David Quinn and the New York Rangers ice time conundrum

David Quinn, Head Coach of the New York Rangers has an ice time problem. Or at least there is a perception that he does, but is it true? This young season has been a roller coaster affair for the Rangers thus far. With only two wins on the season and most of the veterans struggling to find their game, David Quinn has had to play musical chairs with his lineup since the get go.

Between ineffective line combinations, defensive pairings and intermittent disciplinary benchings, the roster has hardly looked the same on a game to game basis. In game line shuffling and extended special teams play has kept even strength ice time somewhat inconsistent. Artemi Panarin has played as much as 20:18 minutes at even strength in game five and as little as 11:48 minutes in game one.

Quinn’s usage of his star veteran players is not so much in question as is his usage of the teams youth.  Quinn has leaned heavily on his two rookies so far this season. In moving to a top six role, Alexis Lafreniere has seen his even strength ice time steadily grow from under 11 minutes in his first game to as much as 18:09 in his fifth. K’Andre Miller has likewise seen a significant increase in his time on ice at even strength from a low of under 12 minutes to more than 21 minutes. Both rookies were rewarded with an overtime shift that led to Lafreniere’s first NHL goal and the Rangers second win of the season.

Last season, Quinn steadily and increasingly used the rookie pairing of Adam Fox and Ryan Lindgren. Libor Hajek, another rookie, had been given a chance at the top defense pairing with Jacob Trouba. Young centers, Filip Chytil and Brett Howden had been used regularly last season and so far this season relatively consistently. So what’s the problem? Enter Kaapo Kakko.

Does Kaapo Kakko get enough time?

The confusion surrounding David Quinn’s ice time distribution for Kakko is one of perception versus reality. Part of the perception driving the fan dismay surrounding Kakko’s deployment is that Howden is given more time.

Let’s break this down. Howden is a center who is primarily used on the fourth line and as an off shift fill in at center to either take faceoff’s or to cover for Mika Zibanejad, Ryan Strome and Chytil after extended power play time. That said, Howden has only played more even strength minutes than Kakko in the last two games. Coincidentally, these are the first two games following the injury to Chytil, Kakko’s regular center.

In terms of overall ice time, Howden has been on the ice more than Kakko in four of the seven games. This is due to the fact that Howden plays a lead role on the penalty kill, something Kakko does not. Neither gets all that much time with the man advantage as Howden is rarely used and Kakko is only intermittently part of the second power play unit that itself does not get much ice time.

Here’s a breakdown comparing the ice time deployment for Kakko, Howden and Lafreniere.

In all, it is a false perception that Howden is being used in place of, or is stealing Kakko’s ice time. It is, in fact, the coach managing situational and positional hockey that dictates their individual usage. It is less about favoritism than about what Kakko has lacked in his game. The question should be less about why Howden? or why Lafreniere? But, be more about, why not Kakko?