Going to forego a typical recap from the Rangers 3-1 win over the Devils last night to talk about Brandon Pirri, who has easily been the biggest storyline to the first pair of preseason games.
Last season at the trade deadline, there were many fans and bloggers who wanted the Rangers to go out and get this guy who was assumed to be available for trade from the Florida Panthers. Pirri, despite his 11 goals in 52 games while playing in Sunrise didn’t appear to be a good fit for Gerard Gallant’s system, going in and out of the lineup as a healthy scratch. Pirri wound up finding himself forced out of action altogether when he twisted his ankle in a February 13th game against Nashville which caused him to miss a month. Eventually, he was traded from Florida to Anaheim and was injured again after playing just 9 games for the Ducks after they gave up a 6th rounder for him.
The arbitration eligible winger took most of the summer before signing with the Rangers on August 25th to a one year, $1.1 million contract. His role is clearly a top nine one in AV’s system, who wants 3 lines that can score and defensive minded fourth line that can PK, which is some far suited from Pirri’s skill-set.
There are spots available on the Rangers, provided the makeup of the team isn’t handcuffed to defined roles designed to specific players’ skills. No one is going to equate Pirri as a 200 foot skater which is part of the reason why he’s on his fourth team in the last four seasons. As odd as it may sound, a team that is willing to deal with Pirri’s defensive shortcomings will be the one that reaps the dividends of a potential 25 goal scorer on the top nine.
How the Rangers are going to construct the bottom of the lineup is based around a couple things. One: how patient is AV going to be with the rookies? While I think Vesey is going to be OK as he gets more accustomed to the pro game no matter where you put him, Buchnevich is a bit of a wild card. Do you leave him where he’s comfortable up in a top six role with Kreider and Zibanejad, or does he move down or out of the lineup for someone like Pirri or Miller? Second: Does AV truly think that Glass and perhaps Max Lapierre have spots on the everyday lineup with the skill players the Rangers have elsewhere?
The “defensive fourth line” roles as AV wants muddy the water to figuring out how the coach finally gets to his opening night lineup moving forward. The Rangers skilled depth so far this preseason has been a testament to Jeff Gorton and what he wants to see out of the Rangers moving forward. Hopefully the coach eventually sees it that way too.
Photo credit: Al Gallo/Getty
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