New York Rangers don’t need to add a sniper to their roster
One of the most common complaints about the New York Rangers is that their lack of a sniper keeps them from winning the Stanley Cup. In this article, we’ll take a look at whether the Rangers really need a sniper or not.
In hockey, a sniper is a player who’s known primarily for their ability to score goals. They tend to have a very accurate shot that is able to beat goalies cleanly. Players like Alex Ovechkin, Vladamir Tarasenko, and Jordan Eberle are typically described as snipers.
The New York Rangers do not really have a “sniper” right now and haven’t had one in quite some time. Since the 2011-12 season, the Rangers have had a player score more than 30 goals only twice. One was Marian Gaborik, and the other was Rick Nash.
Gaborik no longer plays for the New York Rangers and Rick Nash is getting closer to his mid-30s, which means he may not have another 30 goal season left in the tank.
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Would a sniper make the Rangers better?
Obviously scoring more goals than your opponent is how teams win games so scoring more goals is always ideal. Because of that, it would be easy to assume that adding a sniper would make the Rangers better. But that might not be the case.
The Rangers finished the season with the fourth-most amount of goals in the regular season. The season before that, 2015 to 2016, the Rangers finished with the seventh-most. Going back one more year, to the 2014 to 2015 season, the Rangers finished third in goals scored.
These three seasons seem to show that the Rangers happen to score more goals than almost every other team in the NHL.
An interesting thing to note is that none of these three Rangers teams finished in the top ten for power play percentage. Using this data, we can see that the Rangers are one of the better 5v5 scoring teams, but a middle of the pack power play team.
This suggests that the Rangers would benefit more from either a new special teams coach or from acquiring a power play quarterback on the blueline than they would from adding a sniper.
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Cost of acquiring a goal scorer
Despite the Rangers having a potent 5v5 offense, they could still try and acquire a goal scorer. To add a sniper to the Rangers, they would need to acquire one in either a trade or on the open market.
Free agency would probably be the easiest way to go, as the Rangers would not have to give up assets, but it can be expensive and full of overpayments.
Marian Gaborik was around the same age that Rick Nash is now and he got a $34,125,000 contract over the course of 7 years (AAV of $4,875,000). T.J. Oshie, who is a pending free agent, will likely command at least $5.5 million a season or more this July.
For a team like the Rangers, that tends to always be around the cap ceiling, they do not have this kind of free space to add a player with that high of a cap hit.
If the Rangers were to look for a trade, they would need to either give up high draft pick or a talented player such as Pavel Buchnevich. That is a lot to give up, especially for a team with a depleted farm system like the Rangers.
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Ultimately, the Rangers could try and improve their team by adding a sniper. But they would likely have to go out of their way to acquire one and give up valuable assets. Adding a sniper would not improve the Rangers enough to warrant them doing so.
The Rangers should focus on bigger needs like their defense and their special teams if they want to improve. They already have one of the best offenses in the league.