA, one of the worst teams in the NHL with one of the worst rosters, he'd have been spotlighted right away. He'd have been on line 1 because who else do they have to do that job as a completely crappy team? He'd have been on PP1 because who else do they have to do that job on a completely crappy team? He'd have been given all the opportunity to prove himself with nobody in front of him. He'd have been asked to take a leadership role as he did that because the big man on the ice is always given that role. On the Rangers he got a few opportunities early on to take a major role but the other LW's alongside him were established stars and unless he was on fire right out of the gate he was going to wind up relegated to third line duties, which is exactly what happened. Part of the growth potential in any highly touted young player joining a bad franchise is the opportunity to make mistakes and to have fallow periods when the puck just isn't bouncing right and to still keep your place in the hierarchy. Lafreniere got none of that. In addition he was playing for a veteran player's coach in the last two seasons. GG clearly did not trust the kids last year until the playoffs and this year he reformed them several times because he was convinced they were being too deferential when lined up with the vets. Truth be told he had no clue what to do with any of the 3 when he got here and he still does not know today as he is apparently on the way out the door. This fact is one of the main reasons he is on the way out the door. If Laffy got sent to a bad team, like the Canadiens, right now he'd get all of the opportunities that the Rangers did not give him early on. We have no idea what that would do in terms of accelerating his progress but it would be a step in the right direction. I'd rather he got the opportunity here. It's time to give him the best shot at succeeding and then make a decision when we see what he's capable of in that situation.

Go look at Chris Kreider's career on Hockey reference and ask yourself what it would have turned into if he didn't get the consistent PP time. I think he would be a no-name 3rd winger somewhere if he'd been blocked the way Lafreniere has.

Lafreniere is a 50/60 pt player right now if he got some real time on the PP. I get that this is loading the dice for him but Chris Kreider has had those loaded dice for almost his entire career with the Rangers. Just food for thought.

It's probably a good time to re-read the articles given Quenneville's status as a coach of interest.

The issue as I understand it is that he knew and yet thought that it would be too disruptive to a championship drive to address it and so he let it linger on without addressing it. This is something that he might have totally gotten away with in the 70's or 80's but not in today's sporting world. You can't know about something like that and do nothing about it because doing something would lessen your chances of winning. It's not quite Paterno territory but it is close enough to make him an unmanageable issue for whomever hires him in the North American hockey world.

So let's say Laffy has a 10% chance of fulfilling his potential as a #1OA right now. That's probably ballpark for where a guy taken #1 who isn't producing winds up after year 3 in the NHL. What exactly are the Rangers going to get for him in a trade that equals that unlikely but possible chance of a star player? I just don't see how letting him go for less than a 1st round pick is acceptable at this point and I'm not sure the Rangers will see that kind of return. Obviously if the Canadiens are willing to give up a 2024 1st plus something for him we should take the trade but other than that it's better to hold onto our 3rd line LW who might turn into something big down the road. You think Ottawa regrets trading Mika Zibanejad right about now?

I'm not saying there's no talent. I'm saying that the talent is poorly sculpted into a soft, perimeter playing mess and the highest paid player on the roster epitomizes that mess.

Stop getting hung up on draft position. Draft position is a sunk cost at this point three years and more on from the pick. The high drafts are what they are at this point and luckily for us high draft position doesn't mean squat in terms of AAV. All of them have the potential to improve enough to justify the pick but at the moment none of them are playing to their pick levels. However the bright side is that all of them have value on the ice somewhere down the lineup. They're not zeros they're just not our fantasy unicorn either.

There's not enough talent in that room. Most of the players do the same thing. The guys who don't do the same thing are in the bottom 6 or not likely to be retained due to cap issues (Tarasenko.) I think the Rangers should move heaven and earth to get Panarin to agree to a deal and use the proceeds to bring Tarasenko back.

At the rate the Rangers are going Shesterkin is going to have PTSD by the time UFA comes around. He'll sign elsewhere for the same he'd get here just because he wants a strong 'team' in front of him instead of a collection of names.

If the Rangers trade either Kreider or Panarin Lafeniere slots up to 1LW or 2LW. I'd definitely try that for a season before I traded him at this point.

The problems with Panarin are really simple: 1. He's a soft player who plays on the perimeter. 2. He will almost always look for a pass, often cross-ice, before he shoots even when he has a lane to shoot. 3. He leads by example and too many players try to do the things he does but with nothing approaching the skillset to make it work like he does. 4. In the playoffs he has been under-productive because good teams take away the things he does well and when you do that he's just a small inconsequential player. He gets his points in the regular season but often they are second assist reputational points. How often do you look at his play and say "Wow! That was a great play!" I know this is not 100% accurate but he really looks like an accumulator to me at this point. Not a scorer, an accumulator.

Kreider to the Bruins doesn't look as scary as it did a month ago.

It's all the NMC's. The inmates are running the institution.

Too many players doing the same thing. The value of an Adam Fox or an Artemi Panarin goes way down when their playmaking just turns into further passes that bring the puck back to them again. Defenses in the NHL are too talented to allow for that amount of passing at even strength. By the time the playoffs roll around they are too talented for it to work well with a man advantage either. Also, WTF is wrong with taking a shot from the slot? The Rangers seem to be allergic to teeing it up from the center of the ice circles on down.

Fox is playing like he's on sedatives. Everything a step slower than it should be.

The Ranger PP is kind of broken if all they're doing is playing keep away until they can setup Mika for a 1-timer. Fox penetrated on the 3rd PP and passed up a shot in the slot to do something else. Just cannot do that and not cost the Rangers.

Igor at the Alamo so far.

If hockey had Rink Effects I'd be sure that MSG was Goalie Heaven. But of course we haven't identified those yet and it seems unlikely they exist.

Zibanejad has had a lot of defensive responsibility this series with the Devils team speed. That doesn't mean he can vanish in the offensive end but given his mindset it does explain where his effort has been.

I was going to use Gordie Howe as the comparison but I had to go back to the 50's to find the guy who looked liked Messier in the 80's and that was too big a generational hop for me.

I think the 3 games we lost in this series were just being outhustled by a younger faster team and getting stoned by a young goalie who didn't know better.