The Rangers finished in last place in the Eastern Conference this season. When I looked at the Metropolitan Division in March, I noted the front office was in denial of their current predicament and their end of season media availability did nothing to change that.
The Rangers brass continues to talk about the teams plans as a retool. There was a suggestion by Head Coach Mike Sullivan that adding bottom six forwards should be an offseason priority. This roster has plenty of bottom six level talent. It’s the true top six forwards that are MIA. Given where they finished in the standings and how productive this group has been, it’s hard to see how tweaking around the edges is going to transform this roster into a contender.
Alex Lafreniere, although not a superstar, has developed into a solid piece for a contention core. The depth chart falls off pretty quickly though. Yes, the Rangers have a sizable group just entering their prime. The issue is that there simply aren’t enough stars in that group. The group is running out of development runway and the Rangers desperately need a few more stars to emerge.
Part of the issue is the Rangers have been trading away draft capital in recent seasons. Their prospect pipeline isn’t in awful shape, but it’s slightly below baseline levels. It’s also weaker at the front end than future drafts, while they need to see some prospects hit now with their apparent short term retool focus.
The other issue with the retool is that they still have a few veterans that are important pieces of their top six forward group that are also under contract for the medium term or longer. It would be great benefit for their long term oulook to turn vets like JT Miller, Mika Zibanejad, Vincent Trocheck and/or Vladislav Gavrikov into younger assets. Even Adam Fox and Igor Shesterkin could be made available if the Rangers decided a rebuild was in order. It sounds as though Trocheck may be available, but one move along will do little to change the makeup of their core group.
The Rangers aren’t one move away from fielding a competitive roster. Bold action would be the best bet to set them on a better course. However, it seems as though there is no long term vision in the Rangers front office, just a short term intent to be competitive with some tinkering around the edges. That could very well lead to a future of mediocrity.
