New York Rangers: The best case scenario for this season

The New York Rangers are entering their first full season of the rebuild. What can we expect from the grueling season ahead?

With the excitement of the 2018-2019 season upon us, there are still uncertainties about the New York Rangers. It’s the first full season since announcing their rebuild, hiring new head coach David Quinn, and acquiring multiple prospects and draft picks.

What will happen with these new additions? How will they play? And, most of all, what will be the best case scenario for this season? The answer is simple: player development, and draft picks.

Player Development

Player development speaks for itself. The main goal for this season is to give the rookies and young players in general significant ice time. For defensemen, this means giving players such as Tony DeAngelo, Neal Pionk, and John Gilmour the chance to show what they’re capable of at the NHL level. Though they all received playing time last season, it was a relatively small sample size. With a full season ahead, everyone will be able asses their playing significantly better.

As for the defensemen in the system, Sean Day and Ryan Lindgren will be getting long looks at training camp. With the NHL spots being filled, they will probably be able to fight for the seventh defenseman slot. If not, they will both be able to have a full season in the AHL and we will be able to monitor their progress from there.

Now, on to the forwards. Unfortunately, ninth overall pick Vitali Kravtsov will be playing in the KHL for one more season. However, there are still plenty of forwards in the Rangers’ system. On the NHL roster, the player I am personally most excited to watch is Pavel Buchnevich. Buchnevich looked on the cusp of breaking out, but was given the short end of the stick most of the time. However, with a new coach, he should now be able to shine.

There are plenty f forwards in the system who will be competing for roster spots next season. This including Brett Howden, Lias Andersson, Filip Chytil, Vinni Lettieri, Libor Hajek, and Boo Nieves. Of them, Anderso and Chytil are pretty much locks for the roster after their stellar performances at the end of last season. As for the rest, we’ll have to wait until training camp to see.

Draft Picks

While the 2019 NHL draft is quite a while away, a hope for this season will be obtaining high draft picks. Take the Toronto Maple Leafs for example, they were in a rebuild stage for years and through being terrible, were able to acquire top ten draft picks.  This led to the team having William Nylander, Mitch Marner, and ultimately Auston Matthews.

Hopefully, this will be the route the Rangers take. Building through the draft takes time, but is probably the most effective way to rebuild a team.

Truly, we are in for a long haul this season. However, it is going to lead to some truky exciting New York Rangers’ hockey in the future.