LOGIN | REGISTER | RSS FEEDS

Goal Line Report

Rebuilding the New York Rangers: All About Offense

by Patrick Hoffman on 06/16/09 at 03:15 PM ET
Comments (0)

After watching the New York Rangers’ terrible end to an otherwise mediocre season, it’s apparent that the team needs to dump salary and rebuild. Any Ranger fan could tell you this but the question remains: How do you rebuild a hockey team?

I’m of the belief that you start in goal. Luckily for the Blueshirts, they have Henrik Lundqvist to hold down the fort for the next four or five seasons and with 142 career wins, a career goals against average of 2.31 and a save percentage of .917, the 27-year-old Swedish netminder is only going to get better.

In the goaltending pipeline, the team has Matt Zaba. Zaba’s just 25 years old and in his rookie season with the Hartford Wolf Pack, went 25-10-0 with a 2.33 goals against average, a .920 save percentage and two shutouts. Sure, Lundqvist is in for the long haul but in hockey, especially when it comes to netminders, you never know what can happen.

The team also appears to be set on defense. You look at the roster and see guys like Marc Staal and Daniel Girardi and based on their last two-three seasons, it’s easy to see that they have a bright future in this league. Then, you look at the Wolf Pack and you see players such as Bobby Sanguinetti, Corey Potter, and Michael Sauer. Let’s also not forget that team signed Hobey Baker Award winner Matt Gilroy. It would certainly appear that the Blueshirts have a more than talented blue line waiting in the wings.

It’s the offense that’s hurting the hockey club, which is hard to believe considering you have players such as Scott Gomez, Chris Drury, Nikolai Zherdev, Nik Antropov, and Sean Avery on the roster. Even with these players and Markus Naslund, the team finished near the bottom of the league when it comes to goals scored, something that Ranger fans won’t put up with for too much longer.

With that in mind, one wonders “How can we reshape this offense to score goals?” Well, the first thing we have to figure out is who is available via free agency, trade or to be brought up from Hartford. There have been rumors circulating the interWeb and even on Kukla’s Korner is that Marian Gaborik might be a good fit but do you really want to go down that road? He’s consistently had difficulty being healthy and if you’re GM Glen Sather, do you really want throw a ton of money at him if he’s going to be on the disabled list?

With that said, I would like to open up the floor to the readers of Blueshirt Banter with the following questions:

- How can the Rangers become a better offensive team?
- Who would you give up or trade to make that happen?
- Would you get rid of Nikolai Zherdev or do you want to give him one more season to show that he can be an offensive superstar?
- Do you resign Nik Antropov?

The floor is yours folks. Put on your Glen Sather caps and start thinking like a real GM.

Filed in: | Goal Line Report | Permalink
 Tags: New+York+Rangers, Offseason+Plans,

Comments

Be the first to comment.

Add a Comment

Please limit embedded image or media size to 575 pixels wide.

Add your own avatar by joining Kukla's Korner, or logging in and uploading one in your member control panel.

Captchas bug you? Join KK or log in and you won't have to bother.

Most Recent Blog Posts

About Goal Line Report

Patrick has a tremendous passion for hockey. Besides covering the Rangers and the NHL for Kukla’s Korner, you can also find Patrick’s work over at Sportsnet.ca, The Red Light District Hockey Blog, NHL Home Ice, and Liam Maguire’s Ultimate Hockey web site.

Prior to writing for the above mentioned outlets, you could find Patrick’s musings at hockey web sites/outlets such as TheHockeyNews.com, TheFourthPeriod.com, Spector’s Hockey, Hokeja Vestnesis, Blueshirt Bulletin, SNYRangersBlog.com and many more.

For questions, comments and hip checks, feel free to e-mail Patrick at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).

Watch great hockey at a low price with Dish Network Specials