Yesterday afternoon’s press availability with Alain Vigneault revealed a bit more of where the coaching staff is at assembling the opening night roster. According to Steve Zipay at Newsday, AV mentioned the Rangers still have “two or three decisions up front and two or three decisions on defense.”
AV: Still 2 or 3 decisions to be made upfront and on defense, so unclear what lineup with be in pre-season finale Thursday
— Steve Zipay (@stevezipay) October 2, 2016
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AV said #NYR will make cuts following Monday’s game in Philadelphia.
— New York Rangers (@NYRangers) October 2, 2016
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Late last week, I talked a bit about where I thought the Rangers were on roster spots that had to be made on the offensive side of the puck so today we’ll focus on the defense.
Aside from an unexpected trade or waiver placement, McDonagh, Klein, Girardi and Staal are the obvious inclusions. AV also stated yesterday that Holden is comfortable playing on the right side, which could easily doom McIlrath and any chance he has on playing everyday.
As far as Skjei is concerned, if the Rangers opt to go with 7 defensemen and there’s no reason to believe this will happen, it’s entirely possible that Skjei is the odd man out as he is still waiver-exempt and could get a bit of time in Hartford to start the year and would prevent the Rangers from having to hold their breath in exposing someone to waivers.
The team as a whole is in a weird spot. I still think there’s a move involving a veteran coming down the line to free up the logjam with some maneuvering to prepare for the expansion draft next summer. It’s awfully difficult to properly assess the youth movement on defense when they can’t crack the everyday lineup and when you have a stubborn coach who holds longer leashes for less deserving players.
Photo credit: (Al Bello/Getty)
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