Now that the New York Rangers have seemingly solved their
issues finding a top line center with the signing of Brad Richards the talk has
shifted to the rest of the roster. The
addition of Mike Rupp and retaining of Ruslan Fedotenko leaves the Rangers with
an excess of forwards once the remaining three restricted free agents get their
contracts. Beyond discussing what to do
with the excess and which player is most likely out, the main conversation
about the roster has been about the need for the club to bring a veteran
defenseman.
This conversation is not much different than the one that
went on leading up to the trading deadline in which the Rangers dealt for Bryan
McCabe in order to help out the young defensive unit. There is little doubt that heading into
training camp Marc Staal, Dan Girardi, Ryan McDonagh and newly extended Michael
Sauer will be the top four defenders for the club this season. The questions arise in discussing the third
pair in which John Tortorella failed to find combinations he was comfortable
with in the second half in order to reduce the workload on his top four
defensemen.
As the roster stands currently, beyond those top four you
are looking at a competition between Michael Del Zotto, Tim Erixon, Tomas
Kundratek, Pavel Valentenko and possibly Dylan McIlrath for the final top spots
in the defense corps. The concern is not
about talent, but about experience and the overall age of the group.
If Del Zotto and Erixon are the third pair to go with the
assumed top four, the New York Rangers will start the season with Marc Staal
(24), Dan Girardi (27), Ryan McDonagh (22), Michael Sauer (24), Tim Erixon
(21), Michael Del Zotto (21) for an average age of 23.16 on the blueline. Beyond the average age you would be looking
at a blueline with four players who had below two full seasons in the NHL and a
combined game total of only 927 games at the NHL level.
There is no doubt that is a concern for the Rangers to
potentially be relying on a group that is that young and lacks NHL experience
as a group to that extent. However, that
does not mean the organization has to sign or trade for someone just because
they are older or have played a lot of games in the NHL. That failed with McCabe. Beyond that, at least with respect to the top
four, Staal and Girardi regardless of age are veterans at this point while
Sauer and McDonagh showed last season they can be relied on as a second
shutdown pair regardless of the number of games of experience.
This is not to say the Rangers could not use another
defender who has more experience to add to the young defense corps they have,
but there is no urgency and it should be done either to deal off an excess
forward or as a tryout in training camp as opposed to making a signing
now. As I suggested earlier in the weak,
Erik Christensen would be a prime candidate for such a trade to bring in a
bottom pair defender with a reasonable contract that has some NHL experience
and swap out contracts/roster spots.
Unless there is real doubt within the organization about the
ability of Del Zotto to rebound from last season or Erixon to make the
transition to the NHL, adding a veteran defender is more of a luxury than a
true need. In essence that defender is
an insurance policy in case of injury or struggle with the expectation that
they will spend the majority of the year wearing a suit instead of a sweater on
the ice.
