I am one of the few people who thinks Lafreniere will really struggle on NYR. The coach will most likely put him with Howden & the Bitteto-JJ pairing. He is going to get crushed at even strength.

I don’t think the rangers will be worse than last year. They’re goaltending should improve seeing as they’ll be running two young goalies who desire to be starters (shes obviously has a huge step up and more potential but georgiev’s got game)

They also get Laf who all things considered should be very good (“unproven” but he was first overall and there is no worrying signs, and he’s a more sure bet than some of the recent first OA selections like the hischier Nolan, Hughes kakko drafts). Im not a Laf fan boy, he’s not my favourite player from his draft nor do I think he’ll be the best from his draft.

They definitely aren’t gonna be a team who should get a top 3 spot on their div. But they could fight for a wildcard or something whenever we find out the formats. Not a lottery team but not a playoff contender.

Rangers have two solid goalies they just didn’t improve at all, outside of adding the first overall pick.

Yeah they have bad center depth, they are going to have to balance out the lines this year to be successful.

Bad*?
Agreed for both but I think VAN can still get in the playoffs.

Ya of course.

I'm not so sure about that.

Yeah, there's a lot of potential for regression with the Rangers. Just off the top of my head, they've got at least 3 fwds and 1 Dman who had career best season by wide margins, as well as Fox who was one of the best Dmen in the league last year as a rookie. There's likely going to be some drop off. However, they did also add Laf, and like you said Kakko had just an awful year so we should see some improvement there. I think they hold pretty steady to what they were last year, but you never know.

Kakko was the worst player in the league. I mean I would have given it to Hughes but the Jack Johnson stepped on the ice. And the rangers signed him

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.blueshirtbanter.com/platform/amp/2020/2/9/21127931/youre-allowed-to-be-a-little-anxious-about-kaapo-kakko-rangers-barkov-dahlin-pastrnak

I agree that other than Nate Schmidt, the Canucks didn't go forward anywhere, and Holtby for Markstrom doesn't look likely to be an improvement, but in the same division as the three California teams and Arizona, Vancouver almost starts the season in playoff contention by default.

However, I'm hoping for Anaheim to be a surprise team this year, especially if Minnesota is the 8th team in the Pacific.

Late edit: Another senior moment. I forgot that Vancouver would be in the solely Canadian division.