It’s become blatantly obvious at this point in the season that the Rangers’ blue line needs something of a tighten up, with the team bleeding shot attempts on a nightly basis stretching back beyond this current skid to when the team was winning a larger proportion of their games. Although the team’s defensive play has been slightly less hemorrhagic of late a consensus seems to have formed, gesturing towards the notion that the Rangers’ defensive corp is among their biggest concerns.
More statistically minded fans may have seen this coming during the Rangers’ win streak earlier in the season, but at this point most fans can see that the Rangers’ defense is not what it could (or should) be, especially with regards to the play of stalwart defensemen Dan Girardi and Marc Staal. With the Rangers having won only two of their last seven games the team needs to be looking ahead to solutions, and once again I have a modest proposal to make. This blog has already written in praise of Dylan McIlrath’s play and noted the future importance of Brady Skjei. Insofar as the Rangers are working with what they have the two young players are crucial to improving this blue line right now, not just down the road.
Starting with Dylan McIlrath, it’s hard not to be pleased with the way he’s turned out, given some fans’ initial take on him. Despite some chagrin that he was selected ahead of players like Vladimir Tarasenko and Cam Fowler in the 2010 Draft, and although he was initially pegged as a basic bruiser, the towering defenseman has been a pleasant surprise and proved that he belongs at the NHL level. Once maligned for making irresponsible decisions, McIlrath has shown himself of late to be prudent both on and off the puck, using his physicality often to make smart plays. His skating ability is still not the greatest, but he has plenty of time to develop and seems to be improving every game.
McIlrath has paired well with Keith Yandle, with the two defensemen respectively having the second and first best CF% and goals for/against ratio over the past seven games at even strength of any Rangers defensemen, and as we saw the other night against Edmonton his slap shot is a force of nature. While he perhaps has received sheltered assignments, and is still definitely a young, developing d-man, McIlrath has proved decisively that he belongs on this team.
Next we move to Brady Skjei, who is still something of an unknown quantity but showed great promise in the game against the Oilers. While statistically he did not have a great game, with an even strength CF% and SCF% of 29.6 and 30, the eye test here is revelatory. In addition, he had a brutal turnover that lead to a goal for Edmonton, but these kinds of things happen to even the best defensemen and are bound to occur the more a player plays the puck.
Still, looking beyond the surface Skjei displayed great potential for such a young defenseman and if he plays well he might also complicate some lineup decisions once everyone is healthy. He was confident and poised in his positioning, making responsible decisions and hanging back when necessary. His most notable qualities, his skating ability and penchant for crisp passing are two things the Rangers sorely lack at the blue line, and could really help the team round out their defensive group. While it’s too early to go so far as to say that he’s earned his place on the team, there is little doubt that he has NHL level skills and, given the chance, could complicate the team’s lineup decisions at defense once everyone’s healthy.
This brings me to my perhaps not so modest proposal to help mend the Rangers’ blue line issues. Let’s start with the obvious: despite years of hard work and service to the team on the back end both Marc Staal and Dan Girardi are in rapid decline and can no longer contribute effectively to this team. The two players are frequently out of position, have a difficult time keeping up with the kinds of young skill players on teams such as Washington and Tampa Bay, and can no longer match up against other teams’ top players. In addition, both these players carry massive cap hits that are only going to look worse as time goes by. While I’m aware that both of these players’ contracts include full no movement clauses, I would still like to suggest that it is a necessity for the team to trade one, if not both, of these two players and then scratch the remaining player on a rotation basis with a defenseman on the third pairing as needed.
In this idealized world that I realize may never come to fruition due to the pairs’ NMCs the best possible defensive pairings would be, in my opinion, McDonagh/Klein, Yandle/McIlrath, and Skjei/Boyle. These pairings would put Ryan McDonagh with Klein, who has been among the Rangers’ best defensemen prior to his injury, maintain the chemistry of Yandle and McIlrath, and shelter Brady Skjei with the veteran Dan Boyle on the third pairing. These balanced pairs would provide some greater element of mobility and hopefully help the Rangers alleviate their troubles at defense, especially their struggles to make clean zone exits and suppress shots. While the Rangers defensive issues have been noteworthy so far this season, one tricky trade and some minor adjustments might be all that’s needed to tighten up this blue line and get the Rangers to where they need to be.
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