What will be interesting is seeing how this team plays, how they work towards being a potentially fast team, all while skating real young. There are opportunities for younger players to take roster spots that weren’t as accessible in years prior, and now they’ll finally get the time to develop and make mistakes.
At the same time, we have a redemption story in Brendan Smith. How will he respond from getting demoted down to the AHL? Which was deserving based on his play. The Rangers did not sign him to a large extension last offseason to have him play in the AHL. He should be playing in the big club and most importantly, he needs to be an impactful piece on the Rangers blueline. He’ll have the opportunity at training camp to prove himself. If he fails to show any sort of improvement, then not only does Brendan Smith have a problem, but the Rangers will have a problem with keeping a player who has seemingly not lived up to his contract.
While there are many storylines to look at, like Anthony DeAngelo’s progression as a defenseman or Neil Pionk and John Gilmour’s late season surge as steady choices that aren’t Smith, the Rangers still have a lot of questions that need to be addressed. Briefly, let’s go through some of them:
- How will Kevin Shattenkirk perform, after what he also believed was a down year for himself
- Will Kevin Hayes expand on his role as a center and become more of an offensive threat
- Can both Lias Andersson and Filip Chytil find a spot on the opening night roster
- Are we really rebuilding with Henrik Lundqvist as our starting goaltender
Though there are more questions I didn’t include, these four really stand out as the most important. We already touched on Smith’s ability to properly bounce back from what we all know was an awful season. He’s already been training to get into better shape than what he came in at the start of training camp last year, so we do know that there is a redemption story for him to be on the Ranger roster.
Now let’s move on to what I think the Rangers opening night roster will look like. Because it’s July and there is absolutely nothing else to talk about when it comes to the Rangers, on the longest summer this team has ever been on since 2009.[/text_output]
Backing him up will be Alexandar Georgiev, who proved that he can be a sustainable backup while Lundqvist was dealing with injury near the end of the season; him and Ondrej Pavelec split time to end the season. He emerged in many eyes as someone who could handle a backup workload if given the chance. Working under the best tandem of Benoit Allaire and Lundqvist will give him more confidence and opportunity to improve on his mannerisms and positioning.
I’m not going to guess the amount of games Lundqvist will play in this year. I do think his workload will be less, giving him the chance to catch his breath. Lundqvist will also not be left in there hung out to dry. If the team is struggling, I have faith in seeing Quinn making a goalie change to “help” spark the team, and the same goes with Georgiev.[/text_output]
Brady Skjei, Shattenkirk and Marc Staal are locks on this team, meaning there’s three spots up for the taking. feel new Ranger defenseman, Fredrik Claesson, will get a crack in the lineup to show what he’s capable of. He’s going to be in the mix for the sixth or seventh spot. Rounding out the rest will be DeAngelo, Pionk, Smith and Gilmour.
This means the seventh and eighth defenseman will be Smith and Gilmour. Could Smith impress during training camp? He could, and obviously if that’s the case he could slot in over Claesson, but one thing to point out is that both Smith and DeAngelo will have short leashes. This means that Claesson could come in, play well and get that last spot over someone like Smith or DeAngelo.
Rob O’Gara and Steven Kampfer enjoy your time in Hartford as you shouldn’t see time with the Rangers. New slate grab it.[/text_output][image type=”circle” float=”none” link=”true” info=”tooltip” info_place=”bottom” info_trigger=”hover” src=”2762″ alt=”” href=”#” title=”” info_content=”Credit: Newsday” lightbox_caption=”” id=”” class=”” style=””][custom_headline type=”left” level=”h5″ looks_like=”h5″ accent=”true” id=”” class=”” style=””]Forwards[/custom_headline]
We also know that Chris Kreider, Pavel Buchnevich, Mika Zibanejad, Hayes, Chytil and Namestnikov will be in the top six. Where does Andersson fit in? Does he fit in on the Rangers plans to start the season? Or does he go to Hartford to work on his game some more, and to get ample playing time? Does Chytil get time on the wing rather then at center? Hayes should get more offensive responsibility, right? Am I thinking too much?
Should Kreider, Zibanejad and Buchnevich start the season as a unit? One thing I would like to see is Chytil with Kreider and Zibanejad, while we see Hayes center Namestnikov and Buchnevich. While I don’t think Quinn is going to throw that set out altogether, they shouldn’t get first licks right away. There are so many talented forwards in this group, especially in the top six, that I wouldn’t be surprised if Kreider and Zibanejad get time with forwards like Buchnevich, Chytil and Namestnikov. They will all get their chances to stick with Kreider and Zibanejad because I feel those two are going to be a constant for that line. In the end, it’s the one who meshes with the two of them the best. One would say it’s Buchnevich but I wouldn’t be surprised if it was at the end of the day, we see a tandem of forwards play with Kreider and Zibanejad until Quinn finds someone he’s happy with.[/text_output]
Watching both players during prospect camp, I liked what I saw. I saw two guys who wanted to make an immediate impact, who wanted to cause ruckus on the defensive side for the Rangers during training camp. Both made a note to let everyone know in the media that they wanted to be on this team to start the season. Realistically, do they have a chance? Sure, just as much as some of the others, but if I had to be a betting man, I don’t think either do because we have a log jam defensively. However, they’ll be ready to knock on the door.
On offense, we have Ty Ronning. I really have no more to say but he could sneak in and take a spot on the fourth line, which I’d be okay with. Brett Howden is another guy who I think could make waves during training camp, but with the influx of centers we have on this team and if I have Lias not making the opening night roster, there’s no way that Howden is, no matter how talented he is as well. All members that I mentioned here excelled at prospect camp in one way or another, and that shouldn’t go unnoticed. However, right now, with the influx of center depth the Rangers currently have, I don’t see Howden jumping over Andersson, or another center to make this team.
First off, okay I lied about having nothing more to say on Ronning. Ronning is a different story. He could start the season out either in Hartford or on the Rangers fourth line; he has the tools to be a very pesky player. He’ll be someone that Ranger fans will appreciate, plays the dirty areas, can chip in a goal or two every now and then, and is someone that speaks well. I like the attributes he brings to the table and think he can be someone who is very strong for this Ranger team for years to come.[/text_output]
Chytil – Zibanejad – Kreider
Buchnevich – Hayes – Namestnikov
Vesey – Spooner – Mats Zuccarello
Fast – Boo Nieves – Peter Holland
Matt Beleskey
Skjei – Shattenkirk
Pionk – Staal
Claesson – DeAngelo
Smith – Gilmour
Lundqvist
Georgiev
Some things may change, some of the names I’ve mentioned above may not be on the team by the time training camp starts and is why the first look at the opening night roster is still very premature. Who knows where we’ll see Spooner, Namestnikov, Vesey, Zuccarello and Hayes to start the season. This easily could be the lineup we start with, but if moves are made, there will be a lot of shuffling of the way I see things starting out. I’ll address that at another time though.
Enjoy the rest of the summer and enjoy the excitement that will be training camp.[/text_output]
Author: Shawn Taggart
Shawn Taggart is a New York Ranger fan, who loves to dive in to the statistical side of hockey.
Besides watching the Rangers, he watches the Yankees, Knicks and Giants and has this strange obession with finding some really good obscure craft beers. Loyal listener of music.