Hockey season is upon us, and the Rangers kick off their season tonight at home against the team that eliminated them from the playoffs just 122 days ago. This is a good test for the Rangers, with a revamped and more complete lineup that has grown through playoff success and heart break. The models may not like them, but there’s a strange confidence in this team that we haven’t seen before. Optimism is at the core of these Rangers predictions for the upcoming season.
1. Alexis Lafreniere will finish the season with 30 goals….while on 1RW and PP1
Alexis Lafreniere is very good. There’s a reason why he was the #1 overall pick and why many have been clamoring for him to get more ice time. As of now Kaapo Kakko is set to start the season as the 1RW, and he will be just fine there as well. But the Rangers will need to shuffle their lines at some point, either due to injury or whatever other reasons we will see in the season. That is when we will see Lafreniere shifted to 1RW, where he will flourish.
Laf scored 19 even strength goals last year without getting any significant powerplay time or even strength time. This is something that will change as Gerard Gallant tinkers at the start of the season. Even if the Kid Line is reunited, they will get more of an even share of 5v5 minutes than last year. This gives Laf more ice time to work with.
As for PP1, right now it’s starting with Vincent Trocheck as the bumper on PP1. Trocheck is more of a net-front player, so this is something to watch. All three of the kids have the skill set –patience, play reads, offensive awareness, subtlety– to be a good bumper, but it will be Lafreniere who gets the first crack there.
Add in that ice time, and you have a 30 goal scorer.
2. K’Andre Miller will become the defacto 1LD
K’Andre Miller was easily the best Rangers defenseman and skater throughout last year’s playoff run. He outplayed all, even Adam Fox, and was a consistent force and is a star in the making. This was no blip or flash in the pan, this was the real K’Andre Miller we saw. He may be on the second pair with Jacob Trouba, but he will be the best LD on the team, supplanting Ryan Lindgren, and it won’t even be close.
That’s no disrespect to Lindgren, a fine defenseman in his own right. He’s just not K’Andre Miller. Miller will be viewed as the best LD on the team by Christmas. If an injury hits Lindgren, mostly via the Dan Girardi Cyborg Parts Store running out of inventory, then Miller will seamlessly jump to a pairing with Adam Fox, making Rob Luker very happy.
Lindgren and Jacob Trouba may be a solid second pair as well. You can really pair any of the Rangers defensemen in the top four together and get something that works.
3. The Rangers will win the Stanley Cup.
There. I said it. How’s that to wrap up these Rangers predictions?
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