Who’s the third D-pair?
Right now, there are a lot of question marks. Who will the Rangers eventually make their number five and six defensemen? As of now, it seems that Marc Staal and Anthony DeAngelo are ahead of the rest of the options, but their play suggests that may not last.
Staal at his best is just a decent defenseman. DeAngelo has looked shaky and has committed numerous puck handling errors early on. It is important for the Rangers to have a set three pairings this season after what happened last year in the playoffs. They need confidence in each pairing and right now there isn’t that when it comes to the final pairing. Skjei, Shattenkirk, McDonagh, and Smith are locks.
However, who the Rangers will look to fill the final two gaps is a mystery that isn’t solved yet. While there won’t be a huge issue early on in the season if spots five and six continue to be a revolving door, come trade deadline time, the Rangers will need to have a concrete defense core that they are confident in.