New York Rangers: Does it make sense to move Jesper Fast up?

The New York Rangers have a unique player in Jesper Fast. In limited top six minutes, the forward has produced. Should this be the norm?

For all of his maddening decisions as head coach of the New York Rangers, Alain Vigneault occasionally stumbled into good choices. For every single time a young player got benched for no real reason other than inexperience, there was the occasional “Jesper Fast has upside.”

Typically, once a player gets assigned a role at the NHL level, they never breakout of it. Checking line forwards do not become 40 goal scorers or passing wizards. However, well balanced players that can do a little of everything at an average or better level are invaluable in the NHL. These Swiss-Army knife style players can be used in any and every situation

While Fast is never going to be mistaken for Connor McDavid, he can certainly serve as a passable top six choice. This presents a decision for Rangers’ head coach David Quinn to make. Should the lineup be high ceiling or high floor.

Meaning, should the team’s lineup be safe choices that won’t hurt the team. The alternative would be the high ceiling lineup meaning players that are more willing to take risks to create bigger chances. This is ultimately a decision for the coaching staff and something that will give the team direction.

The past

In the past, the Rangers had always been a high floor team. The coaching staff of both Alain Vigneault and John Tortorella was based around limiting risk as much as possible. The logic being, if the team does not take a lot of chances, there won’t be that many mistakes and the team can win through having superior skill.

However, this left a lot to be desired in the way of skill players. If skill players are handcuffed by style restrictions, they cannot be as dynamic as they should. It’s an obvious example, but Vigneault’s refusal to let Pavel Buchnevich learn through game action sticks out.

Restricting a dynamic player from taking risks is counterintuitive to what a coach should be doing. A coach’s responsibility is to put their players in the best possible position to succeed. If a player’s game is oriented around taking risks to create chances, they need to be given chances.

This is not an argument for totally recklessness, but unconventional play is positive. If a team is predictable, that team can be stopped pretty easily. But, if a player like Buchnevich is dangling his way through the neutral zone and gets stood up in the process, you live with that choice.

The chance of the Russian gaining the offensive zone and creating a scoring chance is the whole point of having good players. If they are forced to work within a system that stunts their creativity is bad coaching.

To Fast or not to Fast

On the other end of the spectrum is Fast. The Swedish forward is a very low risk player and won’t cost his team with bad decisions. However, the argument against Fast in the top six has always been his limitations. With the right line mates, Fast contributed quite well.

Last season when he played with Mika Zibanejad, Fast posted great counting stats. It’s no surprise that Fast set a career high in points last year as he got to play with better forwards.

But, the reason to keep Fast in his traditional role is obvious. Putting a player with a higher ceiling in the top six like Ryan Spooner or Vladislav Namestnikov could yield a greater return with better line mates. It sounds obvious, but putting the best players together yields better results.

Sure, limiting the risk on the second line makes sense in theory. In addition to not taking risks, Fast is a high energy and strong defensive player. There is a world in which using Fast along side Kevin Hayes as the team’s shutdown line would make sense.

However, Hayes has too much offensive upside to relegate him to such a limited role.

This means that Fast should be a fourth line wing. The team needs to get useful production out of the fourth line. In today’s NHL, every team needs to have 12 forwards that can play difficult minutes if need be.

Keep the forward in the bottom six and use him as an emergency replacement for the top six. In limited usage, Fast can be an effective and versatile player.