Category Archives: In the Crease
Tanner Glass and the Rangers’ fourth line
Bobby Bevilacqua
Photo courtesy of MSG Photos.
Prior to Rick Nash’ return to the lineup, Alain Vigneault was free to juggle the lines without leaving a healthy forward in the press box. But lately, Oscar Lindberg, a rookie with 12 goals and 26 points, has been a healthy scratch for the last four games, much to the ire of many fans.
Lindberg has bounced through different spots in the lineup, playing center and wing, going from the top line to the fourth line, and performing his role well. Lindberg’s offensive skills are good enough to contribute in a limited role, and he’s been solid defensively, handling his assignments against tougher assignments as well.
But Vigneault has his quirks, and one of them is relying on veterans and players that he trusts to handle key roles. Since last season, one of those players has been Tanner Glass. Glass has been a mainstay on the fourth line since being recalled from his stint with the Hartford Wolf Pack. Read the rest of this entry
Enough with the optimism, the Rangers are not well prepared for the playoffs
Bobby Bevilacqua
Photo courtesy of Getty Images.
For the most part, I may be one of the most optimistic Ranger fans out there. But this season has tested my patience, and yesterday’s pathetic performance against the San Jose Sharks was the tipping point.
The Rangers gave up 52 shots against the Sharks, with 47 of them coming at Henrik Lundqvist in 49 minutes. They had almost no extended periods of pressure or possession. They had half of the amount of shots on goal that the Sharks had, and the team finished as a -21 in Corsi For.
After this game, the Rangers are now 3-5-1 in their last nine games, and their last 10 games won’t be a walk in the park. They still have to take on the Penguins, the Islanders, the Bruins, the Panthers and the Lightning. At the rate they’re playing now, there’s a chance that Pittsburgh and the Islanders, both of which have at least one game in hand, could surpass the Rangers and put them in a wild card spot. Read the rest of this entry
NHL expansion looms; Having fun with a hypothetical expansion draft this summer
John Dundon
Photo courtesy of MSG Photos.
This past summer talks between the National Hockey League and potential expansion franchises in either Las Vegas or Quebec City (or both) had heated up significantly. For expansion to occur it would mean that an expansion draft would have to take place for the first time since 2000. It has been reported that the league is likely to announce plans for expansion as early as June of this year, before the NHL entry draft.
TSN’s Darren Dreger has reported that if an expansion draft were to take place, each team would have the right to protect several key players of their choosing. Dreger tweeted Wednesday that teams would be given the option of protecting either: A) three defensemen, seven forwards and one goalie OR B) eight skaters and one goalie. There are a lot of smaller details that have not yet been nailed down by the league, but this would likely be the main framework of an expansion draft.
While there are a lot of areas lacking clarity, the league has begun notifying teams on the potential ideas for the draft itself. It is expected that if there is a one team expansion, each team will lose one player. In the event of a two team expansion, each team loses two. It sounds like something out of a video game. It has also been speculated that players with no-move clauses will NOT be eligible for the potential drafters. The feeling among teams is that one expansion bid will be accepted by the Board of Governors and Las Vegas will be the next NHL city. Read the rest of this entry
Rangers long-term plan on defense remains murky
John Dundon
Photo courtesy of MSG Photos.
The Rangers currently have something of a log-jam defensively.
With the emergence of Dylan Mcilrath, and now Brady Skjei showing that he can play at the NHL level, the Blueshirts have 8 capable defensemen to fill in six roster spots. This is certainly not an issue—quite the opposite in fact. The deep group of defenseman that the Rangers have at their disposal will help to minimize the significance of post-season injuries that come with the grind of a deep playoff run.
What can be seen as a strength now could potentially become a weakness for the Rangers if not handled properly in the coming summer. As it stands, both Keith Yandle and Dan Boyle will be leaving the team for free agency and (probably) retirement, respectively. For the Rangers to lose two of their top three puck-movers from the back end in the same summer would be disastrous.
The good news is that Mcilrath has proven he can be a physical force on the blue line and has added a snarl to the Rangers d-core that they haven’t had in the last few years, while also being a solid right side defenseman. Brady Skjei has shown off his all-world skating ability in his opportunities with the big club. While there have been some hiccups, Skjei has all of the tools to be a really good top four defenseman for the Blueshirts for a long time.
While having two defenseman of the proper handedness to step in and fill the voids left by Yandle and Boyle is ideal, asking Skjei, 21, and Mcilrath, 23, to replicate the production or even to fill the holes that will be left on the power play would be unfair to the two youngsters. Couple this with the fact that Dan Girardi and Marc Staal will have aged another year (they’ll only be in decline from here), and you have a potential disaster defensively. Likely worse than what we’ve been subject to at times this season.
So how can the Rangers avoid being bad defensively for the foreseeable future?
The possibilities are endless as far as how the Rangers will attack their defensive outlook in the coming summer. The one thing that complicates matters most is the fact that both Marc Staal and Dan Girardi–whom the Rangers signed to similar contract extensions last season– have no move/no trade clauses that are currently in effect. Girardi has a full no-move that will turn into a modified no-trade NEXT summer. Staal is also protected by a full no-movement clause until 2017-2018, when it will turn into a modified no-trade.
Trading Girardi would require the 31-year-old—a husband, father, and by all accounts happy resident of NYC—to accept a trade to the proposed destination. Needless to say, it isn’t likely that Girardi would waive and leave one of the most lavish scenes in the NHL, displacing his young family in the process. Same goes for Staal.
