The Recent York Rangers are looking for an identity and facing a number of questions
Every day Faceoff: David Pagnotta was asked in regards to the Recent York Rangers and their early-season struggles. They aren’t going to rebuild if things don’t go well, but could undergo a retool as they appear to search out their identity. Which direction will they ultimately look to go in?
** NHLRumors.com transcription
Colby Cohen: “And I would like to remain within the metro with you, and I hope, I hope Johnny’s watching, because I would like to refer to you in regards to the Recent York Rangers and the difficulty that they’re having. You already know, we spent an excellent period of time this morning talking about Brennan Othmann and why the Recent York Rangers aren’t just going to let this guy go. I mean it, which, again, like is sensible to me. Why are you going to let him walk out the door, potentially, go have success some other place, and then you definately appear like a idiot, unless there’s a giant name guy coming back the opposite way?
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But like, I have a look at Will Culley, and I have a look at (Alexis) Laferniere’s on the wing, and I take into consideration their goal-scoring struggle. It’s like, what’s Chris Drury gonna do since you didn’t bring Mike Sullivan in to be an okay team? You paid him a ton of cash. Now you bought to provide him the weapons to exit and be a competitive team. And at once, they only can’t rating enough to actually compete on the high enough level.
Pagnotta: “Yeah, no, I agree with you. There’s, the struggles there are real. And it’s, it’s, they only don’t know what they’re, look that is used on a regular basis now, but they don’t know their identity. They’re trying to search out what their identity really is. Everybody’s utilizing that term at once, but of their case, it’s totally valid. They, they, they’re in flux.
And you already know, with a man like (Artemi) Panarin, who’s a UFA at the tip of the 12 months, with whatever direction this team is eventually entering into, they need to make an internal decision as to what they need to do with them. Do you exit and check out to, attempt to hold on to them and add additional pieces? Are you able to this season? Or do you progress him out, usher in young assets, usher in additional pieces? And this will likely be something later within the season anyway.
But attempt to, attempt to retool on the fly, like this just isn’t a team that’s going to undergo a quasi-rebuild like they did a lot of years ago, where they form of faked it. Ended up getting Lafreniere first overall, after which decided to maintain adding.
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Like this can be a team that’s going to need to be able where they got to, it’s a retool. So, depending on how this season goes, you already know, is (Mika) Zibanejad going to give you the option to step up much more this season? Is Panarin? Are there other pieces on this club? How’s the, how’s (Igor) Shesterkin going to do with a number of the guys in front of him? Is he going to give you the option to bail them out in certain circumstances?
Like this can be a team that, as you said, struggling to attain. Can other pieces on this club step up so as to push them a little bit bit forward? Can they get right into a consistent discussion of playoff contention?
And if not, then, yeah. Chris Drury has some serious questions that must be answered. Do you go big fish hunting again in a unique sense, and look to make significant hockey-type, blockbuster-esque moves by moving out key pieces so as to usher in additional key pieces, or other key pieces?
It’s a tough situation for the Rangers, because, you’re right, they brought in Mike Sullivan to assist push this team forward. Like with that ownership as well, it’s just barking down at them, like, refill the constructing, get into contention, get us back into contender status, and push for for top spot, you already know, within the Metro. It’s, it’s a giant task.
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They don’t know what they’re, I don’t like, I don’t, management I don’t think knows exactly what they’ve got either. So there’s plenty of different internal struggling that they should do by way of just visualizing exactly what path they need to take before they begin making moves. Like they’ve got some on paper, some, some pieces there, boys, nevertheless it’s just not gelling still.
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