Life without the New York Rangers has left a sizeable void, and it remains to be seen if the NHL can resume the 2019-20 season this year.
Each day throws up new information and it is anyone’s guess as to whether or not the New York Rangers will get the opportunity to try and resurrect their bid to scrape into the postseason.
Whatever does unfold, though, hockey and the Blueshirts will be back eventually and that day can’t come soon enough.
In the meantime, I thought it would be fun to experiment with a little game that has appeared on other sites and all over social media in different formats.
More from Blue Line Station
- Blake Wheeler’s Broadway Calling: Why He Chose the Rangers
- Rangers’ Playoff Redemption Recipe: Grit and Fresh Hopes
- Rangers’ Roster Chatter: Who’s Making the Cut and Who’s in the Penalty Box?
- Jacque Plante Trade Tree Between the Rangers and Canadiens
- These Rangers must learn Peter Laviolette’s ropes before they can fly
We are lucky at Blue Line Station in the sense that we have a wealth of fans from different decades who read our stuff.
Some grew up with Walt Tkaczuk and Jean Ratelle, some had a staple diet of Adam Graves, Mark Messier, Brian Leetch and Mike Richter while the younger generation spent their days idolizing the likes of Jaromir Jagr and then Henrik Lundqvist.
As a result, we thought we would give you the opportunity to pick your All-Time New York Rangers Starting Lineup.
However, there’s a catch:
You only have a mere $15 to play with.
There is a boatload of elite players to have pulled on that famous New York Rangers jersey, so we’ve put six players in to each category.
The beauty of this is that you can spend hours coming up with different teams given the abundance of Rangers greats, so hopefully this will keep you entertained while we are all on lockdown.
We have also put a couple of current Rangers into the lower-price brackets just to shake things up a little too.
So, without further ado, let’s delve in…
$5
$4
$3
$2
$1
Goalies – pick one
Coach – pick one
- Alain Vigneault
- John Tortorella
- Mike Keenan
- Herb Brooks
- Fred Shero
- Emile Francis
- Frank Boucher
- Lester Patrick
It goes without saying that some of you will be upset that we’ve missed certain names off but, given the rich history of this storied franchise, it is impossible to include everyone and make everyone happy.
So, instead, we’ve tried to feature all-time greats, Rangers legends and some recent or current fans’ favorites just to make building an All-Time Lineup that little bit more interesting.
Here is one we tried…
Andrew’s $15 All-Time NYR Lineup
$5 – Mark Messier
$4 – Brian Leetch
$3 – Wayne Gretzky
$2 – Ryan McDonagh
$1 – Artemi Panarin
Goalie – Mike Richter
Coach – John Tortorella
It goes without saying that two major cogs in the 1994 Stanley Cup winning team in Mark Messier and Brian Leetch make my team, while watching hours and hours of Wayne Gretzky highlights helped spark my passion for hockey so The Great One is a no-brainer.
I’ve then rounded out my All-Time New York Rangers Lineup with a recent Blueshirt in Ryan McDonagh, along with a current star in Artemi Panarin who would no doubt tear it up on a line with Messier and Gretzky.
Mike Richter is my chosen goalie why I’ve gone with John Tortorella behind the bench, because who doesn’t want to see more Torts in the postgame press conference?
It is now over to you and you can let us know your All-Time New York Rangers Lineup using the above players by using the comments section below.
Remember, this is a bit of fun and this isn’t intended to be a debate on who should fill out an all-time line-up, rather just a way to distract ourselves during these weird and scary times.
We can’t wait to see your teams – let the fun commence!