Derek Stepan
If you go to a Rangers game, you will see someone with a Derek Stepan jersey. It’s just who he is. The ultimate professional who earned his rewards by playing the right way. That will be a theme for these Canes players I talk about here you see. But if we talk about Stepan’s time as a Ranger, he was able to do stuff in New York that he has just failed to do anywhere else in the league.
During his time as a New York Ranger, Stepan recorded 5 different 50-point seasons. That doesn’t include the 48-game 2013 season where he had 44. He was an absolute menace as a member of the New York Rangers, placing 9th in Selke voting once upon a time and continually getting votes for the Lady Byng award. This is the kind of player that you want to have around a hockey club because of these attributes.
Seven years on Broadway saw the Hastings, Minnesota native record 515 games for the Rangers in which he tallied 128 goals and 232 assists for 360 points. That’s no small total and it makes you wonder what he could have done if the Rangers didn’t trade him and a goaltender that we will get to later because he is also on this Carolina roster to Arizona for Tony DeAngelo.
Since getting to Carolina, he’s not been able to put up the offensive totals he did as a member of the New York Rangers but that defensive stability and sportsmanship has not left him and it has made him a great fit for Carolina. Stepan was one of the core pieces for the run to the finals in 2014 by this Blueshirts squad and a lot of fans would be quite happy to see him raise the cup after all this time.