The New York Rangers chances of qualifying for the postseason are slim to none. On the bright side, there is always the opportunity to improve the team in the offseason.
This season has not gone the way the Rangers front office or players in the locker room expected. A team that will likely finish in the bottom ten in the entire league would not have signed Kevin Shattenkirk last July. A contending team under most circumstances wouldn’t trade four of its best players in the span of a week.
However, the wheels came off of the team in late December when Henrik Lundqvist could no longer cover all of the team’s warts. The atrocious possession team in front of him surrenders upwards of 55% of the shots in every game. That is simply an unsustainable formula to win in today’s NHL.
Part of retooling the team this off-season is going to be reshaping the team around possession positive players that can drive play. In fact, the Rangers have already acquired two: Ryan Spooner and Vladislav Namestnikov. Of course, both of their Corsi For Percentages (52.9 and 52.5 respectively) are inflated from playing on strong possession teams.
This means that there are several familiar faces that are no guarantee to make next year’s NHL roster. There are varying levels to this, a player like Vinni Lettieri who is a fringe NHL player is technically on the bubble, but does not have a serious path to the NHL next year.