{"id":446686,"date":"2024-07-31T15:12:39","date_gmt":"2024-07-31T19:12:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/?p=446686"},"modified":"2024-07-31T15:12:39","modified_gmt":"2024-07-31T19:12:39","slug":"what-new-york-rangers-roster-addition-will-do-for-them","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/2024\/07\/31\/what-new-york-rangers-roster-addition-will-do-for-them\/","title":{"rendered":"What New York Rangers Roster Addition Will Do for Them"},"content":{"rendered":"

Welcome, Reilly Smith<\/a>. A native of Mimico, Ontario, the 6’1, 185-pound right-winger will spend the last season of his current contract with the Broadway Blueshirts. As a 33-year-old veteran with a resume and a half and still a great player, here are some things the New York Rangers’ roster addition will bring to the table this year.<\/p>\n

New York Rangers Roster Addition Gameplay Benefits<\/h2>\n

Scoring<\/h3>\n

Firstly, Smith will start right on top. As a right-winger on the top forward line<\/a> alongside star centreman Mika Zibanejad <\/a>and left-winger Chris Kreider<\/a>, Smith will bolster their scoring. In his 2022-23 season with the Vegas Golden Knights<\/a>, he scored 26 goals and 30 assists in 78 games. This season accumulated in his Stanley Cup championship.<\/a><\/p>\n

Scoring his fourth<\/a> goal of the 2023 playoffs, a cup-clincher, he made the score 4-1 for the Knights in Game Five of their Stanley Cup Final series against the Florida Panthers<\/a>. The Knights would eventually win the game 9-3 – and the cup after the game. He scored the snap shot just 1:45 after Alec Martinez<\/a>‘ wrister.<\/p>\n

Golden Knights score two goals 1:45 apart to blow open Game 5 of Stanley Cup Final (sportsnet.ca)<\/a><\/p>\n

Smith <\/a>is a powerful and agile skater with a fast shot. His NHL career-best for points is 60 in just 67 games in 2017-18 with the Knights. That year, he also reached an assist high of 38. Smith peaked for goals more recently with 27 in 71 games (plus 27 apples) in 2019-20 with the same team.<\/p>\n

Improving the Power Play<\/h3>\n

Smith will sit on the Blueshirts<\/a>‘ second power play unit. He has demonstrated power play strength, scoring six<\/a> power play goals during his 2022-23 campaign<\/a> with the Knights. This was tied<\/a> for second on the team alongside Chan<\/a>dler Stephenson<\/a>. He and Stephenson were behind only Jonathan Marchessault<\/a>. The most power play goals Smith scored in a single season was seven with the Knights in 2017-18. Although the Rangers<\/a> had the third-best power play percentage (26.4) in the league during the 2023-24 season, he will help make it even better.<\/p>\n

Mid-Range Accuracy<\/h3>\n

Also, just before the trade, Reilly Smith<\/a> had a 13.6<\/a> shooting percentage from mid-range during his 2023-24 season with the Pittsburgh Penguins<\/a>, in the league’s 71st percentile. He scored six<\/a> goals from that range, in the league’s 78th percentile.<\/p>\n

Stanley Cup Champion<\/h3>\n

Not only is Smith a Lord Stanley champ, he was the first to receive the cup from Knights captain<\/a> Mark Stone<\/a>. Smith was also the first player since 2017 to score a cup-clinching goal against his old team. The last was Patric Hornqvist<\/a> for the Pens against the Nashville Predators<\/a> in 2017. Smith was a Panther in the 2015-16 and 2016-17 seasons. Smith’s <\/a>resume as a Cat included scoring 25 goals and 25 assists to help them with their division title.<\/p>\n

Other honours<\/a> of his include being on the NCAA West First All-American Team in 2012 and the CCHA First All-Star Team in 2011 and 2012.<\/p>\n

Reilly Smith Trade Off-the-Ice Benefits<\/h3>\n

Veteran Presence<\/h4>\n

At age 33, <\/a>Reilly Smith plus his impressive NHL resume would be a huge motivator and inspiration to the younger players.<\/p>\n

He was picked in the third round, 69th overall, in 2009 by the Dallas Stars<\/a>.<\/p>\n

At a young age, he provided a glimpse of the offensive talent we see today. When he was just 16, he scored <\/a>80 goals in 70 games for the Toronto Nationals of the Greater Toronto Hockey League. At Miami University<\/a>, he scored 66 goals and notched 122 points in 121 games.<\/p>\n

Finally, Smith signed<\/a> with NHLs Texas Hockey on March 25, 2012. He scored<\/a> his first NHL goal against the Vancouver Canucks<\/a> in Feb. 2013. That summer, he went to the Boston Bruins. I<\/a>n 2013-14, he broke out with 20 goals and 31 assists in 82 games. After another season in Boston, Smith then played for the Panthers<\/a>, Knights, and had a single-season stint with the Pens in 2023-24. Finally, he is the latest New York Rangers roster addition.<\/p>\n

Main Photo: Charles LeClaire-USA TODAY Sports<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Welcome, Reilly Smith. A native of Mimico, Ontario, the 6’1, 185-pound right-winger will spend the last season of his current contract with the Broadway Blueshirts. As a 33-year-old veteran with a resume and a half and still a great player, here are some things the New York Rangers’ roster addition will bring to the table […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5243,"featured_media":446953,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[14,4547,4548],"tags":[48,6107,5650,3285,961],"class_list":["post-446686","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-rangers","category-hockey","category-nhl","tag-new-york-rangers","tag-new-york-rangers-analysis","tag-nhl-contracts","tag-reilly-smith","tag-vegas-golden-knights"],"modified_by":"Tommy Bennett","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/446686","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5243"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=446686"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/446686\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/446953"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=446686"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=446686"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=446686"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}