keith yandle

Yandle

There are only two certain things in life: Death and screaming at the TV for the New York Rangers not having a good power play. It is still early in the season so this is bound to get better (hopefully), but the New York Rangers rank 25th in the league on the powerplay (ahead of the Penguins, Kings and the Ducks) and 13th in the league on the penalty kill. The penalty kill will probably be hovering around 10th or so in the league when all is said and done, as last year’s unit was ranked 6th.

The powerplay is a much larger concern. It seemed like the Rangers finally answered that problem last year when by trading for Yandle, but it is not the case at the moment. Don’t get me wrong, I liked the trade. Losing Anthony Duclair is painful. Losing a first round pick is painful. But it is not like they got a shoddy player in return. Yandle is still a top-30, maybe even top-2o defenseman in the league. He can keep the puck in the zone better than almost any player we’ve seen. He is only 29 years old and, with his play style, can probably be effective for another 7-8 years (Mark Streit and Lubomir Visnovsky come to mind here) should he stay healthy.

So why isn’t the power play working? That’s what was the point of this trade was, but could this come down to the coaching staff shooting themselves in the foot?

Yandle is one of the better offensive defensemen in the league whose skating can also help the team get out of the defensive zone when needed. Considering what was traded to get him, it makes sense that he is playing on the second or third pair, which allows Alain Vigneault to rotate the pairs one after another. But is that the best use of their asset?

We say that players need rest, but at the same time the last Stanley Cup winners had a legitimate work horse on defense who played almost half the game all the time. Depth on defense is a noted strength for the Rangers –whether some agree with the notion that they actually have one of the best units or not– but it is a crime not to play guys like Yandle or Ryan McDonagh more. In Yandle’s case, he went from playing around 23 minutes a night with in Arizona capable of putting up at least 40 points to playing under 20 minutes with the Rangers last year. The Rangers need offense from their blue liners, and Yandle can set them up from the back end. Perhaps it’s time he gets more minutes?

In his career with Arizona, he played approximately 90% (!!!) of the teams power play. As we saw in the game against the Devils, Yandle played approximately half the power play. That is nice, but it is severely underutilizing him, especially when it’s clear Dan Boyle cannot handle these duties anymore. It might behoove the Rangers to play Yandle more on the powerplay. It would give both units the consistent point threat that they desperately need. They need a much better powerplay, and nothing that has been tried before has worked. It’s time to get the most from their asset.

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