SalarySwishSalarySwish
Avatar

dmermz

Member Since
Jul. 11, 2017
Favourite Team
New York Rangers
2nd Favourite Team
Edmonton Oilers
Forum Posts
23
Posts per Day
0.0
Forum: Armchair-GMJul. 27, 2017 at 12:38 p.m.
Thread: Holden for Shore
Agree with nearly all of your assessment of the Rangers. The move to bench Buch was a direct reflection on needing forwards who can really help out in the defensive zone because we had snow angels sliding all over the place and d men holding onto the puck and getting pinned into their zone.

With that seemingly addressed, Buch and Vesey have to be given every opportunity to grow into solid contributors this year. I would actually venture to say that the season depends on what you get out of them along with Hayes. The other forwards: Krieder, Miller, Zucc...on and on, you know what your gonna get. Even if Zibanijad takes another step in his growth, the three youngest forwards are going to be the real difference makers.

Marc Staal is the big problem for this team atm. While I think he might be useable with minimal minutes and sheltered usage, I just don't trust AV to do that. If he and Holden are on this team come puck-drop, you can bet they are the third pairing and Deangelo is rotting in the press box within a week. it wasn't that long ago that we were watching Holden and Staal in horror while Skjei and Smith sat on the bench.
Holden/Bereglazov/Deangelo will get the job done as a third pair, so long as Staal finds a way to disappear (not sure how that happens sadly).

This idea though that bitching about Hayes as the 2c, I am not sure that is the point. Without a viable replacement for Hayes as the 3c, or Stepan as the 2c (moving Hayes back to 3c), the team has a hole. There is no way around that, it's simple math. To expect a 19 year old to come in and contribute 40 points while taking on all the duties of an NHL center is...daydreaming about scratch-offs at best! Yet, I would take this before bringing in a guy who contributes basically 0 in the offensive end. Shot suppression, corsi and all that aside, I still don't see how Shore fills the hole either. Let's remember the Rangers recent successful seasons have come mainly due to forward depth (4 useable lines) and Hank. If you told me Desharnais is a 40-50 point center this year, then maybe.

Rolling this way into the season feels like two steps forward/one step back. Just mo.