Who Are These Guys?

The Rangers went into the off-season with some very specific needs.  They included shoring up the penalty kill, getting younger on defense and getting a bunch of RFA's locked up.   Jeff Gorton accomplished some,  but not all.   The Rangers Achilles heel continues to be their aging and overpaid (in the case of Staal and Girardi) defense.   However, the moves Gorton did make were positive and there could be more movement as we get closer to the season.

On the RFA front,  the Rangers re-signed Kevin Hayes and J.T. Miller to reasonable two-year contracts.  The risk is that they will be due a big payday if they improve over the next two seasons.  They will certainly have an incentive to play well.  He signed Chris Kreider to a four-year deal for Zuccarello money.  Dylan McIlrath signed a one-year $800k contract as well.

On defense, he acquired Colorado Avalanche defenseman Nick Holden (more on him later) and signed career minor leaguer Adam Clendening for depth in Hartford.  Don't overlook his locking up back-up goalie Aanti Raanta for two more years at reasonable dollars.

It's the penalty kill where we should see the biggest improvement this season.  Dominic Moore was not re-signed and is now a Boston Bruin.  Viktor Stalberg signed with Carolina after a productive season on Broadway.    To replace them, Gorton signed Nathan Gerbe, Michael Grabner and Josh Jooris, all who played on the penalty kill on their respective teams.

Let's take a look at the newest Rangers, starting with the players with NHL experience:

MIKA ZIBANEJAD -  Okay, we always wanted an Iranian-Swedish center on the NY Rangers, didn't we?   The Mika (we are always going to refer to him as Mika) deal was controversial as he was swapped for a very popular and productive Derick Brassard.    Mika is younger (23 vs. 28) and has improved every year he has been in the NHL since making his debut in Ottawa at age 18.  In his three full seasons in the NHL, his goal totals have risen:  16-20-21.  Points have gone up as as well:  33-46-51.  Although Brassard scored 27 goals for the Rangers last season, that was the FIRST time he had exceeded 20 goals in a season.   At 23, Mika looks to be ready to break out and have a season like Brassard did when he was five years older.  On faceoffs and shots, his stats are near identical to Brassard's.   He is durable playing in 161 out of 162 games the last two seasons.   And don't forget, the Rangers got a second round pick as well in the deal.

MICHAEL GRABNER - So, a former Islander right wing dons the Broadway blue.   When the Rangers signed him, a lifelong Islander fan sniffed "great speed, cannot finish."   It appears that what we have here is Carl Hagelin redux.  He has Hagelin's speed and ability to disrupt the opposition.  Like Hagelin, he is not a gifted goal scorer.  That said, he DID score 34 goals as a rookie for the Isles.   He had great numbers his first three seasons, but has seen them drop steadily the last three years, probably because he became a bottom six forward and also because he played last season for the pathetic Toronto Maple Leafs.  In 2014 he actually scored TWO shorthanded goals on the same penalty kill...I don't know if the Rangers have ever done that. Last season we were lucky to get three shorthanded goals all season, all by Derek Stepan.  It's interesting.  If you compare Hags and Grabner, their career stats are remarkably similar.  And Hagelin is making $4 million a year compared to $1.6 million for Grabner.   This could be a very good deal for New York.

JOSH JOORIS - The 26 year old Jooris has played two years in Calgary.  He is a high energy, speedy skater. He is also a center who cannot win faceoffs (44.4% last year).   In his rookie season he scored 12 goals and slipped to four last year.  He apparently has some grit and may supplant Tanner Glass as the resident agitator.   He signed a two-way contract so expect him to spend some time in Hartford, but he will be a quick call-up if the team needs energy or injury relief.

BRANDON PIRRI -  Center Brandon Pirri was the last Ranger free agent signing of the summer (August 25th).  He inked a one-year $1.1 million deal after he was not tendered a qualifying offer by Anaheim, becoming an UFA.   He was a second round pick by Chicago and played sparsely for four years before being dealt to Florida where he scored 22 goals in 49 games.  He's definitely a shooter...he only had two assists to go along with the 22 goals.   He was traded to Anaheim at the deadline and contributed with five points in nine games so it is curious that there was no qualifying offer.   He can score, averaging 25 goals per 82 games in the NHL.  The stat freaks like his possession stats and his 5v5 goal scoring average is comparable to Brandon Saad.  As a center, he is not great on faceoffs, but better than Jooris.

