The baby New York Rangers take shape for the future

Part of rebuilding is successfully integrating young talent into the NHL level team’s program. The New York Rangers have ten players 25 or younger on the active roster.

As the old adage goes, the National Hockey League is a young man’s game. By age 30, a player is already on the downswing and likely on a bloated contract for more than their product is worth. At the inverse of the spectrum, the youngest players are on the cheapest deals all fighting for their professional careers. Right now, the New York Rangers are holding open auditions for the future.

It’s not quite Dick Vermeil hosting open tryouts to residents of Philadelphia to make the Eagles, but the Rangers’ brass having a wide range of young talent is pretty close. Head coach David Quinn dressed ten players 25 or younger against the Washington Capitals this past Sunday. The young upstarts brought the defending Stanley Cup champions to the brink before falling in overtime.

The talent ranges from future cornerstones like Filip Chytil and Lias Andersson to those looking to overcome the odds like Neal Pionk and Boo Nieves. Either way, a young roster creates exciting opportunities because they are all pushing to make an impact. For some of these players, the final 17 games of the season could be the final chance at an NHL career or life in the AHL.

The pieces that New York has now are a solid foundation and something to work with going forward.

The logjam

Up front, the Rangers have six different forwards that are under team control for several more seasons. This group: Mika Zibanejad, Brendan Lemieux, Brett Howden, Lias Andersson, Pavel Buchnevich and the aforementioned Chytil. As of now, just one of these players, Zibanjead is a proven top line talent at the NHL level.

Down the middle represents New Yorks’ largest surplus with Andersson, Chytil, Howden and Zibanejad all representing the pivot position. Granted, Chytil has spent almost the entirety of his first full NHL season on the wing, his natural position is center. However, none of these four were drafted or acquired to play 12 minutes per night as a fourth line center.

There is also some conjecture that 2018 first round draft selection Vitali Kravtsov may play center when he comes over to North America next year. Part of New York’s front office’s responsibilities this offseason will be figuring out where the talent fits in. Do any of these players fit in as the second line center the team needs?

If so, the rest can all fall into place and allow the rest of the depth chart to take place. However, if it feels that Chytil, Andersson or Howden needs to be on the wing to thrive, the team does need a second line center for the future.

Building a lineup requires quality, not just quantity. A group of above average but no two quality centers will never be able to win a Stanley Cup final. As far as the current pool goes, unless Chytil moves back to center none have been to impressive.

Howden looks like a 20-year-old in his first NHL season and Andersson has too small of a sample size. These final 17 games are absolutely vital in terms of talent evaluation down the middle.

The disastrous defense

The single biggest problem for the Rangers going forward is a lack of elite talent on the blue line. The grouping of Kevin Shattenkirk, Brendan Smith and Marc Staal all being under contract until 2020-2021 means that unless the front office is willing to buy out the deals, there are three roster spots spoken for.

That already cuts the lineup spots available for talent evaluation in half. Throw in the fact that Brady Skjei is signed until the 2023-2024 season and there are just two lineup spots for the collection of young talent in the pool. This is at least in part why the defense is such an issue, there is no one player who can take over a game.

While both Skjei and Shattenkirk would be fine second pair defenseman on a quality team, the Rangers don’t have anyone to seriously put ahead of them. Thankfully, Tony DeAngelo took a major step forward in his development this season and finally looks the part of an NHL defenseman.

So for argument’s sake, let’s say that the team can buy out one of Smith or Staal this summer. That leaves Skjei, Shattenkirk, DeAngelo, Staal/Smith, Neal Pionk, Libor Hajek and Ryan Lindgren all possible starters next year on opening night. No one from that collection of talent is a first pair talent, at least thus far.

Both Hajek and Lindgren are extremely early on in their respective developments, but both are quite green. They need further seasoning and time against NHL talent to truly be properly evaluated.

The skeleton roster

So, based on the current contracts, next year’s baseline for a lineup is as follows:

Chris Kreider-Mika Zibanejad-Jimmy Vesey

Pavel Buchnevich-Brett Howden-Vitali Kravtsov

Vladislav Namestnikov-Lias Andersson-Filip Chytil

Ryan Strome-Boo Nieves-Brendan Lemieux

Marc Staal/Brendan Smith-Tony DeAngelo

Brady Skjei-Kevin Shattenkirk

Libor Hajek-Neal Pionk

This does not account for whether or not the team makes moves in free agency and whether Yegor Rykov comes over from Russia for the 2019-2020 season. While there are no egregiously bad players in this collection of talent, it’s clear that there is no hope for a playoff run. This is an even younger group of players than this year with less proven talent.

Even worse, there are no 50 game stints of Kevin Hayes and Mats Zuccarello to help overachieve in the first half of the season before free falling. This would be the least proven Rangers roster on opening night since prior to the 2003-2004 lockout season.

The big picture

The real issue with this group is the lack of elite talent. Going back to the quality versus quantity point, eventually, the front office will need to turn these smaller pieces into some blue-chip talent. Whether it be using a bundle of prospects to trade up in the draft or to get an unhappy player in a bad situation, there needs to be a shift.

For once, the Rangers need to be the team that trades two quarters for a dollar bill at the draft. A team that needs depth for one of its proven talents is the ideal partner. Think of how the team traded Brandon Dubinsky and Artem Anisimov for Rick Nash. While those players were both further along in their development, they were still on the young side.

That’s the type of move general manager Jeff Gorton needs to keep in the back of his mind. There are some parallels between this group of players and the one from 2010 that eventually became the core of several deep posts season runs.

There is no need to rush when it comes to rebuilding, New York will make 20 draft selections over the course of two years. Those picks need years to develop into potential NHL level players. While there will be some urgency from a restless fan base, it’s important to keep an eye on the big picture.

New York has cap flexibility and an ever-deepening pool of talent that’s gaining experience. The front office’s biggest task going forward is weeding through the good but not great players to have a solid core.

The building blocks and final thoughts

While New York’s compete level this year is a pleasant surprise, it does show that sometimes talent can be greater than the sum of its parts. If the Rangers were in the Western Conference, it’d be just a handful of points outside of a playoff spot. This group has nothing to be ashamed of and Quinn should be commended for managing so many different player’s needs masterfully.

For argument’s sake, this would be my building block roster, meaning that these are the players that have played in the NHL this year worth keeping for a potential playoff team down the road and where they fit on a potentially good team.

Chris Kreider-Mika Zibanejad-?

? –                               ?           -Filip Chytil

Pavel Buchnevich-Brett Howden-

Ryan Strome-?-Jesper Fast

?-?

Brady Skjei-Tony DeAngelo

?-?

As you can tell, there’s not a lot of proven talent. Andersson has been much better since his most recent call-up, but the sample size is microscopic. Ditto for Hajek who has a grand total of two games at the NHL level.

There are pieces on the horizon like K’Andre Miller, Nils Lundkvist, Kravtsov, Joey Keane and Yegor Rykov that may slide into some of these holes, but that will take time.

Eventually, the Rangers will return to the postseason with some of these young players. But, it’s going to take some serious talent evaluation and some deal making.