jt miller jesper fast nick holden oscar lindberg

The Rangers and hockey in general have entered the dog days of summer. It’s August. The entire hockey world has gone on vacation. There’s MLS on (shameless plug: visit my NYCFC shirt page!), there’s MLB on, but that’s not enough to really keep us from craving hockey. But since it’s the dog days, I think some thoughts are in order.

1. First things first, we’ve been making a lot of noise about the need for another forward. Trading Derek Stepan opened up the path for Kevin Shattenkirk, but it also opened a big hole up front. Mika Zibanejad can probably handle the 1C duties, and maybe Kevin Hayes can handle the 2C duties. But if the plan really is for Lias Andersson to be the 3C, and that falls through, then what? If David Desharnais is the 3C at any point in the season, something has gone horribly wrong.

2. From what I’ve read and seen about Andersson, he could actually be NHL ready. I think the Rangers are expecting him to make the team as the 3C. If that does come to fruition, then I’m assuming he gets the lion’s share of offensive zone starts. Flanking him with guys that know the NHL, perhaps Michael Grabner and JT Miller, works as well. Show the kid the ropes?

3. As it stands, without any more moves, Matt Puempel is 12F. If Andersson makes the team, he’s the 13F. That’s really not much depth. Losing Stepan or Oscar Lindberg wouldn’t have gutted the depth, but losing both certainly did.

4. I think the reason why we didn’t see a Nick Holden trade is because the market is barren at the moment. Vegas gambled by taking a ton of defensemen, hoping to flip them for picks. That backfired, and now every NHL team knows a bunch need to pass through waivers. I don’t think we see a Holden trade until after that all unfolds.

5. Not much has been said about Ondrej Pavelec. I’m not a huge fan of his, and all the numbers say this could be a risky proposition. However I trust Benoit Allaire. So…. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

6. Why is it that summers are always really short? It’s already August, and I haven’t done half of the things I wanted to do. Although I did finally get back to Splish Splash the other day. Still love that place, and not an amazingly huge rip off either.

7. But seriously, why does summer go by so fast? Maybe because it took so long to be nice out consistently this year? I dunno. Also… ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

 

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