New York Rangers: Early reports on line combinations for the season

With less than a week until the start of the regular season, the New York Rangers coaching staff is putting together a team.

After two weeks of training camp and exhibition games, head coach David Quinn is designing his first NHL lineup. While nothing is official yet, Larry Brooks of the New York Post reported the teams four line combinations and three defensive pairs during practice on Saturday September 29.

The combinations are as follows:

Forwards

Chris Kreider- Mika Zibanejad- Pavel Buchnevich

Ryan Spooner- Filip Chytil- Jesper Fast

Cody McLeod- Kevin Hayes- Jimmy Vesey

Vladislav Namestnikov- Brett Howden- Vinni Lettieri

Defense

Brady Skjei- Adam McQuaid

Brendan Smith- Kevin Shattenkrik

Marc Staal- Neal Pionk

Of course, these are only line combinations during a practice, but they can give a view into the mindset of Quinn thus far.

The first and most obvious thing to take away is a lack of risk. There are a lot of choices cased on safety and protecting someone else on the line. For example, using Jesper Fast as a top six forward wreaks of security blanket for Filip Chytil. While Fast is a fine player, using him in the top six is a miscast and a disservice to both players.

Second, using Adam McQuaid as Brady Skjei’s defensive partner is the same exact concept. It is a high floor, low ceiling combination that looks to minimize risk. The biggest hole in Skjei’s game is his weakness around his own net. On the other hand, McQuaid is an old school clear the crease defenseman that will not tolerate any nonsense around his goaltender.

Quick hits

• I have no earthly idea why Cody McLeod is playing anything other than fourth line minutes
• As of now, Tony DeAngelo and Frederik Claesson are both on the outside of the lineup
• The Rangers only have a shade over a million dollars in cap space as Matt Beleskey and Brandon Crawley cannot be sent down until they return from the disabled list
• Expect Howden to get time as a center on the penalty kill in addition to his fourth line center role
• Namestnikov went from playing along side Steven Stamkos and Nikkita Kucherov to fourth line minutes on a rebuilding team, that’s a rough six months
• The team needs to get more out of Vesey than he showed in the preseason, the Harvard product did not look himself
• With no DeAngelo, the team needs a quarterback for the second power play unit, my outside the box choice would be Hayes or possibly Chytil
• Howden will likely have a short leash and need to prove he’s comfortable at the NHL level once Boo Nieves is healthy