The New York Rangers have entered the ‘Tinkering’ stage
By Alex Csedrik
The Rangers must take advantage of Artemi Panarin’s prime
When Artemi Panarin was recently announced as one of the three finalists for the Hart trophy, not only are the Rangers beyond the “rebuild,” they’ve blown by the “build” phase, too. It’s imperative for teams to not waste prime years of superstars–and you can look at the Rangers of not-too-long ago as an example. During Henrik Lundqvist‘s prime, the Rangers were one of hockey’s most successful franchises. They were routinely in the playoffs, and were one of the winning franchises in playoff series throughout the last decade. Unfortunately, they came up short in their quest to win the Cup.
Panarin, no doubt, is in his prime, and the Rangers cannot afford to let his best years go by without a ring. There are only so many lifetimes us fans have before we’ll start calling for the front office’s heads if they don’t deliver.
A strengthened core
The Rangers have identified their core that they believe will lead them to success. This core begins with Panarin, Mika Zibanejad (a superstar in his own right), and Chris Kreider. And there are some of the kids who–while they haven’t been in the league for very long, they’ve been revelatory in their time in blue–are being placed into this group in good faith: Adam Fox and Igor Shesterkin. (Again, a small sample size, but it’s obvious from the organization’s actions that the Rangers believe these two are foundational pieces.) That means the Rangers have their number one center, defender, goalie, left wing, and possible captain as players to build around.
That’s not including the other players about to enter their prime or youngsters like Pavel Buchnevich, Filip Chytil, Kaapo Kakko, Ryan Lindgren, and Tony DeAngelo. This is where the “tinkering” phase comes into play. The Rangers are high on all of these talented players, but if the right move comes along–like a certain center from the Buffalo Sabres becomes available–you tinker with your lineup and trade a few pieces to deliver that Cup. (Personally, I believe that Kakko is probably an untouchable, unless it’s for Jack Eichel. Even then, I would do everything I could to exclude him from the package.)