New York Rangers: Does Marc Staal fit the team’s direction?

The New York Rangers have drastically altered the composition of their roster. However, defenseman Marc Staal is still on the team and under contract for three more seasons. Does the defenseman still fit?

For a team that has struggled with the NHL draft as much as the Rangers, every now and then, they have gotten one right. The team selected Staal with the number 12 overall pick of the 2005 entry draft, and it did not take long for him to make an impact. Staal cracked the NHL roster for the 2007-2008 season. Under then coach, Tom Renney, Staal found a permanent home.

Staal has given the Rangers a massive return on investment over the past decade. Even with multiple horrific and rehabilitating injuries, Staal has managed to stick around a lot longer than most players. In fact, Staal is one of just four players that remains from the team that made it to the Stanley Cup Final in 2014.

Unfortunately, with all of that hockey on his body, Staal has eroded as a player. What made the defenseman so effective was his ability to win puck battles along the wall and get the puck out quickly. Now, every time Staal has the puck in the defensive zone, it is an adventure. That does not even go into the issue of his shortcomings in the offensive zone.

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Now, with a new puck moving oriented head coach and a general manager who wants to build a north south team, does Staal have a place?

Too much of a mediocre thing

It is no secret that the Rangers were bad last season because of their defense. As a collective, the unit was just out of its depth on most nights. That is not entirely on Staal, but as for his pair, it was always a liability on the ice. Simply put, a defenseman with cement in his skates that cannot create offense is a dinosaur in today’s NHL.

Take the Vegas Golden Knights for example, sure, the team’s defense lacks marquee talent. In fact, both Luca Sbisa and Deryk Engelland have found places in their lineup with similar deficiencies. However, as a whole, Vegas has managed to integrate both slow and offensively weak defenseman into their breakneck offensive game. This was not the case for Staal who fails to execute even the most simple of breakout passes.

This does not even begin to get into the Rangers problem of having too many average defenseman for only six spots. Okay, lets say that Kevin Shattenkirk, Brady Skjei and Neal Pionk are the locks for next years team. That leaves Staal, Tony DeAngelo, Brendan Smith, John Gilmour, Rob O’Gara and Ryan Sproul. Now, Of those six fringe players, two are still developing as players. In addition, the team has three more years of Smith under contract, so the will likely want to try and get him all sorted out.

The point being that there are just too few roster spots for too many mediocre defenseman.

In conclusion

Simply put, the Rangers are a team in transition. Gone are the black and blue shirts of John Tortorella. Those years were the best of Staal’s entire career. The defensman had a clear function as the team’s number three defenseman and had a lights out partner in Anton Stralman. As a defensive pair, the two were given the team’s toughest assignments. Furthermore, being that Tortorella kept a short bench, it would basically only be the Staal pair and the McDonagh with Girardi pair late in games.

However, five years later, in a vastly different NHL, it is hard to see where a defenseman who averages 11 points a season fits. There is definitely still a place for defense first defenseman, but they still need to bring more to the table than that. The NHL is too good of a league for one dimensional players. If a team knows Staal is on the ice in the offensive zone, they do not have to pay him much attention.

The only problem for the Rangers in regards to Staal is his contract. Being that he still has three more years on his contract and has a full no movement clause, he can make a stink if the team tries to move on. The team could try and persuade Staal that a trade is the right move for him because the team would rather give a lineup spot to a developing player than an aging and flawed player.

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There really is not a place for Staal on next year’s team. Giving Staal anything other than the seventh defenseman role would be disingenuous to the team’s stated mission of growing into a north south possession oriented hockey team.