Heading into the season there were high hopes for Braden Schneider, a young defenseman who'd been dealing with a torn labrum in his shoulder for two seasons. This injury wasn't public, and it provided some context for his underwhelming play. He was a limited participant in training camp and the preseason, and has appeared in all of the team's games up to this point. His poor play has gone under the radar, and with the team starving for offense from the back end, it is time to start a conversation on how much longer he should be a permanent fixture in the lineup.
The Rangers' right side above Schneider is set
Adam Fox is the Rangers' No. 1 defenseman, and his spot on the top pair is his for as long as he wants it. Behind him is Will Borgen, a defender I've been critical of in the past, and someone who has had quite a strong start to the season. Both players are set in their role, and that means that the Schneider has no potential upward mobility. Because of that, it means that the team can be a bit creative in how they look at their third pair, and there's no reason to have one player in the lineup each and every game.
Schneider has averaged 18:16 and has a goal, three assists, and four points in 17 games. When digging a bit deeper, he ranks 19th out of 20 qualified skaters with a 51.29 xGF%, 16th with a 46.82 CF%, and 18th with 41.02 GF%. Schneider's only got 73 points in 303 career games, 21 of which came last season which was a career high. The Rangers seemingly thought he could be someone who provided tertiary offense, but that hasn't exactly panned out. Instead he's being used as a defensive defenseman, and he's doing a poor job of that.
Per HockeyViz, the Rangers surrendered +0.10 xGA/60 when he's on the ice, which is four percent above the league average. That could be ignored a bit if he was generating some offense, but that's not the case. He isn't decisive when he has the puck on his stick, and has five takeaways to 17 giveaways thus far. He's doing all this while averaging a career high in minutes, and it is possible that the increase is exposing him as a player.
Scott Morrow should get a chance sooner rather than later
It is possible that the Rangers want to see more from Morrow in Hartford before they call him up. He's got just a goal and an assist in nine games with the club, and that could be looked at as a negative. I wouldn't be concerned by that production, because he's proven that he can contribute offensively before. He put up three 30 point seasons at UMass, and he posted a line of 13-26-39 in 52 games with the Chicago Wolves last season as an AHL rookie.
What is important is his overall skillset, and it is important for the Rangers to see what he can do in Mike Sullivan's system at the AHL level. Morrow had a goal and five assists in 14 games with the Carolina Hurricanes, and that's pretty decent production.
The bigger picture is about supporting Fox, and finding out who can be a help this season
For the Rangers to be at their absolute best, the are going to need defenders not named Adam Fox provide offense. It is better for the Rangers to get a sense of what Morrow is capable of now, because if they don't think he's going to be the guy they can start trying to find someone now. The NHL trade deadline is later this season because of the Olympic break, and some teams may try and do their shopping early. This is not to say that Morrow is doomed if he looks bad at the NHL level, but they need to rule him out as an option for this season.
The Rangers already have a good idea of what Schneider is capable of. For that reason they should start to expert a bit and try different options out like they have done rotating Matthew Robertson and Urho Vaakanainen on the left side. To do that they'd need to free up a spot on the roster, and that would require making a decision on who is the better overall fit on the left side for the third pair. It appears that job is Vaakanainen's for now, so that would mean Robertson could return to Hartford to make room for Morrow. It remains to be seen what will happen, but the clock should be ticking. The Rangers have already taken steps to improve their forward depth and balance, and there's no reason they can't shift their focus to the bottom pair.