New York Rangers mid-season report card

It’s the midway point of the season and time for a report card.  After 41 games the Rangers are 26-11-4 and headed for a 112 point season.  As a team, this group of overachievers who never give up deserves an A+.  Can they keep it up?  Can they get even better?

In order for that to happen, the best need to remain the best.  The middle of the pack needs to get better and they need to round out the roster, getting rid of the underachievers and replacing them with better players.

Each player has gotten a letter grade that is purely subjective.  Some were easy to determine, some were excruciatingly difficult.   Take a look and feel free to let us know what you think.

The top of the class

Any team with a record like the Rangers will need to have some “A” players and the Rangers are lucky to have a bunch.  While critics will maintain that the Rangers are top heavy and not a complete team, the fact is that the team has an amazing foundation of excellent talent to build on.

Adam Fox  A+

Before the season we wondered if he could  build on his Norris Trophy season and he has answered that question resoundingly.  Leading all defensemen in scoring and one of the top assist men in the league, he has just been better.  He is still playing heavy minutes and faces the top opposition players in every game on the power play and the penalty kill.  He is the one absolutely indispensable New York Ranger.

Chris Kreider   A+

Admit it, you are surprised. 26 goals in 41 games. Only once this season has he gone over two games without a goal.  We all knew that Chris Kreider could score and when he wants to be, he can be a physical force and an offensive leader.  What we didn’t expect was that he would be like that in every game.  No vanishing act this year from the team’s senior leader.   This season he has added penalty killing to his repertoire and he shows no sign of slowing up.  Chris Kreider has finally grown up.

Igor Shesterkin A+

He’s the best goalie in the league.  He has stolen games for the Rangers.  When he is in net, the Rangers just look more confident.  Now, if he can only stay in the lineup. He’s missed 27% of the games this season and he has been injured for 25% of his career 129 games.   When he is in the lineup he is amazing, one of the league leaders in every statistical category.  He alone gives the Rangers a chance to win every game he plays and could take them deep into the playoffs.

Jacob Trouba  A

Jacob Trouba is finally living up to the big contract in his third season in New York.  Not only that, he is contributing offensively and has become one of the best body checkers in the NHL.  He is singlehandedly reviving the concept of the body check and his hits are making the highlight reels.  He still is continuing to mentor K’Andre Miller and he has embraced Gerard Gallant’s uptempo offense.  With six goals and 18 points so far, he is headed for his best goals total and second best points total in his career.

Ryan Lindgren  A

The perfect complement to Adam Fox, Ryan Lindgren is everything you could ask for in a stay-at-home defenseman.  He’s physical and conscientious and can chip in with the occasional offensive foray.  How can we forget his last second goal against the Sabres?  Watching Fox and Lindgren work together is to see two players who can read each others’ minds.

Mika Zibanejad  A-

Mika Zibanejad has been an A+ player for the last month.  But with only four goals in his first 25 games he was a disappointment.  Sure, he contributed with his 200-foot game,but he is paid to score and he has only just started.  Zibanejad has to stop with the slow starts.  This is the third straight season he has started slow and turned it on midway through the schedule.  If he could play the way he has recently for an entire 82 game season, he would be the best center in the NHL.

The second wave

This is an interesting group as it includes both overachievers and underachievers.  There are players who have played over their heads along with players who should be in the top category.  This is the group that could have the biggest impact on the Rangers over the next 41 games.

Barclay Goodrow  B+

We won’t talk about Barclay Goodrow’s contract when we grade his performance.  He is exactly what the team needed and he has been just as advertised.  He’s a physical presence, a veteran leader and a player who is at home on the first of fourth line.  It’s not his problem that he should be on the third or fourth line, but has been moved up too often.  Offensively, he has seven goals and 17 points and is on target for the best season of his eight-year career.   Again, ignore the contract and the term, the team needed a player like Goodrow.

Ryan Reaves  B+

Ryan Reaves is just what the doctor ordered.  Though many though at 35 he was too old, he has made the Rangers a tougher team and revitalized the fourth line.  He’s finally scored, but that’s not what he is paid to do.  Circle February 25 on your calendars.  That’s when the Capitals come to town.

