New York Rangers: The need for veteran leadership as a rebuilding team

PHILADELPHIA, PA – APRIL 07: Henrik Lundqvist #30 of the New York Rangers skates against the Philadelphia Flyers at the Wells Fargo Center on April 7, 2018 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The Flyers shut out the Rangers 5-0. (Photo by Bruce Bennett/Getty Images) /

The New York Rangers could be one of the youngest teams in the league next season. How much do they need veteran leadership in the clubhouse.

The New York Rangers have a young team after getting rid of multiple veterans at the trade deadline. Michael Grabner, Rick Nash and Ryan McDonagh were all Rangers who had significant playing time in the NHL. Now with all three traded and a few other older players likely on the way out, New York has a lack of veterans on its roster.

The question, however, is do the Rangers need to invest in “veteran leadership.” One could make the case that despite the lack of 30-plus year old skaters on the roster, the Rangers still have veterans. Chris Kreider, Mats Zuccarello, Kevin Hayes and Henrik Lundqvist bring a combined 31 years of experience to the team.

New York’s focus is on a rebuild, which usually constitutes of building a roster with younger players. Still, there is always a necessity for balance. So would the Rangers have too much youth on their team? Or would the idea of adding a veteran be redundant in terms of the rebuild? It is a slippery slope that the Rangers will have to traverse. However, there should be a way the Rangers can get both without sacrificing either.

It is worth mentioning that before the long run of sustained success this decade, the team brought in established veterans. The Brad Richards signing prior to the 2011-2012 season sticks out as big turning point. With Richards in the fold, a young blossoming team had a guy sho had been round the block.

Veterans from within?

As mentioned before, the Rangers actually have a solid number of players who have at least five years experience in the NHL. It is still near impossible to project the starting lineup for next season. But realistically, New York will have between seven and nine players with that level of experience. This means that the need for veteran leadership isn’t necessarily dire.

The purpose of the rebuild is to push the Rangers in a different route then before. Before, the team had more veterans than youth. While they got close, they didn’t win the Cup. Now the idea is to build from the ground up. That includes the coaching staff as they will be tackling the new season with a rookie in that department too. Usually if you have a new coach, you like to supplement that with veterans in the locker room. However, as mentioned before, the Rangers do have their fair share.

Zuccarello, Kreider and Lundqvist will be looked at as the leaders of the team next season. Even before they were the more senior members on the Rangers, they always provided the energy and passion needed from the core leadership. This upcoming season they will simply need to take a bigger role. With those three at the helm, the Rangers certainly don’t need to go out of their way feeling like they need to add veterans.

Magic Number

The magic number for New York is one. They need to add one veteran to the locker room this offseason. There will be a plethora of talent on the market this offseason. If the Rangers make a big splash and try to land John Tavares, that will satisfy both the elite player and veteran mold. However, if they decide to keep their core players and simply add depth to the roster there are still many opportunities to do so.

Tomas Vanek, Grabner, James Neal even Ilya Kovalchuk are all players who could add that veteran presence to the Rangers locker room. There are a few other solid options out there as well. For New York it will be about two things. How quickly do they believe all of their young players can develop and how much are they willing to pay for a player like the ones listed above.

Next: Quinn coached free agents

New York has a lot of big decisions to make this offseason. The hiring of Quinn was one of the first dominos to fall. Now, how young will they decide to go? As I mentioned, every team needs a veteran presence in the locker room. However, in the midst of a rebuild, the Rangers don’t really need too go fishing for anyone since that veteran leadership already resides on the roster.

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