Lemieux, Miller, Barron, Jones, Nanne and a possible season restart date (Nanne)

Nanne

Lemieux, Miller, Barron, Jones, Nanne and a possible season restart date

By Jan Levine

Mar 17, 2020 • 11:21 pm

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As we are stuck in a form of purgatory - thank god MSG is re-airing games from this year and recent past and it's only a matter of time before we see historical contests - some Rangers' news has occurred the past few days. A suspension, a signing, some college honors and then information as to a possible future start date, which is still up in the air, trickled out. Not much but at least something to keep us interested. Just wait until this period in exile continues and we will be chomping at the bit for more.

Last Friday, Brendan Lemieux was rightfully hit with a suspension. It was a dirty, dangerous and unnecessary hit against Joonas Donskoi. Until play resumes or at least the season in some sort, a formal suspension won't be handed down, so right now, just a virtual one. I expect 1-2 games.

Once Wisconsin's season ended, we expected K'Andre Miller to sign with the Rangers. We found out late last week that was to be the case, with the signing made official Monday. The deal includes solid performance bonuses, which also was expected. Miller should start the season in Hartford, as he needs work defensively. He may joined there by Nils Lundkvist, who had a tremendous season in Sweden, and to me and others, projects to possibly be more of an impact blueliner than Miller.

Rick Carpinello wrote the following, which has a good summarization of where Miller was drafted and the future pipeline on defense for the Rangers. Looks like there is an abundance of future blueline riches for New York. If even only 2-3 hit, you have at least half a defense for the future, in addition to what currently exists.

The Rangers used the Boston Bruins’ first-round draft pick (from the Rick Nash trade) to trade up with Ottawa to No. 22 and select Miller in the 2018 draft in Dallas, having already picked winger Vitali Kravtsov ninth overall. They would also grab Lundkvist with Tampa Bay’s pick (from the Ryan McDonagh trade) at No. 28 overall.

Miller’s ceiling remains high, but he will have to compete with a deep left-side of the Rangers’ future defense chart that will include Ryan Lindgren (also from the Nash deal), Libor Hajek (also from the McDonagh deal), Yegor Rykov, Matthew Robertson, Zachary Jones, Tarmo Reunanen and others. It was that depth that allowed the Rangers to deal Brady Skjei at the deadline last month.

Marc Staal and Brendan Smith are the only holdovers on the left side, both entering the final years of their contracts. Righty Tony DeAngelo has also said that he’s comfortable on either side, which could be a possibility if the righty Lundkvist makes the jump. Robertson still has a year of junior eligibility left, so is not projected to turn pro until after next season

Morgan Barron, drafted 174th overall in 2017 and now at Cornell, was named a finalist for ECAC Player of the Year and Zachary Jones, a third rounder in 2019, was named to the Hockey East All-Rookie Team. I would expect Barron to sign with New York before too long, hopefully in the near term. He projects to be a third line winger with second line upside. Jones likely will spend at least one more year at UMass-Amherst before signing with the Rangers.

Tyler Nanne, drafted in fifth round in 2014 by the Rangers, signed an AHL deal with the Capitals. Good for Nanne, who missed two years due to injury. Had a feeling he might go elsewhere, but good for him landing a contract.

The CDC recommended cancelling all events for 50 or more people for the next eight weeks. This now takes us until mid-May at the earliest. Speculation is that we likely won't be looking at any sort of sports until after Memorial Day and possibly the summer.

A downstream impact of that announcement, as seen from TSN below, might be the resumption of the 2019-20 season in July/August, which if accurate, means no hockey four or close to five months. If you remember the fog game from years ago, that could be nothing if the playoffs start in the late summer. Given the cancellations of just all events, arenas should be open. If this is the direction that the NHL goes in, what would have to be decided is how many games will be played and how many teams make the playoffs. Resuming the season for at least a few games and having a playoffs would also result - beyond just awarding a Cup champion - to an increase in the cap, maybe not to the level proposed, but above the $81.5 million this year, which some feel could end up as the upper bound if play doesn't resume.

Chris Johnson on the CDC announcement and impact on the NHL:

Update: the above was posted before the below was reported. With this information, who knows what the impact will be to the league's plans. The next few days should be very telling based on number of possible cases and how widespread and reaching the virus is to the NHL community, especially after the news four Brooklyn Nets tested positive.

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