I think we will be pleasantly surprised with Wennberg. Essentially, we have been using a 4th line center and career AHL center as our 3rd line center all season. As far as far as Roslovic I haven't watched him play enough. Like I said, one thing about this team up front that was obvious vs. Florida is that the forwards are slow. That hurts with puck possession. That and Mika and Kreider are a pain in the ass to play with. I'm sure Buchnevich was on their radar but I imagine the ask price was absurd. I think Drury was wise not to give up Perreault, Othmann, Berard, Sykora and Laba.
I think the Kane thing is funny. I did like adding him for very little as someone who badly wanted to be here. He also played reasonably well, especially when you look at all the other no shows. But most importantly, I think the Kane thing has gone down a weird road. Acting as if getting Kane precluded some other big move. Go back and look again, read everything said at the time, look at what we had to do to fit in Kane. It was Kane or done. Do people think someone else of real value was going to be added if not Kane? Do people think it was Kane's fault we lost? Do people think Kane killed the team? I don't understand it, while of course 100% fully acknowledging Kane did not perform well, was not healthy, and in hindsight adding him didn't move the needle at all. But even if we didn't add Kane, the season ends the same way IMO, the whole team didn't show against the Devs after game 2. So, I am not sure how the Kane trade has become the one the killed everything.
Honestly I would rather give our kids a chance to shine than some mercenaries from other organizations who will be here for three months
Not to mention. I’m not sure this group really has that “remember New Jersey and losing in the first round” fire in them. The regular season is one thing but like I said they will need to turn it up a couple of notches for the playoffs.
Yes, at least a couple of notches. In theory they should be able to get past the 1st round, be it TB, NYI, PHL, DET, but after that it is done. And play the kids, then make the move and start from there. Sell off, play kids, and rebuild. You are not going to do that with the 25th +/- pick in the draft and trading 4 picks at the trade DL. And that is the issue, no plan.
Perreault was drafted 23rd overall. Miller, Schneider around there. You don’t have to be picking in the top 10 to find excellent players.
You can draft good players anywhere; but the %'s say you are not getting impact players in the 20's. Of course, you can get lucky and get one, and you can get some really solid players, but overall, the %'s are not in your favor to get top level players. With that said, they shouldn't be treated as low or no value, picks in the 20's have value and you can find nice professional NHL players in that range, but it shouldn't preclude you from adding needed talent at the trade DL if you are trying to load up to actually win a Cup.
They have 20g to develop some continuity, so hopefully they can be in a good place in a month. Zibanejad has a chance to wipe the slate clean going into the playoffs. Maybe having a child is affecting him on the ice?
There were not many ground shaking deals around the NHL to start with so I'd say Drury made the team better at the bottom end. It will all come down to the first two lines postseason and their will to get physical.
Neil Smith killed their future with those deals in 94. He was a moron. He didn’t have to deal all young players. They probably would’ve still won having Mess, Leetch, Graves, Kovalev, Larmer, Richter. That team core was awesome.
You don’t go 100% in unless you are sure your team will be an impossible out in the playoffs. That is not the case with any of these teams a couple of the Ranger teams with Lundqvist. I thought that was the case.
The NHL playoffs are wide open, with many upsets. Teams go far every season that you did not expect. The # 1 team never wins. To apply the logic, you did yesterday of guarantee, or today with impossible out, is over the top. If you waited for that you would never be aggressive, it doesn't happen in a very tight cap, strict, many teams have a chance league. You need to take your chances when you feel your team is good enough to make a run, and then you let the chips fall where they may. By your logic a team would never go for it, because in today's NHL is it very difficult to be an impossible out or guarantee anything. What's done is done now, so let's see how it plays out. While the moves have grown on me a little bit, I do not believe the Rangers are a legit Cup contender any longer and will most likely lose in round 2 against the Canes, but the NHL playoffs are wide open, so who knows. In a weird way, it is almost beneficial to finish 2nd in the Met as they will play a team from the same group (WSH, PHI, NYI), except TB and Detroit are added if they win the Met. Either way, the Rangers need to focus on playing well and gelling. If they play the Canes in round 2 they'll be a huge underdog, but upsets happen, so drop the puck and go from there.
Drury's comments after the trade DL: “I would’ve been fine [trading the first-round pick] if the deal made sense,” Drury said on a conference call with reporters Friday evening. “Whether it was a good prospect, a first-round this year, next year, whatever it was, I didn’t go into it with any preconceived rules or notions. It was just, let’s make the best deals we can to fill the spots that we think we need filled to make our team better. I feel like that’s what we accomplished.” “Every lineup is looking for balance and we’re no different,” Drury said. “[That first line], whoever’s been on that wing, they’ve done really good things in the neutral zone and the D zone. I think they collectively would like to do a little more offensively and are pushing toward that, but we certainly have a lot of faith and belief in Chris and Mika and whoever is on the right wing with them.” Drury made a point to say he didn’t go into it looking to acquire a certain type of player. Instead, it was about finding the best fit that he could.
Neil Smith's downfall was not resigning Messier, one of the dumbest, career killing moves in NHL history
I am not disappointed as well cause it doesn’t matter who we would have gotten . if sheterkin panarin Zibs and kreids are not on their games it ain’t gonna matter . I like it , now we the underdogs! should be fun rest of way go rangers