The Rangers are facing a scenario in which you have a pair of declining defenseman in Girardi and Staal being mainstays while youngsters find their footing as every-day NHLers. There are going to be some rough patches and kinks to work out for both Skjei and Mcilrath. It probably will not be pretty, but there are no solutions to this problem.
Or are there? I argue that finding a way to keep Keith Yandle IS the solution to this problem. Can the Rangers do that though? It is highly unlikely
You should have already accepted that the Rangers will be losing Keith Yandle. Unless there is an extremely generous hometown discount on his part, Yandle won’t be a Ranger after the group leaves the ice for the final time in May or June.
Here is why the Rangers can’t bring back Yandle: if he was to get $5.5 million for his services, then the Rangers would have over $21 million—north of 30% of the team’s cap space—tied up in four players, two of whom are not very good and only going downhill. Obviously, Yandle is better than no Yandle, but that ship seems to have sailed.
Best-case scenario The Rangers find a suitor for one of Staal or Girardi and they agree to waive, opening up cap room to keep Yandle and bring up the kids to peg in the holes left by Boyle and the traded player.
McDonagh-Klein
Yandle-Mcilrath
Skjei- Girardi
That would be a pretty good top six any way you shake it. Unfortunately, it is growing increasingly unlikely that things will come out this way.
The realistic scenario is one that sees the Rangers losing Yandle and Boyle and plugging the holes with homegrown talent, which in itself is not a bad thing. The bad thing will be losing one of the top defenseman in the league because the Rangers two resident possession-killers were given NMC’S. Womp.
McDonagh-Girardi
Staal-Klein
Skjei-Mcilrath
Meh. Just meh.
My solution sees the Rangers doing anything and everything in their power to retain Yandle, and go from there. Girardi and Staal become easier to move as time goes on and we see what the future holds. I would suggest an attempt at trading Rick Nash and his $7.8-million-dollar cap hit, but that’s a conversation for another day. All I know is that Keith Yandle is too good to watch walk away. Even move Kevin Klein if you have to move money or open spot for the kids.
Any avenue the Rangers chose will be highly scrutinized and probably hated by fans. Should be fun!
The Rangers should keep Raanta and Stalberg past this season
Bobby Bevilacqua
Photo courtesy of MSG Photos.
Jeff Gorton is going to have a lot of decisions to make this offseason, whether it be trading some of the big contracts currently on the team or finding a way to allocate money to all of the free agents. With all of the expiring contracts, that will be some of the hardest decisions he has to make. But two of the players that he should absolutely keep are Antti Raanta and Viktor Stalberg.
Both players were offseason acquisitions, and both have been pretty important members of the Rangers this season. Raanta took over the big void left by Cam Talbot, and Stalberg supplied a much needed presence in the bottom six.
Raanta has been largely solid for the Rangers in his first season here. Gorton traded prospect Ryan Haggerty to the Blackhawks and snatched the Finnish netminder to backup Henrik Lundqvist. Raanta has the same luxuries that Cam Talbot had in his time here, mainly learning from Lundqvist as well as goalie guru Benoit Allaire.
Raanta won four straight games to start the season, allowing five goals in four games, including two games with just one goal allowed as well a one shutout. He lost his next six games, two in overtime, despite playing well in three of those.
A big reason for his losses wound up being irregular playing time as well as injuries. Raanta was bothered by concussion-like symptoms after taking a shot to the mask in a game against the Minnesota Wild. He had a gap of over a month between his two starts, and then back issues forced him to miss nearly another month.
Since getting regular starts, Raanta has been a lot better, and has even stolen some games away lately. He’s won four of his last five starts, allowing two goals or less in all of the wins, and having only one setback against the Islanders. But to be fair, I don’t think many goaltenders would have had success with the defense that was being played in that game.
There’s really no positives out of a player getting injured, but if there was one surrounding Raanta, it’s the fact that he’ll be pretty cheap to re-sign. He hasn’t done enough to get a contract well over a million dollars, and I think it’ll be closer to the value of an entry level contract ($925k). If he’s asking much higher than that, there’s always Magnus Hellberg. But I don’t think it will come to that.
Viktor Stalberg has been one of my favorite offseason acquisitions, and his $1.1 million contract makes it even better. He’s not a prolific goal scorer, but he’s just a really well-rounded player. The best way to explain it is that he’s a poor man’s Chris Kreider. Stalberg has incredible speed that catches player’s off guard, he’s very strong on the forecheck and he has been used effectively in defensive roles and on the penalty kill.
So far, Stalberg has tallied 18 points (8-10-18) in 61 games. And while the numbers don’t look fantastic, Stalberg has been pretty unlucky at times, hitting the goalpost and getting robbed of some other chances. Granted, he doesn’t have the best hands so he doesn’t finish as much as some would expect, but he’s a very solid bottom six player who can stretch as a second liner when needed or if he’s having a good game.
Stalberg has also done a decent job of filling the void left by the departure of Carl Hagelin. Stalberg has a better 5v5 Points/60 rating (1.45 to 1.40) and a better 5v5 Primary Points/60 rating (1.09 to .86) than Carl Hagelin, and his Corsi For% of 47.50 is alright.
For $1.1 million, Stalberg is a bargain. And with a bit more luck and some better finishing, he could hit the 13-15 goal mark in a good year. Because of his versatility, his speed and his ability to produce more, Stalberg should be kept after this season.
therangerzone.com 