With this year and possibly even next year serving as rebuilding seasons for the Rangers, just how big of a role will each of this players serve moving forward?
Players in this series will be listed 25-1, but will be broken up into clear tiers to distinguish the different groupings and levels represented in the organization.
Part 4 has us look at some players with NHL backgrounds who will make up the middle six of the Rangers line-up this season.[/text_output][custom_headline type=”center” level=”h4″ looks_like=”h4″ accent=”true” id=”” class=”” style=””]#14 – F Jimmy Vesey[/custom_headline][image type=”circle” float=”none” src=”781″ alt=”” href=”” title=”” info_content=”” lightbox_caption=”” id=”” class=”aligncenter” style=””][text_output]Stats: 17 goals, 11 assists in 79 games for the Rangers
Heading into the off-season, it was assumed the Rangers front office would be busy making a number of trades to either bring in additional future assets to help replenish the farm system, or package a number of young, controllable NHL players with one of their three first round picks to net a young defenseman to help the team’s under-performing unit.
One of those players often discussed (at least by us), was Jimmy Vesey, who was one of many Rangers facing restricted free agency. Vesey wasn’t the most obvious of trade candidates (Vlad Namestnikov and Ryan Spooner were always listed ahead of Vesey), but when Rick Carpiniello reported teams across the NHL viewed Vesey more highly than some of his teammates, we pushed our chips in on finding a new home for the Harvard-educated winger.
We all know what happened from there. Instead of trading Vesey, the Rangers inked the versatile winger to a two-year deal that will run the team $2.275M annually. At the end of the deal, Vesey will be eligible for unrestricted free agency.
The point of this piece isn’t to harp on the Rangers missing an opportunity to unload Vesey, but instead evaluate what role he plays for the Rangers moving forward.
Vesey came to the Rangers before the 2016-17 season with a fair amount of pomp and circumstance, and while the expectations for his performance were quite high, he’s proven to be a high-volume shooter best suited for a bottom-six role. As we’ve discussed previously when talking about both Michael Lindkqvist and Ville Meskanen, a strong argument can be made that Vesey’s importance is heightened this year by the presence of the young centers down the middle.
Again, the Rangers will want to put both Filip Chytil and Lias Andersson in positions to succeed in the NHL immediately, and the best way to do that is to make sure both are playing with NHL-caliber wingers. To me, that’s a large part of the reason why Jeff Gorton didn’t trade Namestnikov, Spooner or Vesey this off-season and inked all three to two-year deals (the other: he didn’t get an offer he liked, and will instead wait out the market until he gets something worth his time). Vesey doesn’t offer much defensively, and is fairly one dimensional offensively. But, that one dimension is finding shooting lanes and getting pucks on net, and can do it from either wing. That ability has kept guys like Brandon Pirri gainfully employed for years, and will do the same for Vesey.
Now, it’s not all sunshine and rainbows with Vesey, and I think it’s important we address some of the concerns surrounding his game.
For starters, let’s consider a moment a guy who is one year older than our 25-year-old cut-off: Ryan Spooner.[/text_output][image type=”none” float=”none” src=”2907″ alt=”” href=”” title=”” info_content=”” lightbox_caption=”” id=”” class=”aligncenter” style=””][text_output]This is going to turn into a mini-defense of Ryan Spooner at the expense of Jimmy Vesey, and I’ll apologize for that in advance. But it also provides, to me at least, a more realistic evaluation of who Jimmy Vesey actually is on the ice.
Spooner’s role on the Rangers became a talking point immediately after he signed a two-year extension that’ll pay him $4 million annually over that term. There was a portion of Rangers Twitter that said Spooner, who is 16 months Vesey’s elder, doesn’t fit the rebuilding model and will take a roster spot away from a young player who should be on the roster otherwise.
This is really simple to me, and I don’t even think it’s an argument. For starters, both Vesey and Spooner will likely provide the most value to the Rangers over the next two years as trade chips, not long-term building blocks. In a perfect world, both come out guns blazing this year and a contender who needs an influx of scoring overpays for their services.
Second, the better both Spooner and Vesey play, that should mean Chytil, Andersson or Kevin Hayes (maybe the team’s most important trade chip) is also playing well, which is everything the team needs next year and moving forward.
And finally, we need to be brutally honest for a minute here: Ryan Spooner is better than Jimmy Vesey. They’re both poor defensively, there’s no getting around that, but Spooner actually provides more scoring opportunities for himself and his teammates on a more consistent basis.
