New York Rangers: Finalizing the roster won’t be easy
By Steve Paulus
The New York Rangers redeemed themselves with an unlikely overtime win in Boston. It was a classic rope-a-dope strategy as the Bruins jumped out to an early lead, pinned the Rangers in their own end for long stretches and outshot the Blueshirts by almost a two-to-one margin.
The Rangers tied the game midway through the third period on the unlikeliest of goals, a shorthanded penalty shot by Kevin Rooney. Alexis Lafrenière won the game in overtime on a brutal giveaway by Bruins goalie Linus Ullmark. You can take the goalie out of Buffalo, but you cannot take Buffalo out of the goalie.
The Rangers resumed their hitting ways, with 34 hits to the Bruins 18, led by Sammy Blais with eight. They also reverted to their old faceoff ineptitude, losing almost 60% of the draws (22-31) with the difference solely attributable to Patrice Bergeron who won 14 of 17 draws.
Speaking of Bergeron, his line with David Pastrnak and Brad Marchand was dominant. They scored all three Bruins goals, tallying five of the team’s nine points and generated eight shots. There’s a reason many consider that trio to be the best in the NHL.
Roster decisions: Forwards
This game did little to resolve the few roster decisions that Gerard Gallant will need to make. Except for deciding how he will configure his forward lines and defense pairings, there’s not a lot to figure out.
We can assume that the Rangers will carry 13 forwards. There are 11 skaters guaranteed to make the team:
- Sammy Blais
- Filip Chytil
- Barclay Goodrow
- Alexis Lafrenière
- Kaapo Kakko
- Chris Kreider
- Artemi Panarin
- Ryan Reaves
- Kevin Rooney
- Ryan Strome
- Mika Zibanejad
That leaves two spots open, one for a regular and one for an extra forward who will play in case of injury and to occasionally spell Ryan Reaves. Here are the candidates:
- Morgan Barron
- Will Cuylle
- Julien Gauthier
- Dryden Hunt
- Vitali Kravtsov
- Greg McKegg
- Lauri Pajuniemi
The belief is that Vitali Kravtsov will be the 12th regular forward. That would mean that if the Rangers think that Julien Gauthier would be claimed if placed on waivers, he becomes forward number 13 by default.
The wild card is if Gallant believes that Kravtsov still needs seasoning in the AHL, a decision that the young Russian would not be happy about. If that happens, it would open the door for a roster slot for McKegg, Barron or Hunt. None of those three have had standout preseasons.
It’s clear that the team likes Will Cuylle a lot. He is “hard to play against,” but it is inevitable that he will end up in juniors for one more year. Pajuniemi has shown a lot, but would benefit from top six minutes in Hartford.
Kravtsov’s injury against New Jersey did little to help resolve the situation. Hopefully he will be back on Wednesday and will show enough to lock down a regular top nine slot.
What about the defense?