Pool Outlook for New York

We're now at the one-third mark of the Pool Outlooks and we have come to the New York Rangers, who were not terribly far off from making the playoffs in 2010, but just far enough to drum up some general concern for the 2011 season.  The Rangers will middle of the pack when it came to goal scoring and fairly decent when it came to keeping the puck out of their own net, so they do have something to build off when they go to work this Summer, starting to build another championship team.  They had to do a lot of shifting last Summer, so it could be a much quieter silly season by comparison.

To be fair, there were a lot of doubts surrounding Marian Gaborik when he signed with the New York Rangers.  I wouldn't say doubts about his skill, because that really couldn't possibly be the case.  Gaborik is one of the most offensively gifted players in the NHL.  No, the doubts were going to be around his health and I think there was some lingering concerns about how he would fit in with the Big Apple.  When concern yourself no more, as Gaborik exploded onto the season in the Big Apple and he came away with a team-leading 86 points (42 goals and 44 assists) in 76 games for the Rangers. He came in as advertised, but unfortunately, that wasn't enough for the Rangers to make it into the playoffs.

Behind Gaborik, there was a little bit of a depth issue in the forward ranks, as the Rangers only had two more forwards that scored 20 goals... not 20+ goals, 20 goals, period.  Vaclav Prospal and Brandon Dubinsky finished with 20 each in the year and they were pretty good for the most part, but nowhere near consistent.  The Rangers managed to snag Olli Jokinen out of Calgary, but that didn't turn out to be as big of deal as the Rangers may have wanted.  Jokinen finished with 50 points in 82 games between the two cities.  Ryan Callahan had a pretty good year with the Rangers, 37 points in 77 games as a 3rd line grinder, but his game is maturing a bit more and I expect good things from him in 2011.  There was a noticeable slip in production from Chris Drury this past season, as he only picked up 32 points in 77 games, dropping him down in the rankings just a little bit further.  Drury has been on the decline in the past four seasons.

What a prospect Michael Del Zotto turned out to be in the 2010 season, eh?  I did think he may not have been ready at this time last year, but he was definitely out to prove that he's an NHL-ready player and he did that by leading the Rangers in scoring from the blueline.  Del Zotto picked up 37 points in 80 games for the Rangers, which was by no means incredible, but he had to take it upon himself to do it.  Marc Staal also stepped up this season, picking up 27 points in 82 games, making strides to new career-highs this year.  Del Zotto and Staal are a pair that will grow well together in the years to come.  Matt Gilroy was also a pleasant surprise as a rookie, picking up 15 points in 69 games, showing that there is plenty of youth there.  Unfortunately, it was the veteran defenders that suffered in their play, as Dan Girardi, Michal Rozsival and Wade Redden were not as good as they should have been.

In goal, it was another year to lean on Henrik Lundqvist for the Rangers, which makes sense, as he is a pretty good goalie.  Lundqvist did have his own struggles this season, he wasn't as dominating as he has been in the past.  He had a poor-to-mediocre Olympics and he couldn't really recover in a hard-playing schedule, where he figured into 73 of the Rangers 82 games.   Lundqvist did win 35 games and pick up 79 points for the poolies, but being backed up by a myriad of keepers all year, didn't give the Rangers a lot to trust besides their number one guy.  The Rangers are desperately in need of giving that guy a hand.

2011 Season Outlook
There are parts of the Rangers I really like and would be really looking forward to in 2011, but there are other parts that the team still has to sit on, even past the 2011 season. The Rangers will be hard at work trying to fill in the gaps in their line-up with free agency and some prospects, but their core should be applauded, as it stands as one of the more impressive groups.

Forwards	Defense	Goalies
Marian Gaborik	Michael Del Zotto	Henrik Lundqvist
Brandon Dubinsky	Michal Rozsival
Ryan Callahan	Matt Gilroy
Chris Drury	Wade Redden
Sean Avery
Aaron Voros
Brian Boyle

This group listed above is the starting off point for the Rangers heading into the Summer. Unfortunately for management, it's not a very cheap group of players and those who are really overpriced are going to be impossible to move. Currently, the 12 players listed above come in with an annual salary cap hit of $43.4 million, which only leaves in the neighbourhood of $14 million for 11 players. That isn't exactly a great jumping off point, but if the Rangers are going to use some entry-level contracts to fill gaps, then they should be able to save space.

The Rangers will have some bigger names hit unrestricted free agency this Summer, as Vaclav Prospal, Olli Jokinen, Erik Christensen, Alex Auld and Jody Shelley are eligible to become free agents on July 1st.  My expectations are pretty low on the Rangers re-signing most of these guys, but I would expect Prospal to likely get an offer or at least have some sort of negotiations about staying.  I'm not 100% sold on it, but I could see it happening.

The Rangers have a lot of work to do with their restricted free agents coming up, as some key young players are coming up on their first big payday.  Artem Anisimov, Marc Staal, Dan Girardi and Brandon Prust will be priorities one through four, not in that particular order though.  There could be a lot of cap space taken by a couple of these guys, while depth should get paid as depth.  The cap crunch may hit the Rangers a little harder than you once thought.

The Rangers youth system took a turn for the better in the past 12 months, as they now have some more credible talent coming up the ranks.  Derek Stepan really made a name for himself at the World Juniors, as did Chris Kreider.  Those are two very thrilling forwards that the Rangers should get a good look at in camp this coming year.  Ryan McDonagh was picked up from Montreal during the Summer and Bobby Sanguinetti are big guys working on their blueline skills.   The Rangers are also expecting to see Chad Johnson in the back-up role for Lundqvist in a full-time sense, so he might be one to look at, if you're drafting for back-up goalies.

The Rangers hold the 10th pick overall in the Entry Draft this June and I would imagine they will just be going after the best available player at the time.

What I said at this time last year: "Other than Henrik Lundqvist, there really isn't a player that I would be in a rush to pick up, if I was doing a fantasy draft right now. Gomez is down... Drury is down...Rozsival is down... Redden is down... the Rangers have nothing of increasing value at the minute. There could be some hope with a new face or two in the line-up come next Fall, but I am having a hard time believing that the 2010 season will be much different. With cap woes on the horizon, we could see a different team playing in MSG altogether, which wouldn't necessarily be a bad thing."

I think that was a pretty fair assessment of the Rangers at the same time last year, don't you think?  Gomez was shipped out, saving him from some merciless jeers, Drury went down again, Rozsival indeed dropped, Redden fell again... and that was all before Gaborik & Del Zotto came to town.  Yes, there were a couple players that did come in on the rise, but they weren't huge number or big pool players, so it wasn't terribly noticable.  The Rangers did make the playoffs in 2009, but 2010 was a different story and change did blow it's way in.

As for 2011, the Rangers are still being weighed down by some heavy cap contracts in Redden, Drury and Rozsival, which likely cannot be moved easily, if at all.  The only player I expect better things from in 2011 is Rozsival, but even then it's a bit of a stretch.  The Rangers will definitely be in the hunt for the playoffs, either just making it or just missing it, but it's going to be close again.  The Rangers will ride heavily on their veterans to see the young kids through a grueling season, but improvements will definitely be in store for Del Zotto, Staal, Callahan and Gilroy.