The New York Rangers chose to keep veteran defender Steven Kampfer on their roster while cutting two young defenders who played well during training camp.
Defenseman Neal Pionk and Ryan Graves both impressed a lot of people with their performances in training camp. Pionk, the rookie out of the University of Minnesota Duluth, showed tremendous offensive versatility and surprising defensive stability in the preseason while Graves, known as a defensive rock with sneaky offensive upside, did his thing too.
Despite their efforts in the preseason, the New York Rangers opted to send both of the youngsters down to their AHL affiliate, the Hartford Wolf Pack, to start the season. This means that the team will be carrying eight defensemen to begin the year: Ryan McDonagh, Kevin Shattenkirk, Brendan Smith, Brady Skjei, Marc Staal, Anthony DeAngelo, Nick Holden and Steven Kampfer.
Yes, the Rangers kept a career journeyman in Steven Kampfer over two solid rookies. Why would they do this?
There are a couple reasons we need to highlight.
The first is the third pair situation.
As everybody knows by now, the team cannot move Marc Staal off the roster because of his no-movement clause. This meant that Staal, who had an exceptionally awful camp, was a lock for the team.
Nick Holden, Staal’s defensive partner last season, would need to go through waivers to be sent down and is presumed to have some trade value. Anthony DeAngelo is a solid young defender with tremendous offensive upside who deservingly made the cut.
Due to this, there is no real opportunity for guys like Pionk or Graves to see ice time at the NHL level right now. That is why it’s best for them to be down to Hartford, where they will consistently get top pair minutes, which allows them more room for their development.
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Kampfer doesn’t need the playing time that Pionk or Graves warrant. He kind of just is what he is; a bottom pair blueliner who won’t kill you defensively but won’t do much anywhere else. He won’t get playing time unless there is a tremendous amount of injuries on the team’s blueline.
There are two arguments that need to be debunked about this situation.
The first is that the only reason Kampfer made the roster is that the team would be afraid to lose him via waivers. Even if they are afraid to lose him –which they probably shouldn’t be– there isn’t much downside to having Kampfer on the roster as the eighth man.
It would make very little sense to have any other player in the Rangers organization in that role. Also, I believe that Nick Holden is still being shopped, and if he is moved, Kampfer would become the seventh man and still would probably never see the ice.
The second argument is that, due to Vigneault’s track record with younger players, Kampfer might find his way into the lineup over a DeAngelo. Honestly, though, I don’t really think that point has much value. If it’s not Kampfer that would come in for DeAngelo, it would be Holden –if he’s still on the roster– or any other journeyman 7th defender type that they’d sign, in this scenario.
Next: Making sense of the roster moves
At the end of the day, the moral of the story is this; it’s better for the Rangers to have Kampfer in this role than any of the young players that had a better camp. Let them get their playing time while the replaceable Kampfer gets to watch Rangers games from the press box.