And here we are again, rejoining our regularly scheduled NHL off season already in progress. How very sweet it is to feel the anticipation and promise of an upcoming hockey season, instead of concerning ourselves with lawyer speak and the dread of more time lost.
With only three weeks before the New York Rangers open training camp at their Rye, New York facility, it seems appropriate to take a look at the storylines leading into the 2013-2014 82-game regular season. If you think all the loose ends have been tied up with just the hiring of a new coach, you’re a little out of your tree.
- Will Staying the Course Work? – Almost every other team in the newly minted Metropolitan Division has improved themselves through trade, draft or free agency. Rob Scuderi has come back from the West Coast to rejoin a Pittsburgh Penguins team he never wanted to leave in the first place. The Philadelphia Flyers improved their defense, adding Mark Streit and then boosted the offence picking up Vincent Lecavalier. Even the Carolina Hurricanes shored up their team. The Rangers added a little bit of depth by picking up Dominic Moore, who after handling a major family tragedy has not played one second of professional hockey in over a year. They also added Benoit Pouliot, who I have heard Habs fans call talented but lazy. I get that Glen Sather and Jeff Gorton believe that this team has a Stanley Cup in them, but there are still many questions.
- Will Alain Vigneault Succeed? – AV has had some time, contacted his players and assembled his staff. Assistants Ulf Samuelsson, Dan Lacroix, and associate coach Scott Arniel will join Vigneault on the bench this season to run a more offensively creative system they hope to instill this season. I suppose my biggest question here is how a player like captain Ryan Callahan will fit into a system like this? Callahan seemed genetically bred for John Tortorella’s black and blue system. It doesn’t mean that Callahan won’t find his way; the hard-nosed forward is a complete warrior with a drive to succeed that outmatches most of his teammates and opponents. But how will that fit in? One thing is certain, Rangers fans, we live in interesting times once again. The days of spending most of the game watching blocked shots and harrowing defensive play is over.
- Will the Gamble on Brad Richards Pay Off? – About 30 seconds after it became apparent that the Rangers were going to keep Brad Richards and his contract on payroll for at least one more season, the underachieving play maker got on a new workout routine to rebuild the damage done by last season’s lockout. There are two things at work here. First, Richards will no longer be shackled by the defense first, collapse around the goalie conservative play that Tortorella was selling last season. Second, Richards is a world class competitor. He wants to play at the highest level. If I had to put money on it, I’d say Richards comes out this season as a much different player, one that makes the pay check he signed up to get two years ago.
- Contract Talks – The Rangers have yet to sign top six center Derek Stepan. Stepan is going to pull in $2.5 to $3 million a year. He will probably get a 2-3 year bridge contract. It’s just a matter of getting it done. Will it be done before camp? Of course it won’t be, but Stepan will be in the fold nonetheless, so Rangers fans? Please step away from the ledge. The other big contract news is that Henrik Lundqvist has pretty much come out and said that he has no desire to leave New York. If you remember at the close of the season, Lundqvist made some very troubling and cryptic comments about whether or not he was going to return to the Rangers after his contract is up. He seems to have clarified things a bit since then. So, to the vultures in the Penguins and Devils jerseys with dreams of the King coming to their castle, please move along there as there is nothing to see here. Speaking of contracts, the Rangers have a frighteningly small number of players signed after next season, making Sather’s job all that much harder a year from now.
- How Will Key Injuries Affect the Rangers Early On? – Here’s a grim reminder, an echo if you will, of John Tortorella’s physically demanding system. Both Ryan Callahan and Carl Hagelin will start the season on the LTIR due to matching shoulder injuries. These are two fairly important pieces that could have helped the Rangers get out to a fast start. Considering the Rangers kind of have a bare cupboard as far as prospects go and they did not have the cap room to really get any players in the fold to replace them, those two top six spots could prove to be gaping holes. Not only that, on defense, Marc Staal will be returning from an ugly eye injury. Will he be 100%? There’s no telling, but the track record for returning from that type of injury is not great. Just ask Bryan Berard.
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Main photo credit: Robert Kowal via photopin cc
