Ice is down at Madison Square Garden. A chill is in the air first thing in the morning. That means only one thing – it’s Pumpkin Spice season. Oh wait, that actually starts now in July, nevermind. It means September has started. New York Rangers hockey, like the rest of the league, gets underway.
Players report to training camp this week and the rookies see their first action in the NHL Rookie Showcase & Tournaments on September 12 against the Flyers. We will get our first look at coach Mike Sullivan as the head coach, as we saw him as an assistant years ago. Similar on an inverse vein with David Quinn, who we know was the team’s head coach and joined Sullivan here in New York as his assistant.
Rangers in a Reset or Rebuild
Throughout August, Hockey Hot Stove’s Mike Fink ranked the rebuilding NHL teams closest to contending. The Columbus Blue Jackets topped his list. He did not have the Rangers on his list of 12 because the Blueshirts are not in rebuild mode despite missing the playoffs last year. Rather, the team wants a reset under new head coach Mike Sullivan.
Corey Pronman. did a similar exercise for The Athletic. The question to be answered that drove the rankings was: “Who do I think is likeliest to win the Stanley Cup sometime within the next 10 years?”
Pronman’s rankings were not kind to the Blueshirts. He ranked New York 15th of the 16 teams he included.
The pipeline point he makes is fair and accurate, as Brennan Othmann and Gabe Perreault are not set in stone with roles on the team. His reference premium positions likely are center, which is a major area of need, and defensemen, where EJ Emery and Drew Fortescue project to third line, defensive minded players and not elite scorers. I do think he is undervaluing the top-six but his overall assessment, especially on goaltending propping up the team, is on point.
“The Rangers are in a precarious position. This isn’t a bad NHL team, but it’s been a roster propped up by goaltending for a long time. Beyond the net, the Rangers have good players but not enough of them. Their system is quite bare, too, especially at the premium positions. There was a window of competitiveness for this organization, but it feels like it’s closing, and it may be time for a rebuild-on-the-fly version 2.0.”
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