NATHAN GERBE - Gerbe is tiny by NHL standards.  He is 5'4" and is 175 lbs.  That's four inches shorter than Martin St. Louis and three inches shorter than Mats Zuccarello.  If Gerbe plays a lot on Broadway he will be a fan favorite, a human bowling ball who give it all in every game and is a tenacious penalty killer. He's scored 16 goals twice in the NHL (for Carolina and Buffalo).  He is listed a center, but will play wing more often.  The hope is that he will stick with the big club as a penalty killing fourth liner.  He could also end up on the Hartford express.  If you have any questions about his work ethic, read this piece he wrote for The Players Tribune:  http://www.theplayerstribune.com/nathan-gerbe-rangers-nhl-coming-up-big/

NICK HOLDEN - Nick Holden is a 29 year old lefthanded shooting defenseman who was a top four d-man for a bad Colorado team.  He averaged almost 22 minutes a game, probably more minutes than he should have been playing.   This acquisition has been roundly critiqued by many since Holden was not highly regarded in Denver.  I think it was a situation where a player was put in a position that he was not suited for...top four minutes when he should have been a third pair player. He also scored ten goals in his first full NHL season, setting up expectations that he never met.   The bottom line is he is a better defenseman than Chris Summers who was the first fill-in last season.  He will end up splitting third pair duties with Dylan McIlrath (barring another trade).  Not bad getting some defensive depth in exchange for a 4th round draft pick.

That's it for NHL-proven players acquired in the off-season.  Are they better than Derick Brassard, Eric Staal, Dominic Moore, Viktor Stalberg, Dan Boyle, Daniel Paille, Jayson Megna and Keith Yandle?  We shall see.   Coming up next, a look at the rookies.


WORLD CUP OF HOCKEY RANGER NEWS

So, Henrik Lundqvist is washed up.  He wasn't really sick, he was just awful in the preliminary games.  Sweden is going with the back up because they don't trust the King.  NOT.   All Henrik did today was throw a 3-0 shutout at Finland, despite being outshot 36-29.   All hail the King.

Team USA played a stinker tonight losing badly to Canada 4-1.  It started off well as Ryan McDonagh scored the first goal of the game, crashing the crease for a rebound.   Derek Stepan assisted on the goal.

J.T. Miller was a healthy scratch for Team North America's loss to Team Russia (a great game to watch).

Mats Zuccarello continues to contribute in a big way to Team Europe.  In yesterday's 3-2 OT win over the Czech Republic, the Zuc scored the second goal (it should've been stopped) and it was his brilliant pass that sprung Leon Draisaitl for the game winning goal.  His contributions should come as no surprise. On a team that boasts scoring machines like Anze Kopitar, Marian Hossa and Marian Gaborik, our own Mats Zuccarello had the most NHL goals last season.  Zuccarello is currently tied for the lead in scoring among all players in the World Cup

PS:  Mats Zuccarello has written a piece for the Players Tribune about growing up in Norway and playing hockey.  Here is the link:

http://www.theplayerstribune.com/mats-zuccarello-rangers-norway-hockey/

Hello Pavel

The World Cup of Hockey (is that a pretentious name or what?) is going strong and the rookies are playing in Traverse City.   NHL hockey is around the corner.  Time to dust off the cobwebs and start writing.

We will be taking a look at some of the new faces on the Rangers this season as the pre-season gets underway.    There are some veterans in the group, but the rookies are getting the most attention. The earliest news of the summer was the signing of Pavel Buchnevich to a contract that should put him on Broadway this season.  With the stockpiling of free agents, a guaranteed slot on one of the top three lines is not a lock anymore.  The fear is that Buchnevich will not want to play in the AHL and will bolt back to the KHL if he doesn't make the big club.

