What should the New York Rangers do with Brendan Smith?

Why he should stay

The 2020-21 season will be played with fewer games and a hot start is pivotal to making the playoffs. With a shortened season, there just won’t be enough time to make up for points lost in the early days of the season. Putting players in their best possible position to succeed is critical to getting the team rolling from the get go.  Playing unknown quantities in prominent positions only adds to the question marks that surround the team.

All said, Smith is currently the New York Rangers best option to play along side Jacob Trouba. In time, one of the many prospects in the organization will certainly fill that role, but for right now, Smith is it. He filled that role for the last nine games of the season, and while it is a small sample size, Smith proved to be the best fit for the job.

While the pairing did not light the lamp, they were the Blueshirts most effective defensive pair while the team was chasing down the last playoff spot before the Covid-19 pause. In those final nine games from February 25, 2020 – March 11, 2020, the Trouba-Smith pairing played 111:34 minutes together at even strength. The paring surrendered only three goals against while they were on the ice for 101 shot attempts for and 117 shot attempts against, for a positive Corsi rating of 46.33%.

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In comparison, the Fox – Ryan Lindgren pairing played 115:01 of even strength minutes and surrendered five goals on 88 shot attempts for and 114 shot attempts against, for a positive Corsi rating of 43.56%. The Staal – DeAngelo pairing played 87:51 minutes at even strength and surrendered six goals on 65 shot attempts for and 96 shot attempts against, for a positive Corsi rating of 40.37%. It should be noted that both of these pairings did score more than the Trouba-Smith pairing, but neither were as effective on the defensive side of the puck.

Additionally the team professed it wants to be tougher to play against and Smith brings some much needed snarl to the game. In just 688 total minutes of ice-time, Smith recorded 90 hits, good for seventh on the team. Ryan Lindgren, seen as a warrior on the Rangers blue line recorded 94 hits over 994 minutes. In fact, Smith registered 7.85 hits per 60 minutes of play, more than Trouba (6.56), Chris Kreider (6.40) or Lindgren (5.67). Of the players who were in the line-up regularly, only Brendan Lemieux (12.96) and Greg McKegg (8.17) had more hits per 60 minutes.

Smith was also one of the few Rangers willing to drop the mitts, doing so five times in 2019-20 and 13 times total in Rangers blue, including twice in the 2017 playoffs. For a team that wants to be tougher, subtracting one of the more physical players in the line-up is not the way to do it.

In all, Smith should not be considered the long term solution to any of the Rangers questions. But, for now, in the short term, he provides the team with a solid physical presence and familiarity to partner with Trouba. Should a trade develop that costs Smith and makes the Rangers better, by all means, pull that trigger. However, at this point, trading Smith simply to free up cap would be counter productive to the teams chances in the upcoming season.