Nobody should be complaining that either Vesey or Spooner are taking spots away from young guys (they’re not), so this argument isn’t even an argument. They’re both two-year trade chips who will definitely help the kids get acclimated to NHL life.
Now, there is part of me that feels I put Vesey a little higher than I should’ve on this list, and I’ll gladly (uh, maybe not gladly) take criticism for that. I put Vesey ahead of guys like Nils Lundqvist and Yegor Rykov because while I believe both those defenders will play a more meaningful role on the Rangers in the future, Vesey is going to play an important NHL role right now and serves as an important trade chip, meaning he can net additional future assets who one day may be included on this list. That combination pushed him (and others you’re going to read about shortly) higher on my list.
Jimmy Vesey is going to score goals, and it’ll be interesting to see how David Quinn elects to use him in the line-up next season. But I’m not sure Vesey is going to be here for the long haul, and I really don’t see that as a problem at all.[/text_output][custom_headline id=”” class=”” style=””]#13 – D Tony DeAngelo[/custom_headline][image type=”circle” float=”none” src=”2218″ alt=”” href=”” title=”” info_content=”” lightbox_caption=”” id=”” class=”aligncenter” style=””][text_output]Stats: 2 goals, 11 assists in 29 games with Hartford (AHL); 0 goals, 8 assists in 32 games for the Rangers
A strong argument could be made that the player with the most on the line in 2018-19 for the Rangers is Tony DeAngelo.
DeAngelo has been a controversial player since coming to the Rangers last off-season in the Derek Stepan/Antti Raanta trade, and that’s not even taking into full account the stupid shit he’s said to refs, the stupid shit he’s said to teammates in juniors, or just the stupid shit he says in general. I absolutely understand why a portion of the Rangers fan base doesn’t like DeAngelo, doesn’t want DeAngelo on the team and would be perfectly smitten if he went away forever. I get it. I do. I won’t bash you for having that opinion. It’s justifiable.
I’m trying to look at Tony DeAngelo The Hockey Player, and things remain extremely murky.
For lack of a better term, DeAngelo was downright bad to open the season for the Rangers, and that poor play was exacerbated by poor management from his head coach. Alain Vigneault was seemingly hunting for an excuse to put DeAngelo in the doghouse, and once AV found one, he didn’t let him out, leading to ADA becoming a healthy scratch, a glorified extra skater and eventually a demotion to Hartford.
While AV deserves a ton of criticism for his handling of DeAngelo, DeAngelo isn’t innocent for how he handled his own demotion. Instead of using the move as an opportunity to show his worth to the front office, DeAngelo was reportedly moody and disappointed, and it showed in his play. If he was categorically bad for the Rangers to open the season, he was no better during his first few weeks back in Hartford, and many of the issues scouts around the game have with his attitude were once again front and center.
While the criticism was earned and deserved for his early performance in Hartford, it’s also important to point out that his play did turn around. He began to see more time on the power play and we began to see flashes of the puck-moving, offensive-minded playmaker that originally made him a first round selection. Once he made his way back to New York towards the end of the season, there was a noticeable difference in his play, and a late-season leg injury robbed the front office of more time to see if that performance could continue.[/text_output][image type=”none” float=”none” alt=”” href=”” title=”” info_content=”” lightbox_caption=”” id=”” class=”aligncenter” style=”” src=”2912″][text_output]I agree no defenseman outside of Shattenkirk and Skjei deserve to be “guaranteed” jobs heading into training camp. However, I truly feel DeAngelo should be given every opportunity to start the season in New York as long as he isn’t a dumpster fire in camp.
The Rangers desperately need to figure out what they have defensively, and that is heightened even more on the right side of each pairing. DeAngelo is entering the final year of his entry-level deal and is still somehow just 22-years-old. There’s nothing to gain by sending him back to Hartford to start the season, so this really feels like a shit or get off the pot situation for Gorton and his staff.
To me, there’s zero reason the Rangers right side shouldn’t look like (in some order) Shattenkirk, DeAngelo, Pionk (more on him real soon) to begin the season. If DeAngelo crashes out, fine. So be it. We’ve figured out he can’t have a meaningful role moving forward and we can move on from it. It would be a real tough pill to swallow, but the biggest benefit from playing in rebuilding seasons is figuring out who is a long-term piece and where you need to improve.
