We continue our selection of the perfect Rangers team for 1988-present by selecting the second defensive pair. Sunday, we selected the first duo, neither of whom should have done as a surprise, either individually for the left and right blueliner or in terms of pairing. Last Friday, I posted the forwards following the completion of the voting. The forward results are below along with who was selected for right and left defensemen as well as pairings building two teams.
In line with the forwards, below you will find a list of possible second pairing defensemen, both left and right, for 1988 to present. I have listed the names alphabetically and then posted the poll for each spot. Once the overall team is selected, I then will list all the roster proposals you posted in the prior blog comments along with mine. It be interesting to see how the general consensus compares to each of our selections.
In the poll, I have listed lines for selection to compare to the individual options, as it might also be intriguing to see how the ‘made’ up trios compare to some actual lines utilized by the Blueshirts. In addition, some overlap exists between those already proposed as possible first line options to players listed below for second line based on the names and their role on the team. Therefore, a handful of names you see below were also presented as first line options and I have noted where that is the case.
Also, I will get a blog up on the “rebuild… and path forward. Thought I had covered this previously and exhausted my views on it, but will tackle the topic again. I believe the majority of us – with a few dissenters - are on the same page here, but that will become clearer based on the comments once the blog is posted.
A few reminders :
1) Cut off for eligibility is to be 170 games or two-plus seasons as a Ranger, but have used some leeway in a several instances. Once you get past the first liners, a substantive number of players that are options for the second and to a certain extent third line skated in far less than 170 games, so I am using 110 games as the cut-off point. This number was slightly modified for line combinations.
2) Overlap will exist between those listed as first team and then second team due to fluidity of d-man usage in games. Also, I may run the same blog a few times to pick the second team first line defenseman, even though I have tweaked the poll to allow for more than one player to be selected.
3) Selection should be based on their production and role in New York, not output while with other teams
4) If you feel I have missed any names, please let me know and I will add those to the poll. This is especially so for the first liners who readers feel are truly second liners and belong on the list for voting.
5) In the case of Ron Greschner, most of his production is from 71-87, therefore he will be listed there rather than in this blog, since he played just 113 games from ’88 forward.
Second pair, left defenseman: Michael del Zotto, Kevin Lowe, Ulf Samuelsson and Marc Staal
Second pair, right defenseman: Alexander Karpovtsev, Anton Stralman and Sergei Zubov
Second pair, line combinations: Lowe-Zubov Samuelsson-Karpovtsev Staal-Stralman
Forwards based on the vote:
First team: Adam Graves-Mark Messier-Jaromir Jagr Tony Granato-Petr Nedved-Theo Fleury Esa Tikkanen-Sergei Nemchinov-Sean Avery Brandon Prust-Brian Boyle-Jesper Fast
(I kept Avery in, based on his early play in New York. Following his departure and return, his play tailed off dramatically. I am still open to thoughts here as debated replacing Avery with Michael Grabner, who is on the second team below and sliding Niklas Sundstrom, who I think was far better player into the second team. Let me know your thoughts as this may be a change I make)
Defensemen based on the vote: Leetch-Beukeboom
Second team: Alexei Kovalev-Wayne Gretzky-Mike Gartner Brandon Dubinsky-Doug Weight-Tomas Sandstrom Carl Hagelin-Derick Brassard-Michael Grabner Darren Langdon-Dominic Moore-Joe Kocur
Defensemen based on the vote: McDonagh-Patrick
Line combinations: Graves-Messier-Kovalev Fleury-Lindros-York (FLY line) Tikkanen-Nemchinov-Matteau Gilbert-MacTavish-Kocur
Leetch-Beukeboom
Straka-Nylander-Jagr Dubinsky-Stepan-Callahan (the Young Americans) Zuccarello-Brassard-Pouliot Dorsett-Moore-Boyle
McDonagh-Girardi
With all the RFAs signed and Dustin Tokarski brought in to create competition for Alexandar Georgiev and Marek Mazanec to back up Henrik Lundqvist, I am not expecting much more traction elsewhere. Maybe we see a minor-league signing or player offered a PTO and a long-shot of a trade, but I am not expecting much until maybe next week or early September. Until then, open to blog ideas. We can play with line combinations - early hint, Kevin Hayes will not be on my fourth line - or focus elsewhere. Let me know what you are thinking and would want to see.