New York Rangers Offseason Roundup: July 11th 2016
The dog days of summer are officially here, Rangers fans.
Today is July 11th and the New York Rangers have not made a transaction in almost a week. In fact, there has been no unrestricted free agent signed to an NHL contract accross the league since July 7th. All of this likely means the New York Rangers are done making impact moves. This notion is backed by recent history, too. In the past 3 offseasons, there have only been two trades after this date in July and not even one trade in August. September has seen some trades go down, but that is a long way away.
So what have the New York Rangers done so far this offseason?
The biggest offseason addition for the Rangers is the young Russian forward Pavel Buchnevich. Buchnevich has notched 37 goals and 87 total points in 158 games of which he mostly played in the bottom 6.
There are going to be some growing pains in his game when he first wears a Rangers uniform seeing as he has never played on North American ice before. The Rangers must endure these growing pains and use him in the top 6 next season, or at the very least give him 14 minutes a game on the 3rd line. A line with Buchnevich, Kevin Hayes, and fellow signee Michael Grabner could be an absolutely deadly 3rd line.
Speaking of Michael Grabner, as I wrote about right after he signed on with the team, he will bring a lot of the elements that the team has missed in their lineup since Carl Hagelin was traded. Grabner brings lots of speed, fantastic penalty killing–even better than Hagelin’s and is good in the locker room. Just like Hagelin though, he does not have great hands, so offensively he won’t be a beast per say, but he will create lots of scoring chances for others with his speed and forecheck ability.
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Nathan Gerbe is another guy who will come in to help the 26th ranked penalty kill in the NHL. Gerbe only stands in at 5’5″. A lot of executives continue to doubt the veteran because of that, but make no mistake; this kid can play. Gerbe will be competing for a 4th line spot on a team that is looking to get much younger and quicker.
Both the signings of Adam Clendening and Michael Paliotta were most likely intended to be for the Hartford Wolfpack. Both are 23 years old, so they are very low risk-high reward signings. Clendening has shown modest NHL success in his young career, and Paliotta hasn’t really had a chance to play NHL minutes, and that trend may continue.
So what are we looking at as our opening night roster?
This is what I think…
Forwards
Rick Nash– Derick Brassard–Mats Zuccarello
J.T. Miller– Derek Stepan– Chris Kreider
Pavel Buchnevich-Kevin Hayes-Michael Grabner
Jesper Fast-Nathan Gerbe-Tanner Glass
(Oscar Lindberg will come back in mid-November from injury)
Defenseman
7th: Dylan McIlrath
Next: New York Rangers Rebuild From Within Starts Now
Who knows, maybe the New York Rangers will surprise the hockey community and make a trade in the coming weeks and months and go against historical norms. Or maybe they will stand still and this will happen. I think you could go into the regular season thinking that forward group is one of the best in the NHL, but the defense…
Yuck.