New York Rangers lack of forward depth could be a problem
By Steve Paulus
The Rangers are off to a decent start. Are they a playoff team or a lottery contender? It’s too early to tell, but there’s one thing that is clear, the team is thin at forward.
When Brendan Lemieux blocked a Keith Yandle shot with his ankle and limped to the bench, there was only one thought the minds of Ranger fans. Micheal Haley is going to play regularly. The Rangers biggest weakness is their lack of depth at forward. With Mika Zibanejad out, the New York Rangers are one injury away from being exposed.
The warning signs are there. Despite the excellence of Artemi Panarin and his work with Ryan Strome and Jesper Fast, the fact is that Rangers defensemen have scored 13 out of the Rangers’ 51 goals, the most in the league.
Four other teams have had defensemen score 13 goals for their teams, but all of them have played more games and scored more goals. A better comparison is the highest percentage of goals scored by defensemen:
Rangers: 13 goals 25%
Carolina: 13 goals 24%
Montreal: 13 goals 21%
Nashville: 13 goals 20%
Washington: 13 goals 18%
Rangers defensemen have totaled 44 points. an average of 2.93 points per game. Washington leads the league with 56 points, an average of 3.11 points per game, but that is mostly due to John Carlson‘s eight goals and 20 assists. While ten other teams, including the Rangers have over 40 points from the defense, no team other than Washington is close to the Blueshirts.
The scary statistic is goals scored at even strength. The Rangers have scored 31 such goals this season and 26 have come from blueliners or players named Panarin, Strome, Fast, Chytil, Kreider or Buchnevich.
That brings us back to the real problem, depth within the organization. When Vitali Kravtsov returned to Russia , it robbed the Rangers of their next NHL ready player.
The Hartford situation
Filip Chytil was the best player on the Hartford Wolf Pack. He was the offensive leader. With their win Sunday over Providence, Hartford improved its record to 10-1-4, tops in the Atlantic Division and best overall in the AHL. They are very much like the parent club with the defense accounting for 13 of 42 goals (31%). It’s even more dramatic at even strength with the defense accounting for 36% of the goals.
Without Chytil or Kravtsov, the Wolf Pack are relying on Vinni Lettieri, Steven Fogarty and Danny O’Regan to provide the offense from forwards. Lettieri leads the team with 11 points and that total ranks 31st in the entire AHL. Forwards like Boo Nieves, Nick Jones and Tim Gettinger are simply not scoring much.
Even more depressing is the Wolf Pack power play. They have scored six goals on 61 power plays, a 9.8% efficiency rate, and the departed Chytil scored one of those power play goals. While you can try to blame coaching as the reason for a powerless power play, it is really the lack of skilled forwards.
Considering the power play and the dearth of scoring from their forwards, the Wolf Pack’s success is pretty remarkable and a lot can be credited to their outstanding goaltending. Igor Shesterkin stopped 29 of 30 shots Sunday to improve his record to 7-1-1 with the AHL’s second best Goals Against Average of 1.65 and a save percentage of .939. The Wolf Pack allow only 2.2 goals per game, the best average in the AHL and you can attribute their 10-1-4 record to that stingy defense and netminding.