Quoting: saysthemachine
I think they’re gonna give Tambellini, Lindqvist, Meskanen, Howden, Ronning, Gettinger, and Lettieri a shot at camp as well. Because we have so many potential centers, I suspect that some that shine would be given a chance to at least go through preseason at the wing.
The success that Vegas has had I think will be influencing teams to give more of their guys longer looks. And since everyone is going younger and reaching out into Europe for potential hidden gems, I honestly think we’ll see the Rangers keep their young guys on 2-way deals at least for this upcoming season.
A few of the guys I mentioned above were major-junior/AHL/Euro studs in the last few years, so I can only hope they get a shot. I don’t think we have any defensemen that we can say the same about in our farm system at the moment, since we brought Pionk, Gilmour and DeAngelo up.
"Giving young guys a chance" or "Exploring European players more" is frankly a lazy conclusion to draw from Vegas' success.
Vegas' success is mainly from a few things:
1) Rip off Stupid GM's into giving you studs.
2) Go After High Possession Players who just never got appropriate minutes (Miller, McNabb, Schmidt were all top Possession players last year, while Marchessault, Perron, Haula, Neal and Smith were all some of the top Possession skaters for the past few years), pair these top guys with speedy players. And give those guys top minutes while leaving your slower, bigger guys on the bottom line.
3) Have absolute stud prospects. Tuch and Theodore were top prospects.
4) Have a coach that embraces a possession/carry heavy game plan.
So what have we done here:
1) Got rid of low possession defenseman (Pionk)
2) Added High Possession Skaters (JVR/Frolik/Labanc)
3) Brought in Speedy guys to complement high possession guys (AA/Milano)
4) Move Low possession guys to the bottom pair (Staal)
It remains to be seen if Quinn is a good coach for this team. But this roster as you see it here can certainly be a playoff one.