Starting to see the light

[Paparanger]

I have been a Ranger fan for a very, very long time. I have enjoyed the good times and struggled through the bad. Unfortunately there were more bad than good. But as a true fan, I stuck with my team through thick and thin.

 

One of the most traumatic times for me was the eighteen year rein  of Glen Sather as president & GM of the Rangers. His instance to trade 1st round picks for  for players like Rick Nash who was missing from the playoff's while taking up space on the ice baffled me. I eventually figured out that a lot of these decisions were made by James Dolan. Owner & CEO of the Rangers.

 

When Jeff Gorton was promoted to GM, I started to see hope again and it appears that the hope is getting stronger and stronger. The other positive in my opinion is bringing J.D. back as president. I now feel that the Rangers have people at the top who are not going to make rash decisions  & who are actually going to stay the course.

 

Lately, the Rangers have had a bit of luck in being able to draft Kakko, trade for Truba, sign Adam Fox, Sign the breadman and draft an assortment of what appears to be high end talent. 

 

At this point in time I am optimistic, but guarded with my expectations. They still have to find a way to sign for RFA's with just around 8 mil in cap space. They have to figure out a way to shed some salary while maintaining a respectable roster and for me, the jury is out on Lindy Ruff. I don't understand why he is there other than he has NHL head coaching experience and is probably there to mentor Quinn. Hopefully, the Rangers will let him go after this year. Time will tell.

 

Anyway, I think this is going to be a fun summer and a productive one. I will sleep easier once Truba is under contract for a long term.

 

Comments Welcome.

Edited July 4, 2019 by Paparanger
forgot a player

[TropicalFruitGirl26]

Rangers do seem to be accelerating their rebuild process (in the correct manner), however, I still see question marks in goal as NY can't possibly think they can continue to rely on Henrik Lundqvist to take them to a Cup win anytime soon.
And Georgiev put up some pretty good numbers last season...but is he ready to be a full time starter...and if not yet, when?
Do the Rangers have another goalie that can take the reigns within the next two seasons?

Also, on the forward lines, signing Panarin was fantastic....but the Bread Man can't do it alone.
The rest of the forwards group needs to show consistency. The talent IS there....but seems to me, it didn't always work as a unit last season.

 

But under all this, if the Rangers really do have good hockey people manning important positions in the front office and behind the bench, then things can only get better from here on out.

That all said, the Rangers don't live in a vacuum......considering the Metro, the division, as a whole, has made, or is making strides to become elite too.
Devils and Flyers have good young talent as well....and BOTH has very promising #1 netminders in Mackenzie Blackwood and Carter Hart respectively.

Of course, the Pens and Caps are the Pens and Caps....they will always ice a competitive team...and again, they have stars in net in the forms of Matt Murray and Braden Holtby.
Heck, even the Islanders, with their grinding ways, have signed elite Semyon Varlamov.

That leaves the Canes (Mrazek) and Rangers with the biggest question marks in goal.... we will see what NY does to try and remedy that....or perhaps Lundqvist still has another rabbit in his goalie mask, or Georgiev says, "It's my show now!", and plays like it.

[TropicalFruitGirl26]

Not that it's earth shattering news (because we ALL knew he would be signing), but the Rangers today made it official by inking 2nd overall pick in the 2019 draft Kaapo Kakko (say THAT five times fast! ) to the standard high end entry level contract of 3-years / $925K per.

Let the fast rebuild continue...……..

Edited July 11, 2019 by TropicalFruitGirl26