New York Rangers Player Previews: Nathan Gerbe
After having arguably the worst season of his NHL career, the tiny winger will look to get his career back on track on Broadway.
Little Nathan Gerbe had little success last season in Carolina. After having two pretty good statistical seasons with the Hurricanes, a November injury took Gerbe out of the lineup for 25 games. Once Gerbe came back to the lineup, he was never really able to recover. On July 1st in what was a surprising development, Gerbe left the Hurricanes, who he had spent the past 3 seasons with and joined the New York Rangers on a 1-year contract.
2015-2016 Traditional Stats
Games Played: 47
Goals: 3
Assists: 4
Points: 7
Plus/Minus: -15
S%: 4.1
TOI: 13:28
Previous Role: Bottom Six Winger
Season in Review
Up to November 22nd, Gerbe had been having a rough start to his season. After scoring 10 goals and 18 points the previous season, Gerbe had 1 goal and 2 assists twenty games in. During the team’s game that night against the Los Angeles Kings, Gerbe went down hard after a big hit from forward Kyle Clifford. Gerbe needed to be helped off the ice by the Staal brothers because he couldn’t put much pressure on his leg. The team ended up putting him on the injured reserve with what they deemed as a “lower body injury”.
After missing the next 25 games, Gerbe finally was removed from the IR and returned to the lineup. Gerbe was not able to recover his footing on the scoresheet. He finished the season with a measly 7 points, his worst points output since 2009-2010 when he played 10 games and had 5 points. For all intents and purposes, it was the worst season of his career.
2016-2017 Projected Stats
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Games Played: 56
Goals: 5
Assists: 8
Points: 13
Plus/Minus: 2
TOI: 10:04
S%: 5.4
Expected Role: 4th Line Winger
Reasoning: Gerbe’s fancy stat numbers on his hero chart don’t speak too kindly of his offensive game, saying that his linemates would be more productive without him on the ice than with him there. Gerbe’s offensive outputs put him at about mid-tier 4th line status.
Now, why would the Rangers sign a guy who is that inept offensively, who also only stands in at 5’4″? Look at his Relative CA/60 stats. When Gerbe is on the ice, his team gave up a whole lot fewer shot attempts than when he was not on the ice.
Gerbe is a phenomenal penalty killer, which was a theme the Rangers had in all of their offseason free agent acquisitions, and for good reason. The Rangers ranked 26th in the NHL in penalty killing last season, so it is definitely an area that they needed to improve on.
Say what you will about the Rangers’ offseason, but the one thing you cannot deny is that they have become very deep in their bottom six. The team will have presumably 7 players trying out for 4 roster spots in the bottom six (Gerbe, Josh Jooris, Michael Grabner, Marek Hrivik, Tanner Glass, Oscar Lindberg and Maxim Lapierre), so it will be very competitive.
Gerbe isn’t helped by his small stature, but he has a history of being an offensively productive bottom six winger who could slot into the center position if need be, so the Rangers are hoping he gets back on track in that regard. Defensively, the kid is a stud and can skate with the fastest of them as well.
In Gerbe, the Rangers may have a guy who can claim a role on the penalty kill and potentially go out there and score a few goals as well, or they can have a player who’s size makes it hard for him to compete and just fades out of the league slowly. It was a no-risk move for the New York Rangers, so at least they tried.