New York Rangers: Life after Brady Skjei
By Steve Paulus
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Next season the Rangers will do their best to find a better partner for Jacob Trouba. The right side is set with Trouba, Adam Fox and Anthony DeAngelo. Fox has a set partner in Ryan Lindgren and Marc Staal was a solid complement to DeAngelo. The team is going to have to contemplate beginning the season with Trouba paired with a very young defense partner.
Libor Hajek may be the best option as he is the only left defenseman with any NHL experience. He has 33 games under his belt over two years and while his development has not been as rapid as the team would have hoped, they still believe in him.
Yegor Rykov is a left handed shooting defenseman with three full years of KHL experience. He spent a lot of time on the injured list before becoming a regular in Hartford. He did play 27 games and had some issues getting used to the size of the North American rinks.
When the Rangers announced that they had signed K’Andre Miller to his entry level contract, the immediate reaction was that he was going to make the big club next season, but it’s not practical to believe that a 20 year old could step into a top pairing role in the NHL. He will benefit from a season in the AHL and there is no doubt that is the intention of the organization.
Another option is Tarmo Reuanen, a Finnish defenseman who is under contract and was on loan to Lukka in the Finnish Liiga. He had an excellent season as one of the top defensemen with an outstanding plus/minus rating of +17. He is 22 years old and could try to make the jump to the NHL. His teammate Ville Heinola had an impressive debut with Winnipeg before returning to Finland. Perhaps Reuanen could make the same jump?
The only option from Hartford is Brandon Crawley, a left handed shooting defenseman who had been unable to escape from Hartford for two years and spent most of this season in the ECHL.
There is one possibility that the team could explore that could solve a lot of problems.