Absolute best-case scenario: DeAngelo puts it all together, provides the Rangers an offensive spark from the blue line that can be featured on power play units and grows his game in the defensive zone where he’s not negatively impacting your defensive structure. Puck-moving right-handed defenseman are nearly invaluable in today’s NHL. The Rangers may have one in Tony DeAngelo.
We just need to figure it all out.
Note from Drew Way: It is undeniable that some (many?) Ranger fans allow their views of Tony DeAngelo the person cloud their judgement of him as a player. I’m not here to tell you whether that is right or wrong, you are allowed to enjoy this great sport however you please. But it is simply an objective fact that Tony DeAngelo is a very talented player, and if (emphasis on if) he puts it all together, he can absolutely be a valuable contributor for years.
I leave you with the following chart, courtesy of CJ Turtoro’s fantastic All Three Zone Player Comparison tool. I will get into the nitty gritty on how to read these charts in a future piece (hopefully will be done next week), but long story short, these charts show that Tony DeAngelo over the past two seasons has had an excellent impact on his teams’ abilities to generate shots, enter the offensive zone and exit their own defense zone. Sure he has A LOT of work to still do with regards to defending his own blue line, but if you think that a player who has been this impactful on his team with regards to shot contributions and zone entries/exits isn’t worth at least giving a shot, then you need to rethink how you evaluate NHL defensemen in today’s game. [/text_output][image type=”thumbnail” float=”none” src=”2933″ alt=”” href=”” title=”” info_content=”” lightbox_caption=”” id=”” class=”aligncenter” style=””][custom_headline type=”center” level=”h4″ looks_like=”h4″ accent=”true” id=”” class=”” style=””]#12 – D Neal Pionk[/custom_headline][image type=”circle” float=”none” src=”2913″ alt=”” href=”” title=”” info_content=”” lightbox_caption=”” id=”” class=”aligncenter” style=””][text_output]Stats: 1 goal, 16 assists in 48 games with Hartford (AHL); 1 goal, 13 assists in 28 games with Rangers
Speaking of right-handed shot defenseman under the age of 25 who will likely play a massive role for the Rangers in the 2017-18 season, Neal Pionk!
Pionk was one of the big surprises for the Rangers last season, quickly establishing himself in training camp as a capable defender who offered more than some (myself especially) expected offensively. After signing with the Rangers as an undrafted free agent out of Minnesota-Duluth – where he did boast an impressive offensive resume – expectations were fairly low heading into his first professional season.
He handled the transition as well as anyone could have hoped for in Hartford, and earned every bit of his call up to the NHL when the Rangers entered their full remodeling. Every defenseman’s play in Vigneault’s system last year needs to be understood with a table’s worth of salt and a high amount of skepticism (both positively and negatively), but there was a lot to like about Pionk’s 28-game cameo.[/text_output][image type=”none” float=”none” src=”2722″ alt=”” href=”” title=”” info_content=”” lightbox_caption=”” id=”” class=”aligncenter” style=””][text_output]Pionk’s numbers, like every other Rangers defenseman’s numbers, are all over the place and hard to get an accurate read on. Galamini’s Evaluation Metric loved Pionk, especially his performance in the offensive zone, which is why it skews to Pionk reaching a ceiling very few could’ve predicted before last year.
Bill Comeau’s SKATR metric, meanwhile…[/text_output][image type=”none” float=”none” src=”2918″ alt=”” href=”” title=”” info_content=”” lightbox_caption=”” id=”” class=”aligncenter” style=””][text_output]It’s no longer flattering to be compared to Dion Phaneuf when evaluating defenseman, and that’s where Pionk found himself last year.
I’ve said on podcasts and I’ll say it again here: I think you have to crumple up and throw away everything that happened to each individual defender last season and start fresh. If the trend continues into this season, that’s when you have the right to be concerned.
For Pionk, I believe the truth is somewhere in between Galamini and Comeau. I don’t think he’s the top pairing defenseman his offensive metrics indicate, and I don’t think he’s the barely roster-able player his defensive metrics indicate. While 2018-19 feels more critical for the long-term outlook for Tony DeAngelo, this upcoming season will help us get a better idea as to what kind of player Neal Pionk can be long-term.
Like DeAngelo, Pionk shouldn’t be promised a job on the opening night roster. But like DeAngelo, it’s hard picturing a different right-handed defenseman making such an impression on David Quinn and his staff that Pionk is forced to return to Hartford to begin the season.
