Jeff Gorton and John Davidson talked about expectations for upcoming New York Rangers season
With training camp due to open on Sunday,New York Rangers Team President John Davidson and General Manager Jeff Gorton spoke to the media about the upcoming season.
In terms of breaking news, Gorton said that Mika Zibanejad, prospect Justin Richards and goalie Keith Kinkaid are day-to-day, but didn’t reveal anything else about them.
It may not be breaking, but Jeff Gorton confirmed that Vitali Kravtsov will remain in Russia for the KHL season including the playoffs. He did say that they will definitely bring him to North America when that season is over. “We’re really happy with where he’s at and where he’s going and excited to get him back over here.”
John Davidson said that they Rangers organization was “absolutely shocked” by the news that Henrik Lundqvist needed surgery. It was an indication that while he was with the team, there was nothing detected that would have kept him off the ice. Davidson did say that Lundqvist is and always will be a Ranger, another hint that there is a job with the team waiting for him when he retires.
Moving a winger
One of the key questions facing the Rangers has been about the surplus of left wingers and Jeff Gorton was asked if there was any thought of moving a left winger to the right side. “I think a lot of our wingers are versatile and can play both side. I’ll leave it to David (Quinn) It’s a luxury that we have some good wingers that are highly talented and do a lot of different things and play both sides. “
He downplayed moving Panarin, with the understatement of the press conference “He’s pretty comfortable and pretty effective over there.” No kidding.
The rebuild timeline
Jeff Gorton spoke about how the rebuild timeline will be affected by all of the changes to the schedule. He said “Every team is in the same situation. We have a great opportunity to play a 56 game season, in a division that’s going to be difficult. It will be good for our players to play and we’ll evaluate them every day and we’ll try to get better.”
“We’ve been pretty consistent with our approach with that (the timeline) Were trying to get better every day, we’ll see what we have on the ice, let’s win our next game and try to move this thing forward. Hopefully the timeline is quicker than later, we’ll see what happens when we we get back on the ice.”
Davidson spoke about the team’s expectations for their players and was optimistic about the young players on what will be the NHL’s youngest team.
“What I’ve seen to this point…a lot of the young players were so young, now they’ve gotten a little bit older, only a few months, not even a year….you saw Kaapo (Kakko) come back to the bubble in Toronto and see the way he played. Now he shows up after a solid summer of working out, he’ll be bigger and stronger.”
“We look for things like that….to see the old players lead, to see the older players be even better than what they were last , each and every one of them. To see the young players mature. To see the new players come in.”