This is my first installment of a three part series previewing the upcoming season. This entry focuses solely on the Rangers roster before zooming out and going over the division and finally the conference and predictions.
Imagine what could have potentially happened if the Rangers could just stay healthy last season. Losing Drury and Gaborik in the first week, Prospal, who wasn't ready for half of the season. Callahan was out twice for long periods, Biron getting hurt in practice forcing Lundqvist to play way more than he should have down the stretch. It was just one injury after another. Lets imagine for the sake of this article that the Rangers top 9 play 70+ games and we'll assume the same stats from last season. If the younger guys like Stepan (45 points), Anisimov (44 points) can crack 50 points and Zuccarello (23 points) improves from last year, nothing drastic. That potentially buys the Rangers 2-3 wins that they didn't have last season. Now with the addition of a first line center in Brad Richards and assuming that he gels with Gaborik and Gabby can score 40 goals like he is capable of doing that's another 3-4 additional wins that they did not have last year. Adding in Brad Richards and a potential 70-80 point season, the Rangers are at the top of the conference right? Sure looks good on paper. Barring sophomore slumps from Stepan and Zuccarello, the Rangers look very deep this season.
Potential top 6 line combinations are endless. If neither Wolski nor Zuccarello work out on the top line, Dubi moves up with Gabby and Richards and look for Wolski or Zuccarello to be moved before the trade deadline and one of the Connecticut kids called up. Chris Thomas i'm looking at specifically here. I expect Torts to have a quick hook on both players especially if the Rangers are in contention around deadline time. I would love to see Stepan with Callahan extensively at some point. Regarding Stepan, I'm curious to see if Torts gives Stepan time on the wing. We all know about Stepan's horrible faceoff percentage from last season and I don't think he's suited for third line duty on this team. After all, Dubinsky moved to wing last season and thrived. Hopefully the same can happen for Stepan as well if that does happen.
As for bottom 6, the fourth line is basically written in stone with Prust-Boyle-Fedotenko. As for the third line, lets just say its going to be interesting watching Avery and Rupp on the same line together.
There isn't much that needs to be said regarding the Rangers defensive corps. Staal-Girardi, Sauer-McDonagh, Del Zotto-Erixon with Eminger back as the seventh defenseman. If Del Zotto continues to stuggle as he did last season, I wonder how long it takes before they send him to Hartford. Pavel Valentenko will get a long look at training camp and compete with Erixon for the final spot with the loser likely being the first injury call-up. If 2010 first round pick Dylan McIlrath impresses in camp do the Rangers give him a call-up in the middle of the season just to see what he can do?
Do we need to say anything about the goaltending? Hank and Biron are probably the best 1-2 in the league. Canucks Luongo-Schneider and Sabres Miller-Enroth aren't far behind either.
Next week we take a look at the rest of the Atlantic division.
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