The reason I have Pionk ultimately ranked ahead of DeAngelo is Pionk will have a role in the organization beyond this season. We’re going to get a clearer picture of what that role will be, but he’s here to stay in some way, shape or form. DeAngelo, that’s not a guarantee.
I’ve thrown the term make-or-break around for some of the guys already on this list. Pionk, I view next season more as a defining season. What kind of player will he be? Can he make a formidable pairing with someone like Brendan Smith? What role does he fill for the Rangers moving forward? Can he become an impact player on a team with playoff aspirations?
He might not be able to answer all those questions, and we might not end up liking the answer we get, but the intrigue surrounding Pionk heading into this season is very high. How he handles the task is the next step.[/text_output][custom_headline type=”center” level=”h4″ looks_like=”h4″ accent=”true” id=”” class=”” style=””]#11 – F Vlad Namestnikov[/custom_headline][image type=”circle” float=”none” src=”2705″ alt=”” href=”” title=”” info_content=”” lightbox_caption=”” id=”” class=”aligncenter” style=””][text_output]Stats: 20 goals, 24 assists in 62 games for the Lightning; 2 goals, 2 assists in 19 games for the Rangers
So, let’s review the internal debates I’ve had to hash out in this tier:
Spooner v. Vesey, and if either or both players can help the Rangers next year
Tony DeAngelo deserving to have one of the three right-handed defensive spots
How we view defensive metrics evaluating Rangers defenders last year when everything was broken
This has been fun! Let’s double down on one of the most popular debates we’ve had to endure since last year’s trade deadline, shall we?
The popular criticism of Namestnikov since before he became a Ranger is his positive performance metrics are a direct result of getting to play with the likes of Steven Stamkos and Nikita Kucherov on a nightly basis. It’s an incredibly lazy narrative. Yes, anyone who plays with two of the most talented forwards on the planet will benefit from it. But it takes a talented player to keep up with his peers, and Namestnikov oozes talent of his own, especially in the offensive zone.[/text_output][image type=”none” float=”none” src=”2923″ alt=”” href=”” title=”” info_content=”” lightbox_caption=”” id=”” class=”aligncenter” style=””][text_output]Namestnikov’s best stretch of hockey with the Rangers last season was his first week with the team, when there wasn’t enough time for him to practice consistently and become ingrained in Alain Vigneault’s system. It was as if the more time AV had with Namestnikov, the worse off it was for Vlad, who was eventually buried on the Rangers fourth line and not seeing many opportunities to show off his skill set.
We’ve talked often this off-season about different players who are going to benefit from playing under David Quinn, and one who tends to get overlooked in those discussions is Namestnikov. It’s not so much that I expect him to break out and score 50+ points under a new head coach; it’s more about having faith that Quinn will give Namestnikov the room to breathe and let him be more creative, especially in the offensive zone.
Like Spooner and Vesey, Namestnikov’s ultimate value to the Rangers may end up being on the trade market. But also like the other forwards on two-year deals, his immediate value is providing depth down the Rangers line-up along the wings.
I apologize for sounding like a broken record, but it does seem like the team’s number one priority this year is making sure Filip Chytil and Lias Andersson are given the best chance to succeed immediately in the NHL. There’s no way to guarantee success, but you can put each young center in the best possible situation by making sure they’re playing each night with skilled players, and they’re going to have that chance. Two of Vesey, Spooner and Namestnikov will have to play on the de facto third line with Chytil, which would push Jesper Fast down to to a “fourth” line with Andersson, and create an opportunity for a player like Ville Meskanen or Michael Lindqvist on the opposite wing.
That’s an incredibly deep forward unit, and a unit that – if the true goal is to worry first about development and not about chasing a playoff spot – can endure a trade involving Mats Zuccarello and/or Kevin Hayes. You’re giving your young weapons a chance to grow with talented players already in their prime, and you’re giving those talented wingers a chance to prove their value to teams who may be looking for in-season upgrades.
It’s a win-win scenario for everyone involved, but especially for a player like Vlad Namestnikov. He’s going to get every opportunity to prove to the league that his performance in Tampa Bay was not as superstar aided as some believe. And the Rangers are going to get one of their bright young center prospects to play with a talented winger still in the prime of his career.
Everybody benefits.[/text_output]
Author: Greg Kaplan
Greg Kaplan is a man of mystery. Did he write this? No. Was he asked to write this? Yes. But did he write this article? Maybe, do you like it?