Artemi Panarin   B

Artemi Panarin is a great player, but he is in a funk.  He’s passing when he should be shooting and he tries to do too much instead of relying on his own sublime talent.  His numbers rate an A-, but we expect more of him. In one way, the organization has failed him by not finding the right linemate to play on his wing.  With the uncertainty surrounding the future of Ryan Strome in the organization, this is a problem that needs to be resolved.  For now, they have a player with A+ ability saddled with a B line.

Ryan Strome  B

Ryan Strome has been the same player he has been the last two seasons.  In one game he is an excellent playmaker and clutch scorer.  In  the next game he misses glorious scoring opportunities and takes bad penalties.  In his walk year, he is one of the team’s better forwards, but his play is just a bit off from the last two years with nine goals and 30 points in 37games.  No doubt, his statistics are suffering from Panarin’s 5v5 issues, but Strome has to take some responsibility for that.

Alexandar Georgiev  B

It’s been a tale of two seasons for Alexandar Georgiev.  He had an abysmal start, with the worst numbers of any NHL goalie.  When Igor Shesterkin went down with a lower body injury, Georgiev was thrust into a starting role and he responded.  He wants to be a number one goalie, but he hasn’t demonstrated that he is anywhere close to fulfilling that desire.  Face it, he is a good goalie and he kept the Rangers’ season alive when filling in, but a 7-6-2 record and a 2.92 goals against average is not cutting it.  He’s had D grade segments followed by A grade segments and that means a overall grade B.

Kevin Rooney  B

Kevin Rooney is a reliable fourth line center who can kill penalties and chip in with the occasional goal.  That’s what they signed him for and that’s what he has been doing.    He had five goals after 19 games, but has scored only once in the next 19 games and that needs improvement.

Sammy Blais B

The great disappointment of this season is Sammy Blais. He was just starting to show why Chris Drury wanted him in the Buchnevich trade when that nasty Subban slewfoot ended his season. He was still looking for his first goal and had only four assists in 17 games, but he had 37 hits and was showing signs that he could fill a role on the top six.  What a shame.

K’Andre Miller  B-

Call it the sophomore jinx and considering his age and experience, a B- may be considered too harsh a grade, but in his second year on the second defense pairing, he has regressed a little. He’s still averaging over 19 minutes a game and contributing offensively when needed.  Ranger fans are waiting for him to take advantage of his size and strength, but he still oozes potential and he just turned 22.

Greg McKegg B-

Greg McKegg has gotten into 21 games this season, many more than was expected.  Having formerly played for Gerard Gallant in Florida, it’s clear that he has faith in McKegg and he has used him, letting him play instead of players like Julien Gauthier or prospects like Morgan Barron.  McKegg has recently raised his level of play and has been a solid member of the fourth line, a line that made a huge difference in the Toronto game.

Middle of the pack

Here’s where the Rangers get in trouble.  There are too many players in the average category and the question is who many of them can rise above that level?  It could be an issue of usage, or simply skill level, but the fact is that an average player belongs on the bottom six and on the Rangers, some of them are playing in the top six.

Kaapo Kakko C+

When it comes to working the boards and forechecking, Kaapo Kakko gets a solid B grade.  But when the Rangers drafted him second overall, they weren’t selecting the next Jesper Fast, they were drafting the next Patrik Laine.  Kakko is a goal scorer who isn’t scoring and the only saving grace is his work ethic and his board work.  The question among the fan base is whether the Rangers have put him in a place to succeed.  With 24 goals in 159 games, that’s plainly not enough, but with 46 minutes on the power play this season, he has been on the ice almost a third of the time compared to the players on the first unit.

Dryden Hunt is playing the role he was signed for, to be a physical player who can score every once in a while.  He’s the perfect example of a player who was signed for one role and has been thrust into another one when he found himself playing the right wing with Artemi Panarin and Ryan Strome.  On a defensively sound team his plus/minus is -8, the worst among Ranger forwards, and believe it or not, his scoring is off from his pace last season.

