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High pick benefit of fade, two NHL trades, J.T. Miller plus more |
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The Rangers are in the midst of three days off before resuming action Thursday in Montreal. New York plays at home the next day versus Minnesota followed by Jean Ratelle night at MSG on Sunday against Detroit. If the Blueshirts were in contention, this mini-break would be welcomed, but with the team already playing out the string, it just prolongs the agony.
Larry Brooks in today’s NY Post wrote several points that we have discussed many times. First and foremost is that the main - and possibly only - benefit to the Rangers collapse and plunge down the standings is the potential for a high draft pick. Selecting a player with that low of a number in the draft has been a rarity for New York. As Brooks points out, the Rangers haven’t had a top-five since 1999 when then-general manager Neil Smith traded up to fourth-overall in order to grab Pavel Brendl. In that same draft, New York selected Jamie Lundmark, so the team struck out twice.
Brooks adds an aspect I didn’t know, as Smith sent an essentially equivalent package to the Lightning as he could have sent to Hartford in 1996 for Brendan Shanahan. Of course, Shanny came to the Rangers many years later. But let your mind muse over what could have been with Mark Messier, Wayne Gretzky and Shanahan in your top-six.
New York has lacked a franchise skater probably since taking Brian Leetch ninth overall. Henrik Lundqvist is excluded, because while the Rangers lucked out getting him in the seventh round and have done fairly well late recently, they have failed to take that game changer up front. In 2003, selecting 12th, the club chose Hugh Jessiman, passing on among others, Ryan Getzlaf, Brent Burns, Zach Parise and Ryan Kesler. In 2010, team management determined that a hulking d-man was needed, resulting in the selection of Dylan McIlrath over Cam Fowler (12), Jaden Schwartz (14) and Vladimir Tarasenko (16). Evgeni Kuznetsov went 26th to Washington, while New York did end up with another first rounder, signing Kevin Hayes, who went 24th to the Blackhawks. Schwartz, Tarasenko and Kuznetsov may not be ‘franchise’ players but they are top-six forwards at a minimum.
A high draft pick guarantees nothing. As Brooks notes, the Oilers have had four firsts-overall, a third and a fourth over the past eight years, and have one Western Conference Semi-Final to show for it and have regressed this season. In addition, the Islanders selected within the top five, five times within a six-year period beginning with John Tavares in 2009, and they’re still no more than a bubble team. Basically that means luck is a huge component of drafting as well as having top-quality talent available in the year you select high.
This season, the upper part of the draft looks fairly strong. Rasmus Dahlin looks to be the prime choice. The top-five includes Andrei Svechnikov, Brady Tkachuk, Filip Zadina and Adam Boqvist while Quinton Hughes and/or Evan Bouchard could slip into the top-five. Thinking about a possible Buchnevich-Chytil-Zadina line almost makes this year’s debacle palatable.
Trades started to trickle in Monday. Blackhawks defenseman Michal Kempny went to the Capitals for a third-round pick. A third-pairing, d-man who doesn’t score netted a third rounder. We would hope that Nick Holden, who unlike Kempny will be an unrestricted free agent, will bring back a similar return. The issue is that Holden’s play has really declined even further this year, despite playing much of the year with Ryan McDonagh before the Rangers’ captain was sidelined.
Philadelphia, desperate for a goalie with Brian Elliott out five more weeks after core surgery and having lost Michal Neuvirth for “weeks” per GM Ron Hextall, acquired Petr Mrazek from Detroit on Monday. The two teams had been engaged recently, but talks reportedly broke off, but Neuvirth’s injury reinvigorated the conversations, despite Alex Lyon’s fine work in relief on Sunday. Detroit received a fourth rounder, but if Philly makes playoffs and Mrazek wins five games for the team in the regular season, 4th becomes a 3rd. If PHI advances to CF, and Mrazek wins six playoff games, the 3rd becomes a 2nd. The deal also included a conditional third in 2019, the latter only occurring if Mrazek re-signs with Philly. With Elliott and Neuvirth both expected to return and Carter Hart plus Anthony Stolarz looming, Mrazek remaining in Philly seems unlikely. With Philly ‘desparate,’ Hextall did pretty well while Detroit likely didn’t get enough, even though Mrazek’s play has been uneven at best.
J.T. Miller, a first rounder in 2011 and a polarizing figure amongst the Rangers’ fanbase and in this blog, started Sunday’s game on the fourth line with Cody McLeod on the left and Peter Holland in the middle. Hayes received a similar line placement Saturday, both moves can be best described as head scratchers. Miller is the Nuke Laloosh of the Rangers, million dollar arm, ten-cent head. Defensive zone miscues and silly penalties are two hallmarks of his game, neither of which have been remediated as he matures. The offensive talent is clearly there but the production is negated by his on-ice mental and physical mistakes. I am ny yet ready to move on and maybe a new coach will help Miller get to the next level. Playing or punishing him with a fourth line placement doesn’t appear to be the answer. I have no issue with tough love, as it did help Miller to a certain extent and made Hayes better defensively, but skating with McLeod and Holland does nothing to aid Miller’s growth.
For those just waiting for the shoe to fall, Brooks’ final component of his column likely gave many a smile of they believe in history repeating itself and omens: “the Rangers have lost four straight in regulation for the second time in three weeks. The last time an Alain Vigneault team dropped five straight in regulation? That would have been Nov. 10-18 in 2000 over the coach’s final five games behind the Canadiens’ bench.”
New York Rangers Blogger • 
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