Not terribly surprising but further reason to avoid trading for him. No matter what surgery he ends up getting (replacement or fusion) there is no chance he will play more than a couple months this season if at all. And who knows how it will impact his play especially if he goes with the replacement surgery as no NHL player has ever had that procedure during their career. Hard to give Drury good marks for his first off-season...they got tougher but they still lack depth at center, will struggle to score and may end up in the penalty box more often with all these 'tough guys' on the roster. For a team that sucks in the circle that's a bad recipe for the season. Let's hope the young guys take a step or two forward in their development!
They should be in the box far less. One, they have a real coach. Two, Buchnevich took tons of dumb penalties. Three, hitting draws penalties
Couldn't disagree with you more Grevy, Drury deserves major credit for not making the Eichel deal that many wanted and instead of signing an undersized pest who isn't afraid to drop the gloves he went top shelf and brought in guys who strike fear in opponents hearts. Now clowns like Wilson and Martin have to be looking over their shoulder for a change and that's awesome. The youth should al improve to some degree and can focus on offense. It was great to see they have veterans in camp to work on faceoffs. Hope Mika is paying attention.
Haha! Drury, good job not trading for Eichel. It's a pretty fucking sad comment to give credit for a move that wasn't made. But, they still have no depth at C. None. Everyone agreed all year long that the Rangers priority, up to moment Panarin was cleaning the ice with his face courtesy of Wilson, was adding a bonafide 2C (if not a 1C for those that are for some reason down on Zibanejad). It was talked about ad nauseam all season long. Instead he goes out and adds a bunch of middling role players. OK, maybe the Rangers play more physically this year. But they are not going to compete for a cup without adding a 1C/2C.
After 25 years of posting here and on ESPN I believe you have set the record for fastest to quit on the Rangers - kudos! "They're done before the 1st preseason puck drops if they don't get another center!" - that's the spirit! The offense should be there if your boy Mika plays with some consistency against teams that aren't in the cellar and Gallant can figure out why he gets worse on faceoffs each year. If the team fails it won't be due to the cheap shot putting our top players on the DL. The Rangers have had middling players on every roster for the last 5 years that were signed for toughness but lacked the size to be a factor. I'm not looking for Slapshot hockey, quite the opposite. I want all these #1s to be able to play relaxed, good clean hockey.
I am with Grey in that I think they needed to upgrade at C, and almost all of us said it the whole season and off-season, and we didn't do it. Didn't have to be Eichel, and has nothing to do with one meaningless pre-season game, it's how I, and many, felt all along. Still not sure who wins big faceoffs, don't like Strome as the # 2 C at all, not sure Chytil is a C, and certainly not on the 3rd line I don't think. It just doesn't add up IMO, and we are sitting on a lot of cap space. Drury made a bet all this team was missing was some grit and toughness, because that is all we addressed this off-season, and we traded one of our top scorers and PK guys as well (right move to deal Buch - but it is a loss - and we'll see on the return we got). I don't think that, combined with expected growth of the kids, is enough for us to be a playoff team for sure, and to me this not a team that will make a long run. It's almost like Drury/Dolan were so obsessed with adding grit/toughness nothing else mattered, and I think it's a miss on their part. Still time to make a move, and certainly this team could really come together and be a very good team, but going in I must admit I don't love it or see it, and I'm a bit down that we didn't address the C upgrade we needed and add someone who can win a big faceoff consistently. Looking forward to seeing it play out though.
Crazy that many of us have been posting together on Rangers forums of one kind or another for a quarter of century. There is a difference between quitting on a team and being realistic about the skill level and how they stack up against the best teams in the league. At least there is my mind. You mention my man Mika and consistency where he and Panarin are about the only forwards on the Rangers at the moment who do produce with any type of consistency. This team desperately needs a C who can win face-offs, it's pretty clear at this point in his career Mika is not going to a plus in face-offs. Even more the reason why this off-season has been a dud. The young talent on this team will need to take huge steps forward in their development for the Rangers to be cup contender as currently constructed. There is no quit in that statement, just realism.
You're operating under the assumption that Chytil, Kakko & Laf remain stagnant offensively, I think they will have career years. Strome had 1 less point than Mika and I'm not a huge fan of Ryan either but the guy scores I don't think they'll have any problem getting into the playoffs barring injuries.
Just getting in the playoffs this year would be a solid step, then maybe the following year when the kids are in their 3rd-4th years they are getting seasoned enough to start making a run. Perhaps they add one more big piece at C next summer.
It certainly is possible Kakko, Lafreniere, and Chytil all continue to grow and evolve their games and have very good seasons. I might even say it is likely they all have very good seasons, or at least 2 of 3. As for Strome, offensively he puts up very solid numbers with Panarin, cannot argue that, but he doesn't win FO's, and he doesn't add many intangibles. He's a solid player, I just don't see him as a 2nd line C on a cup winning/long playoff run team. At days end we have nice pieces, and yes they could gel and step up their games, and come together. I just think they left a move on the table not addressing the C position. I was hoping this would be the jump up season, and based on the moves they made I don't see it happening.
I actually agree with everything that Drury has done so far. Outside of losing on the Buchnevich deal, let's face it 2nd and 4th liner is not a great return, but if the market wasn't there, then it wasn't there. New coach, they brought a lot of toughness, some veteran presence. This will be an evaluation year, to see who will fill in at which spot and they will go from there. Strom and Panarin had great chemistry, let's see how they do with a normal coach and Kakko on that line. Also, looks like Krieder - Z - LAF for the 1st line. Finally, two talented kids will play in the top 6. Kravtsov will slide into 3rd, which I don't mind along with Chytil and Gudrow. If the kids can carry their jobs, then they are will fill in the C where needed. If they still have a problem in the faceoff circle, they will address it, I am sure. Gerard doesn't change lines every day, he sticks with his line combinations, so they will try to develop chemistry. Also, great non-trade on Eichel. Great job by Drury there. Trouba should be C.
Not worried about the center position at all as Drury is not done shaping the team. There will be a lot of spare parts that can play it won’t get a chance here and eventually Drury will make the trade for the upgrade there. Happy to see at least we will not wait till 20 games into the season before we will start to play. This division is tough enough without adding that handicap
Tried to add comment to Bruin game thread but whoever the selfish son of a bitch is that posts with some kind of white wash reared his ugly head again and ended the thread. Wish the mods would eliminate this poster or get rid of the white wash method they use. Very annoying!