So, who exactly is Pavel Buchnevich and what can we expect from him?  It is pretty much a sure thing that he will NOT score a bushel of goals and make the all-star team.  I took a look at the records of some other prominent Russian imports to see how he compares.     Arguably, the best of the young Russian players are Vladimir Tarasenko (St. Louis), Nikita Kucherov (Tampa), Artemi Panerin (Chicago) and Evgeny Kuznetsov (Washington).   You have to eliminate Kucherov from the comparison because he only played parts of two seasons in the KHL and spent his formative years in Canadian junior hockey leagues.   Here are their AVERAGES for their KHL careers:

	KHL	Games	Goals	Assists	Points	PIM	plus/minus
Buchnevich	4	40	7	10	17	10	0
Panarin	7	38	11	15	26	24	4
Tarasenko	5	41	13	13	26	10	9
Kuznetsov	5	42	13	16	29	25	-1

Buchnevich spent the fewest years in the KHL and his totals are not up to those of the other players. Here are the stats from their BEST year in the KHL:

		Games	Goals	Assists	Points	PIM	plus/minus
Buchnevich	2014-15	58	16	21	37	24	-6
Panarin	2014-15	54	26	36	62	37	18
Tarasenko	2011-12	54	23	24	47	15	18
Kuznetsov	2012-13	51	19	25	44	42	-1

Buchnevich compares better to his peers in his best season, but still not at the level of the others. Perhaps the most important thing to look at is how these players adapted to playing in North America in smaller rinks.  As great as we think they are, they all started off slowly.

Tarasenko had the best start, scoring eight goals in 38 games.  He totalled 19 points for a decent showing.  He scored 21 goals in his second season and blossomed into a star in his third season with 37 goals and 73 points. 

Kuznetsov scored three goals and had nine points in 17 games in his NHL debut season.  In his first full season he scored 11 goals and had 37 points.   Last season he finally showed his potential with 20 goals and 77 points.  

Panarin is a different story.  In his rookie season last year with Chicago, he scored 26 goals with 62 points.  However, he was a rookie at age 24 after seven full seasons in the KHL.  Kuznetsov was 21 when he made his NHL debut as was Tarasenko.  

Even Kucherov with three seasons of junior hockey had a tough rookie season for Tampa, scoring nine goals and 18 points at age 20.  He jumped to 28 goals and 64 points in his sophomore season.

What does all of this mean?  It means that expectations for Pavel Buchnevich should be realistic.  He is NOT going to be a goal scoring machine.  All we can hope for is that he adapts to the North American game, plays defense responsibly and develops into another Tarasenko, Kutznetsov or Panarin.  If he is scoring 20 goals a season by 2018-19 we should all be very happy.

Now that we have taken a bite from a reality sandwich...here are the numbers.  He is 6'1" and weighs about 175 pounds.  So, he needs to bulk up a bit.  Here is the analysis from Hockey's Future:

Buchnevich has excellent speed with a very good set of hands. A very interesting prospect with an impressive ceiling, he is small but makes things happen with his speed and skills. Buchnevich can take needless penalties though at inopportune moments and needs to be more responsible defensively to be successful in North America. A very good playmaker with excellent vision, Buchnevich has the potential to be a first line player in the NHL.   The 21-year-old is expected to be an impact player at the NHL level though he may not be the consistent scorer of some of the other top young Russian forwards.

Buchnevich is playing with the baby Rangers in Traverse City and so far, hasn't set the rink on fire. He hasn't fallen flat on his face either.  He will get power play time in the pre-season and a regular job is his to lose.  That said, as mentioned before, there are a LOT of forwards vying for just a few slots so he cannot afford to slack. 

WORLD CUP OF HOCKEY RANGER NEWS

Mats Zuccarello made a nice play to feed Frans Nielsen for the first goal in the Team Europe defeat of Team USA.  He actually beat Ranger teammate Ryan McDonagh on the play. Ouch.  It looked like Derek Stepan had scored for the USA when a puck went off his chest, but the goal was disallowed. 

The other Rangers who made news drew attention because they didn't play.  Henrik Lundqvist was a late scratch for Team Sweden with the flu.   The Swedes minus the King snuck  by Russia 2-1 benefitting from a disallowed empty net goal with seconds left in the game.   J.T. Miller was the only forward scratched from Team North America's squad in its 4-1 thrashing of Finland.