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New York Rangers Must Decide Between Pirri, Lindberg and Hrivik

By John Williams

Nov 12, 2016; Calgary, Alberta, CAN; New York Rangers right wing Brandon Pirri (73) skates against the Calgary Flames during the third period at Scotiabank Saddledome. New York Rangers won 4-1. Mandatory Credit: Sergei Belski-USA TODAY Sports
Nov 12, 2016; Calgary, Alberta, CAN; New York Rangers right wing Brandon Pirri (73) skates against the Calgary Flames during the third period at Scotiabank Saddledome. New York Rangers won 4-1. Mandatory Credit: Sergei Belski-USA TODAY Sports /
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With the trifecta of Nash, Buchnevich and Zibanejad coming back within the next few games, the New York Rangers have an important decision to make regarding their forward group.

On Thursday afternoon, the New York Rangers announced that they recalled Russian winger Pavel Buchnevich from Hartford. The Russian winger, who scored 2 points in 3 games for the Wolf Pack over the Rangers’ league-mandated bye week will be joined by Rick Nash in the Rangers’ lineup tonight against Auston Matthews and the Toronto Maple Leafs tonight at the Garden.

With those two forwards coming back from injuries, and Mika Zibanejad waiting in the wings after having practiced in a regular, contact jersey at yesterday’s practice, the Rangers are about to get a whole lot deeper and better.

The challenge here, however, will be deciding which players the team will need to remove from the roster to fit the trifecta back in the lineup.

As we stand, the New York Rangers currently have 15 forwards at the NHL level–two of which (Zibanejad and Matt Puempel) are still on long-term IR. When they come off of the IR, the Rangers will have to make cut two players.

Tonight’s Dilemma

Luckily for tonight, the Rangers will be able to see the three most likely players to get cut–Brandon Pirri, Oscar Lindberg and Marek Hrivik in action and likely on the same line. Alain Vigneault had mentioned this morning that Jesper Fast has a bit of a flu bug that might lead to him missing tonight’s game. If Fast is good to go, however, the Rangers will need to make a choice.

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If Fast misses tonight’s game, the team will have a two game look at the three bubble players because Buchnevich will not play the second leg of tonight and tomorrow’s back-to-back.

In a Fast-less lineup, one would think that the team will bench either Brandon Pirri or Marek Hrivik. If they are going to base the decision off of recent play, Pirri will be in the pressbox. He has been, by all accounts, horrible since Zibanejad went down. While he doesn’t have a goal, Hrivik has been a possession dynamite. His 56% CF rating leads the team.

With all that said, though, I’d still play Pirri over Hrivik, and I think that is what’s gonna happen.

While you have to love Hrivik’s corsi numbers, nothing about his game has really wowed me. Although he has been horrible lately, Pirri was extremely good on the power play earlier in the year and with an improved lineup around him, I think he will be more effective, especially when Zibanejad is back. Either way, it wouldn’t bother me either way.

After Zibanejad and Puempel Get Healthy

When both Zibanejad nd Puempel are back, the Rangers have to choose two players out of that trio to send down to Hartford. To do this, though, each of those three would need to clear waivers. I think the clear answer here is they will keep Lindberg over Pirri and Hrivik.

Lindberg is the safest option for a two-way game. The team probably should take a look at Pirri on the power play when Zibanejad is back. The two of them worked like a charm together with the man advantage.

At the end of the day, the team will probably waive Hrivik first because they probably think–and I would agree with this–that Hrivik is the least likely of the trio to get claimed on waivers. Pirri, in my estimation, would struggle to clear waivers. The Rangers might feel that the best avenue for moving him would be through a trade for a late round pick. They might try to take as much time as possible with him before they are forced to make a decision.

Next: New York Rangers Trade Targets: Anaheim Ducks

Regardless of what happens in the coming week, the Rangers are getting arguably three top-six players back in the lineup. They are going to be much better. It’s impressive that they stayed the course in the best division in hockey for as long as they did with there injury-crippled roster. Now, they are going inching back to the top of their game.

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