I think this is pretty much ideal but I do wonder if Quinn would play such a young 3rd line. I can see them keeping Vlad and playing him on the 3LW and moving Andersson down to 4C.

I also don’t think Staal will be scratched but we can hope.

Part of me thinks this, as well. But enough is enough. Between him and Shattenkirk still being around, they are already blocking the likes of Rykov, Lindgren and maybe even Reunanen.

You can play the "He's a Veteran locker room presence" all you want. There is not one Defenseman on this Roster (as well as some of the kids) that he deserves playing time over. If gets 30 games or so, that's fine. But the Marc Staal situation needs to come to an end.

Maybe move Lemieux to 3LW, Andersson to 4C, and then Nieves or Mckegg at 4LW?

Yeah I totally get where you are coming from and I agree that he is blocking the younger kids and should not be playing over them.

I think that helps or maybe even go a step further and switch Buch and Kravtsov.

In the long term, that should be a No Brainer. But for Year 1, I figured Buchnevich would have a leg up as Kravtsov gets his 1st taste of the NHL. If Kravtsov looks good enough from the start, I have no issue with him going right to the 2nd line.

I’d also buy out staal...

Why do was want to keep Kreider?? I am not paying him 7m a year to score 45 points.

Why? We don't need the cap space until 2021 and his salary is off the books then along with Shatty and Smith. I'm not buying anyone out.

That's probably the right call. I keep going back and forth. As nasty as it would be these next couple years, his contract would hurt later on as the younger ELC's expire. I have just been so excited the way this Offseason has panned out, trying to keep as much of the band together as possible.

If he agreed to a reasonable 4 year deal, I would keep him. But that probably won't happen.

Agreed. After the Rangers clear out Namestnikov and at least one of Strome or Smith (and probably Kreider) , they will be set to wait out Staal's contract.

I don't like Staal on the roster, but they will have enough Cap space to wait his contract out. Better to do that than to extend his payments for 4 years.

Either way..I looked at the numbers and it really only is bad for one year ..but I understand what your saying I just can’t stand watching this guy anymore..