1. Fire Lindy Ruff. The defense has been a dumpster fire. Part of it is lack personnel but the system/scheme has been absolute garbage and so has the usage. Replace with an internal option such as Jeff Beukeboom or another smart external hire. Don’t really know the market for assistant coaches too well.
2. Hire Steve Yzerman or John Davidson as President of Hockey Ops. Both have build good things at their respective franchises and hey if they get JD maybe Panarin would be even more tempted to come...
3. Clean house at the AHL level. Hartford has been a disaster and players that should be progressing nicely have not found any success. Replace staff with developmental minds.
4. Draft: In this scenario Rangers win the lottery but in all likely good they’ll be picking 6th or 7th. Assuming the top 5 are Hughes, Kakko, Poldkolzin, Byram, Dach (which seems like the consensus top 5) i’d want Cozens, Boldy, or Zegras in that order. But I won’t complain as long as it’s not Broberg or Turcotte (both good players but not at 6 or 7). In regards to the rest of the picks, I’d fill out the prospect pool with shoot first wingers, and two way RD, two pick holes in our farm system. The Namestnikov Trade happens at the Draft. A middle 6 forward who can produce next to a star (Draisaital-McDavid-Vladdy would be a hell of a line for them), and an impressive young goalie who is at worst a great backup for two good prospects and a mid round pick. Fair value imo. Ranges are able to clear some cap and fill it their prospect pool even more
5. FA: Panarin or bust. They have the money and supposedly Panarin is interested. We’re really not to far out from contending. This roster as constructed could steal a wild card. He can be “the guy” in a major franchise which are about to hit their window (I’d say 1year our from playoffs, 2/3 years from legitimate contention) and all for a huuuuuuge amount of money. Another then that there’s not many more holes to fill. If there not able to sign Panarin, I would prefer to keep the cap flexibility. Skinner and other UFAs are great players but I’m wary of giving out big ole contracts to UFAs unless their studs like Panarin. Might seem some low risk high reward signings for depth (think Desharnais, Pouliot, Stralman from times past)
6. RFAs: I would start by giving ADA and Buch long term contracts, at a fair or under market value cap hit (ie Arvidsson). They’ve proven their value and that their part of the future and they’ll only get better with more usage. If you bridge em you only raise their price for when you do give them the long term contract. I could see the argument against ADAs contract and a bridge for him wouldn’t be their worst. He could definitely prove that he can do what he’s done this season more consistently. Pionk and Lemeiux give a bridge. Pionk was mostly horrid but I’m not ready to give up on him, plus the Hájek-Pionk pair was damn good in a small sample size. Lemeiux has impressed still need to see more (May have lowballed him, feel free to yell at me if I did haha) the rest we can sign to league minimum or close to it. Claesson is the perfect 7th defenseman and I would love to see him rotate in and out with Staalsy throughout the season.
7. Brendan Smith Trade. An effort to move cap out a year earlier. Not sure if the value is fair but Smith would imo be a more valuable player to the Sabres then Sobotka at this point. Provide some snarl and the ability to play d or forward. Also feel free to yell at me...
8. Personally I’d like to see the rangers extend Kreids. Does 5x6.25 get it done. Panarin and Kreider as your top 2 LW for the foreseeable future is fantastic. He’s a leader and part of the core.
8. Roster construction: top line speaks for itself: two elite players and a top rookie. The second line is also solid. Future franchises player between two excellent top 6 wingers. The bottom six is fairly interchangeable but I’d like to see Chytil given as many minutes as possible. I’d have Andersson and Howden fight for a roster spot and have the other start I’m the AHL. Obviously, if we don’t Hughes you can run Zib-Chytil-Howden-Andersson down the middle. In regards to the D, Skjei-ADA I think will be a very balanced high octane pairing. Hoping ADA can continue improving defensively (give him a chance on the PK) while continuing to put up points and that Brady can be a consistent two way guy, he’s got the tools. The second pair is meh. I think Shatty will have a better season and Staal can eat minutes. Fairly balanced but could def get exposed. Swap Claesson for Staal every once in a while we should be fine. Third pair is most exciting for me. Hájek looked like a big part of the future in his short time before being injured and I think Pionk still has more to give. That pairing was good and I think will continue to be good with the proper deployment. And goalies, I’d split starts 60 starts for Hank and 20ish for Shesty. Get a good look at Igor while also letting Hank keep the reigns. I’d sign a veteran goalie (Budaj) who can play backup hockey Incase Shesty needs some seasoning in the AHL
9. First Call Ups form Hartford after potentially another selloff: Rykov and Lindgren at D, Gropp, Andersson, and Meskanen at forward.
I think the team could sneak in as a wild card but for the futures sake I hope they have one more year of suckage and get another top 10 pick. Let me know what you guys think...
ALSO: In regards to the Adam Fox situation, I ain’t giving up a 1st or 2nd for a guy that wants to sign here anyway. A third, maybe, but nothing more. Let him get his degree at Harvard and then sign in FA..
Getting rid of sobotka would be nice, but no interest in smith. The goalie doesnt add much here and the not exactly young forward prospects have very similar numbers. So you basically save a million dollars in cap for a year, then about 4.5 a year for 2 years, and all we get is a 2nd rounder. Assuming sobotka and smith are equally useless anonymous henchmen, i would politely decline.
Getting rid of sobotka would be nice, but no interest in smith. The goalie doesnt add much here and the not exactly young forward prospects have very similar numbers. So you basically save a million dollars in cap for a year, then about 4.5 a year for 2 years, and all we get is a 2nd rounder. Assuming sobotka and smith are equally useless anonymous henchmen, i would politely decline.
Smith only has one more year then Sobotka. So you’d be eating 1 this year and 4.5 the year after. For a potentially high 2nd. But your point still stands and it’s totally fair...
Getting rid of sobotka would be nice, but no interest in smith. The goalie doesnt add much here and the not exactly young forward prospects have very similar numbers. So you basically save a million dollars in cap for a year, then about 4.5 a year for 2 years, and all we get is a 2nd rounder. Assuming sobotka and smith are equally useless anonymous henchmen, i would politely decline.
the thing is smith's buyout is surprisingly cheap, either this year or next.. and he's actually been a decent depth winger surprisingly, he's not worth 4.5 but still
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