Mike Sullivan has interesting Braden Schneider thoughts for second September in a row

There are quotes you read that are so perplexing you can’t help but laugh out loud. That was certainly the reaction after hearing Mike Sullivan’s latest musings regarding Braden Schneider.

The funny thing is, this isn't the first time Sullivan has offered an unintentionally comical assessment of the 25-year-old blueliner. In fact, it's quickly becoming an annual September tradition and it only hammers home why Schneider's long-term future in New York has essentially evaporated.

Sullivan lauds Schneider's dedication

For those who missed it, via Peter Baugh of The Athletic:

Mike Sullivan said Braden Schneider's "care factor is through the roof," and he thinks the Rangers additions on D will allow players to share responsibility more.

"Maybe one of the guys that's going to benefit most from that is Schneids," Sullivan said.

In all honesty... it really shouldn't matter how high Schneider's "care factor" is. He's on a one-year deal relegated to the third pair which in all likelihood will mark the end of his tenure with the organization given the moves they made this past summer. That Sullivan is going to lengths, again, to talk about Schneider and where he falls in the overall hierarchy of the team on defense is one of the funniest backhanded compliments I have seen in quite a while.

The TL/DR of Sullivan's statement, or at least how I interpret it, is that Schneider means well and really cares alot. That being said, the Rangers upgraded their defense and created an enviroment in which Schneider will have to do less, and individually he will benefit him the most from it.

Sullivan had interesting quote about Schneider this time last year

This sentiment isn't all that surprising, and in a way it builds off Sullivan's pearls of wisdom from last season. Just to refresh everyone's memory, prior to last season Sullivan was asked about ranking the defenders on the team, and he had a creative way of talking about Schneider.

Once again via Baugh, Sullivan said, "If we were to rank our defenseman top to bottom, we believe that Schneids is amongst the top four. But that doesn’t mean he has to play in the top four." He later added they would get Schneider additional ice time through special teams and moving players around during a game.

As we came to find out, Schneider in fact wasn't one of the Rangers' top four defenders last year in ability. When Adam Fox was sidelined for an extended period with an injury, Schneider was given the biggest opportunity of his career to date acting as the team's top right-handed defenseman.

In the 1,407 minutes he skated, a huge chunk of which came on the top pair, Schneider finished with a 46.28 GF%, a 45.45 CF%, and a 44.61 xGF% courtesy of Evolving-Hockey. If these stats are new to you, 50% is average, and ideally you want to be as far above that threshold as possible. Fox is a defender who routinely posts numbers in the high 50s, and in some cases he's been in the 60s.

The long story short, if you skipped over the analytics, was that it went horribly and that he failed to meet the moment. The Rangers realized they couldn't have a repeat of that again this season, so they went out and got Sean Durzi to play on the second pair this season. They also also added Marcus Pettersson on the left side, and the duo are expected to log big minutes at 5v5 as well as on the penalty kill.

Schneider went into the offseason realistic about his situation

It was quite telling that Schneider was pretty open and honest about his performance on breakup day, and that he might be moved.

At the time Schneider remarked, "I wish I would've done a bit more to help us win, and that's something I'll be reflecting on and making sure that next year is better."

He later added, "It's something that is out of my control. I love being a Ranger. I'm very proud to be a Ranger. It feels like home here. I know I'll be doing whatever I can to be the best player I can be and I hope it's here."

As fate would have it, Schneider got his wish and returned on a one-year deal. There still one more game of the preseason to go, but it appears he's going to start the season on the third pair with No. 5 overall pick Alberts Smits. In many respects this is Schneider's last chance, and my only hope is that if he shows the same mistakes as last year that the Rangers will react quickly and not allow Smits to be pulled down by him.

We will soon see how much Schneider's "care factor" translates to winning games, but I feel confident saying that we've seen enough in his five seasons of play to this point to have a pretty good idea how things will go. Hopefully I am wrong and end up eating my words.

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