A battle brewing on right wing

Right wing will be one of the most hotly contested positions on the New York Rangers this season

The most fascinating element of training camp is the battle among players for regular roles. For the 2020-21 New York Rangers, the biggest battle will be for a slot on the fourth line, but a fight is shaping up for one position on the top three lines.

It’s not at left wing where the Rangers are set with Chris Kreider, Artemi Panarin and Alexis Lafrenière.  There are few questions at center with Mika Zibanejad on the top line and a potential battle between Ryan Strome and Filip Chytil for that role on the second line.

It’s right wing where we may see some surprises.  When second line right winger Jesper Fast left via free agency, it opened up a job with a number of potential replacements.  At first glance, the first two lines appear set with Pavel Buchnevich on the top line with ZIbanejad and Kreider and  Kaapo Kakko the heir apparent to Fast’s job on the second line. However, there is a long list of right wing candidates and at this point the field is wide open for all of them on any of the four lines..

Besides Buchnevich and Kakko, Vitali Kravtsov has been playing well in the KHL,   Julien Gauthier will be given the opportunity to live up to his promise.  Brendan Lemieux’s could find a way off the fourth line on the off wing on the third line.  Rookies Justin Richard and Austin Reuschhoff are long shots, but could be candidates to replace Fast’s role as a defensive forward.

Let’s look at all of the right wing candidates.

Pavel Buchnevich: The incumbent

This is going to be a big year for Buchnevich.  It is the final year of his contract and he will be an arbitration eligible Restricted Free Agent after the season.  It’s a make or break campaign for him as he will be playing for a long term big payout.  If he regresses, he could find himself as trade bait at the deadline.

Last summer, Jeff Gorton avoided arbitration by signing him to a two year bridge deal worth $6.5 million.  He rewarded their faith in him by scoring 16 goals and a career high 46 points in the pandemic shortened season.  Those numbers don’t tell the whole story.

In his first 47 games, Buchnevich scored only seven goals and added 18 assists for 25 points.  He got red hot over his last 21 games with nine goals and 12 assists, a point-a-game pace.  If Buchnevich wants to get that long term deal, he will need to play like he did at the end of the season and not as he did at the beginning.

Let’s not even get into the post season series against the Hurricanes where Buchnevich vanished like the rest of the team. He was scoreless with a plus/minus of -1.

Buchnevich, 25,  has been a pet David Quinn “project” and has shown improvement.  This season he will be facing some real competition for a top six role and it will be fascinating to see how he responds.