Hockey is relevant again in the tri-state area and the New York Rangers are at the very heart of that resurgence.
Let’s face it, pick up any newspaper or switch on any popular afternoon talk sports show in New York during the hockey season, the likelihood is you will be waiting a while until the New York Rangers or the New York Islanders get some airtime, let alone the New Jersey Devils or even the Buffalo Sabres.
However, times are changing and after a blockbuster off-season for the Rangers and the Devils, coupled with increased expectations for the Islanders following a standout 2018-19 season, we are on the cusp of a new era of hockey in New York. And we’re all in for it.
But, who will emerge as the immediate dominant force? Who will be top of the pile in the tri-state area in 2019-20? As part of our extensive summer deep dive into the New York area rivalries, we are going to study the facts and then try to predict what team will be the powerhouse of this year.
New York Rangers
Let’s start with the Rangers as that is the most logical kicking-off point. We won’t spend too much time on the Blueshirts given that we have done deep dive after deep dive on their offseason, but it is worth a brief recap in order to assess their chances of reigning supreme in the tri-state area in 2019-20.
First and foremost, the Rangers will be a much different proposition this year after enjoying a blockbuster offseason that placed this rebuild in full-on turbocharge mode. Following the decision to select Finnish stud Kaapo Kakko with the No.2 overall pick in the 2019 NHL Entry Draft, the Blueshirts went out and were aggressive when retooling their roster by trading for defensemen Adam Fox and Jacob Trouba, before winning free agency by luring superstar Artemi Panarin to The Big Apple.
All of those additions should make the Rangers a hell of a lot more competitive in 2019-20, although it is almost a near certainty that they will be a fun team to watch and report on given their abundance of talent and wealth of high-end prospects.
Whether they will be good enough to make the postseason in a stacked Metro Division is a completely different question, of course, although as I’ve mentioned in a previous piece, 2019-20 should be judged on the continued development of the franchise’s plethora of young studs rather than reaching the playoffs.
However, you can at least make a strong argument that they should be better than the Buffalo Sabres this year while being able to go toe-to-toe against the New York Islanders. The Rangers have a poor recent record against the Isles, going 3-11-2 against them the last four years while they haven’t been able to boast a winning record against their rivals since 2013.
But, putting recent history aside, the Islanders could regress this year due to their inability to address certain roster weaknesses during the off-season while the Rangers are now loaded offensively and the addition of Trouba should shore up their blueline significantly.
So, although we shouldn’t expect the Rangers to battle for the Metro Division in 2019-20, they certainly boast a loaded roster and some high-end talent to be significantly better than the Buffalo Sabres while having enough weapons at their disposal to climb a few spots in the standings and potentially jump over the Islanders, who won’t be as good as they were last year.