A game of musical chairs entering training camp

It waits…

With optional skates beginning to start and the Traverse City Tournament and NHL Pre-season just around the corner, we are almost ready to get excited about hockey again. One of the most interesting story lines of the pre-season will be opportunities for prospects and depth veterans to step up and seize important minutes. A game of musical chairs, indeed.

Most of us were fairly underwhelmed by the clubs work in free agency. Solid contributors to last year’s finalists Anton Stralman and Beniot Pouliot bolted for greener (read: money) pastures, defensive stalwarts Brian Boyle and Derek Dorsett are now employed elsewhere and Brad Richards’ buy-out saw him take a smaller money deal in the Windy City.

That’s an awful lot of turnover of useful players, but to a degree it was almost a veteran cleanse. After having the entire off season to think about it, had the club matched the contracts of Pouliot and Stralman, I would definitely be very concerned about their ability to consistently provide their 2013-2014 type of production across five years, when they were never able to it before in their careers. Boyle’s contract still bothers me, but I don’t think Tampa was entirely truthful about the minutes and role they could provide him.

So the Rangers brought in depth. Lee Stempniak, Matt Lombardi, Kevin Hayes, Dan Boyle, Chris Mueller, Mike Kostka and (ack) Tanner Glass. They were brought in to compete with in-house guys like J.T. Miller, Ryan Haggerty, Ryan Bourque, Danny Kristo, Conor Allen, Jesper Fast, Mat Bodie, Dylan McIlrath, Marek Hrivik and Oscar Lindberg. That’s a lot of options for what amounts to four spots in the top 12 forwards and one depth defenseman, at least to start the year.

All these options carry a varying amount of risk, but none to the extend of what would have been required to keep departing players (B. Boyle notwithstanding). I also feel like it gives AV a tremendous amount of flexibility in the event of injury or ineffectiveness. Depth wins championships. The question here is, will any of these guys step up and seize a major role with the club or will we have a revolving door at 3W and 4W all season? Granted these are hardly the most important lineup spots to be occupied by relatively unknown quantities, but production from those spots is imperative to a deep run into the playoffs.

During these dark days of September as we wait for hockey to return to us, we can take some consolation that we should have some fantastic in-camp competition for roster spots and plenty of depth to choose from. Assuming our spots open for competition are 3C (or 4C depending on where you would slot Dominic Moore), 3RW and 4LW and 4RW, who would you, our distinguished readership, like to see occupy those spots?