Nils Lundkvist    C

Because he played in 25 games, Nils Lundkvist gets a grade instead of an incomplete.   For a 21-year-old from Sweden, making his debut in North America, he has actually played pretty well.  More was expected of him offensively, but he has given us glimpses of the stickhandling and shot that made him one of the Rangers’ top defense prospects.  He’s down in Hartford, where he should have probably started the season. He will be back.

Libor Hajek C

You have to give him credit, he patiently sat on the sidelines for 26 games and stepped right in when he got his opportunity.  Unfortunately, when he got that opportunity he showed that he is not the player the Rangers thought they were getting when they made the big trade with Tampa in 2018.  He’s good, but not great and fills the role of depth defenseman, but except for the risk of a waivers loss, he has been passed on the depth chart. With only nine games this season, he could easily fall into the “Incomplete” grade, but we’ve seen enough to assign a “C”.

Patrik Nemeth   C

As a third pair defenseman with experience, Patrik Nemeth fits the bill.  He is a decent penalty killer and served as a mentor first to Nils Lundkvist and now to Braden Schneider.  Signed to a three-year contract for $2.5 million a year, he is overpaid and the term is too long.  With Nemeth, you are getting what was expected, but this is a signing the team will regret in the long run.

Alexis Lafrenière C-

This is an unfair grade.  Saddled with overly high expectations, this 20-year-old has not been the wunderkind that everyone thought he would be.  Is it his fault?  Or is he simply not the player everyone in the hockey world thinks he was?  Of course, the answer is it is too soon to know.  However, you cannot get away from the feeling that the Rangers are not helping his development.  He bounces around the lineup like a yo-yo, is asked to play the off wing and is way down the depth chart when it comes to forwards.   Unfortunately for Lafrenière, the New York Rangers were probably the worst team that could have drafted him with Panarin and Kreider firmly ensconced on the left side for years to come.  Figuring out how to get out of this mess is a priority for Chris Drury.  Until he does, the kid is an underachiever.

The not ready for prime time players

The Rangers have a number of players who get the Incomplete grade. They are refugees from the Taxi Squad or on the Hartford express and they’ve all played a few games this season, but not enough to warrant a letter grade.

We will rank the “Incompletes” in terms of their brief performances, noting that with more ice time, these assessments can change.  And yes, based on his four games in the NHL, Braden Schneider is headed for an “A” grade.

1. Braden Schneider
2. Keith Kinkaid
3. Anthony Greco
4. Morgan Barron
5. Zac Jones
6. Tim Gettinger
7. Jonny Brodzinski
8. Adam Huska
9. Jarred Tinordi

The management staff

Gerard Gallant A

Gerard Gallant is just what the doctor ordered.  He is a veteran coach who protects his players and maintains an even keel, not matter what the outcome is.  Of course, a 26-11-4 record will do that for you.

It’s hard to criticize that record, but Gallant has shown an over-reliance on his top players and a tendency to favor players he knows well from prior experiences.  Gallant was hired to win hockey games and that is what he is doing.  We’re not saying that player development doesn’t matter, but his lineup deployment has sometimes been questionable in terms building for the future.

Mike Kelly, Gord Murphy  A+

As far as his staff, the special teams are doing just fine, near the top of the league.  Mike Kelly runs the power play and is Gallant’s alter ego.  Gord Murphy has the penalty killers and defense near the top.

Chris Drury  B

The jury is out on Chris Drury’s performance.  He gets an “A” for hiring Gerard Gallant.  His oversight of the prospects has been solid with Braden Schneider the best case for a good grade. His free agent signings have been a relative “meh” with Barclay Goodrow and Dryden Hunt in the positive column and Patrik Nemeth ultimately as negative.  As far as trades, Ryan Reaves was a winner and the Sammy Blais injury has made the Buchnevich deal a disaster.

While Drury gets a B for a team that is near the top of the NHL, his true grade will be determined by what he does at the trade deadline and after this season as he builds the Rangers into a true Stanley Cup contender.  Stay tuned.

A final word

Grading players is an easy exercise.  Statistics, performance and results all factor in along with the eye test.  Do you agree?  Disagree?  Feel free to weigh in with your own grades.  Make the arguments.  It’s what being a fan is all about.