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Trade Winds Blowing?

September 5, 2013, 7:36 AM ET [96 Comments]
Jan Levine
New York Rangers Blogger • RSSArchiveCONTACT
By Jim Reilly

Eklund’s post speculating that the new Ranger’s coach Alain Vigneault is “quietly pushing for a big trade to change the Rangers culture” leaves me a bit skeptical. After all, this is a team that has played 32 playoff games the last two seasons and has won three Game Sevens. I don’t believe that Alain Vigneault was brought into the organization to re-shuffle the deck. I believe for the most part the management of the Rangers organization thought the personnel is here and the team needed a new voice, someone who can open things up offensively to let some of the players on this team show their creativity, to get this team finally over the top. If, once again, major player moves were to be made, they may as well have kept John Tortorella as head coach. The Rangers aren’t about to blow this up to change the culture personnel wise of one of the more successful teams in the league the last couple of years. However, some tweaks in the lineup seem inevitable when looking at the cap and the excess roster players in certain positions.

When looking at the Ranger blue line one thing that is strikingly evident is the excess number of left handed shooting defensemen as opposed to right handed shots. There are four left handed defenseman who arguably are among the top 5 defensemen on this team. Marc Staal, Ryan McDonagh, Michael Del Zotto and John Moore all would be in the lineup every night if the roster stayed the same entering the season as it does today and all shoot lefty. This is a big year for Michael Del Zotto. He is a RFA next summer and he needs to find a consistent game on both ends of the ice. It would be a detriment to him and his development if he is forced to play the right side, as was the case often last year when the Rangers had no choice. There is no question he stuggles in his own end when playing the right side and his confidence suffers. Interestingly enough, the Rangers added two depth defensemen this summer in Justin Falk and Aaron Johnson who are also left handed AND college defenseman Conor Allen, who signed with the Rangers as a free agent this past March is a lefty as well. Could a trade be made to take some of the strength from the left side to help solidify the right side, which currently only has Dan Girardi and Anton Stralman as definites at this point? It’s possible. It was a critical problem that contributed heavily to the Rangers terrible power play last season, and Vigneault has already publically stated he believes in a mixture of righty and lefty shots on the PP. We shall see.

Up front, the Rangers most pressing situation is the need to get leading point scorer Derek Stepan signed to a new contract. Stepan is the team’s best home grown forward of at least the last 20 years. A new system under a new coach, and the potential very real that both Ryan Callahan and Carl Hagelin will miss the first month of the season all make it imperative this gets done ASAP. There are some excess forwards that can be moved out to create both cap space and additional roster room. Brian Boyle, Taylor Pyatt, along with guys who have already passed through waivers earlier in the summer in Arron Asham and Darroll Powe all seemingly could be had at this point. But, the major impact forwards of this team are here. Brad Richards is expected to be back to his old self after a summer of heavy training in a more open offensive system and rookie Chris Kreider is expected to make a significant contribution.

Overall, if the Rangers make any trades by the time the season starts, I expect some tweaks, maybe something fairly noteworthy on the blue line, but nothing drastic. I wouldn’t be holding your breath as a Ranger fan clicking on Hockeybuzz waiting for the big Ranger shakeup Vigneault style. I think what you see now when you look at the roster is pretty much what you will get. Just bring on this season, can’t wait.
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