There has been a lot of talk going on today about New York
Rangers 2009 1st round pick Chris Kreider following his MVP performance to lead
his Boston College Eagles to their second consecutive Beanpot Championship last
night. The results have given Rangers
fans yet another reason to be excited about what the future holds for Kreider. Coach John Tortorella spent time in his
discussions with the media praising Chris and talking about how much he wants
him with the Rangers organization to the point that they tried to convince him
to turn pro last summer. Based on all
the questions and thoughts I was getting on the subject, I gave
my thoughts on when Kreider should turn pro this afternoon.
The one person we had not really
had input from on the topic was Chris Kreider himself. Thanks to Andrew Gross that is no longer the
case. Over at Ranger
Rants Gross has a series of quotes from Kreider on a number of subjects: his
future plans; how he has been following the progress of the other young Rangers
he knows; what he has improved in his game this season; what it means to him
for the coach to speak so highly of him, and what it means to win the Beanpot.
From the quotes you get a sense
of Kreider and you have to like how level headed he is with all the attention
that he has gotten to this point. The
best quote for me in the conversation was this one:
So I asked Kreider whether he can envision himself successful in the NHL.“I’d like to,” Kreider said. “It’s extremely difficult to do. Hopefully I do make it to that point. There will be a lot to improve on, obviously.”
In terms of Tortorella talking this afternoon about how much he wants him to turn pro this summer, I am not at all surprised because the coach will always want more options and more toys to play with. However, the fact that Torts wants him to be a pro and work with him does not mean he is ready for the NHL. It will be very interesting to see how it plays out this summer with Kreider's side making their determination and hopefully Gordie Clark being the one on the Rangers side that gives Chris an honest assessment of what is best for him long term. It might not be popular to send him back to college, but whatever is best for Kreider in the long term will be what is best for the Rangers organization, so let us hope both sides keep the big picture in mind.
Be sure to head over to Rangers Rants to check out the
rest of Andrew’s discussion with Chris.
