The Dallas Stars might have won the Stanley Cup, and the Buffalo Sabres
might be the popular choice to make another run at the trophy in the curtain call
season for Dominik Hasek -- but the New York Rangers come into the new season with the most studied depth chart in the NHL.
The Rangers' "balance sheet" is also the most interesting in the NHL, and
we're not just talking about gate receipts and payroll stubs. On "balance" it appears
that the Rangers made enough additions in the summer to help make up for the retirements of Wayne Gretzky and Jeff Beukeboom, along with the departure of Ulf Samuelsson, who was traded at the end of last season.
|  | | Fleury is the highest-profile free agent to sign during the busy offseason. |
The additions were made in a free agent spending spree which netted Theo Fleury, Valeri Kamensky and Sylvain Lefebvre from Colorado, Stephane Quintal from
Montreal, Tim Taylor from Boston, and goalie Kirk McLean.
General manager Neil Smith also had what is being pre-judged as a remarkable draft day in which he maneuvered his way to right wing Pavel Brendl, who will score for the
organization at some point, along with left winger Jan Hlavac, who was acquired from Calgary.
After missing the playoffs for the past two seasons, Smith was given the go-ahead from ownership to venture into the free-agent market
and make some bold moves. The result was a dynamic summer in which Smith will either get a new life in his 11th season as the Rangers' GM, or he will be the
most popular choice for first GM fired in the next millenium.
"I think we've got most of the areas covered," Smith said. "I
think, at this point, with this team it's all going to be a matter of chemistry and
jelling. I don't want to be disrespectful of the competition, so I don't want to (project) where we're going to be, but I'm sure we're going to be a better team.
"I guess, in what you might call a mathematical equation, all things
being equal, we would expect to move up (in the standings) based on the fact that we think we've made more improvements than other teams in the conference."
But some of the "improvements" can only be called keeping pace. Remember,
this team lost Gretzky, Beukeboom and Samuelsson.
"You have to replace those three," Smith said. "So, in comes Quintal,
Lefebvre and let's say Fleury. And then remember, we weren't good enough last year. So
we've added players such as Kamensky and Taylor."
At least on paper, it would appear that the Rangers have all areas
covered except for the question of a second-line center. You can dream all you want that
Gretzky is still in the equation and able to play that role, or even that Mark Messier may come back to Broadway -- but it's not going to happen.
And though it is not a popular perspective, consider that the Rangers
will be a quicker team this season without Gretzky, and any thoughts about Messier are
very misplaced as the Rangers did a good job this summer of cutting some ties with
the past and building toward a better future.
Second-line center?
There were many who thought the job would belong to
19-year old Manny Malhotra, but Rangers coach John Muckler didn't need much
time in the preseason to declare that Malhotra didn't look ready to take on that
role as a regular assignment.
"The only issue that is not crystallized is second-line center," Smith said. "But the best year I've had since I was here was the year we did not have center ice
crystallized either. We had Messier, (Esa) Tikkanen, (Alexei) Kovalev, (Sergei) Nemchinov, and then we brought in (Craig) MacTavish in the end. But it was sort of an inner competition among the team as to who would end up where every night.
"And Mike (Keenan) played everybody, everywhere, anyway. Sometimes you go
into a season and what people think is a weakness doesn't end up a problem at
all, and something you think is all buttoned down turns into the problem.
"The second-line center (question) doesn't really bother me that much right now.
I think it's all going to come together with either (Michael) York or Malhotra or
Taylor."
Taylor has been the forgotten man in camp. He had his appendix removed
early on, and has not had a chance to make a strong impression. It's a long shot
that York could nail down that role right out of Michigan State, and the real long shot would be Jamie Lundmark as an 18-year old.
But if you skip past a name affixed as a definitive second-line center,
there should be some faith in the combination of Malhotra, Taylor and York mixing and
matching behind first-line center Petr Nedved to counter the strengths of the
opposition down the middle.
On the right side of the top two lines, the Rangers have Fleury and Todd
Harvey.
The other side has Kamensky and Adam Graves. It amounts to having five of the top
six spots relatively worry-free.
One player certainly used the preseason to nail down a spot as a regular --
Hlavac, whose play is going to push guys such as Eric Lacroix, Darren
Langdon, Mike Knuble, Kevin Stevens and even John MacLean, who actually saw some time at left wing during the preseason.
"Up front, we've got a very healthy situation of competition from within
our own organization," Smith said. "For the most part it's a question of which guys
we already have who are going to win those jobs, with guys like Brendl on the way."
On defense, the Rangers got a pleasant surprise by the pre-season play of
Kim Johnsson, the last player selected in the 1994 draft. But again the Rangers
defense and hopes are pinned on the shoulders of Brian Leetch. After that there is hope
that the additions of Quintal and Lefebvre will help beef up a defense which was soft
with the loss of Beukeboom last season. With those two plus Mathieu Schneider and Popovich the club should be able to clear the area in front of goalie Mike Richter.
More than any singular addition, all of the changes made by the Rangers
have turned them into what you might call "Team Agenda." Right from the office of
the general manager to the last player on the roster, this is a team which should have an
agenda when it hits the ice in October.
"It would be very disappointing if we came out of the shoot slow," Smith said. "This is a team with a lot of guys with things to prove."
Let's take a look at some of those agendas:
Nedved -- First full season back from a long hold out. He'll be out to prove he is a bona fide No. 1, "go to" center.
Fleury and Kamensky -- They will want to play with enough passion and
productivity to prove the Avalanche wrong. Especially in the case of Fleury,
there was a lot of talk that the Colorado front office was very disappointed with the way
he played in the playoffs, and never made any real attempt to keep him in Colorado.
Harvey -- Has to prove he is durable enough to play the whole season, and
that Ranger fans were lucky the deal for Ziggy Palffy fell through.
Stevens -- Has to prove he belongs in the league, or that he's
at the end of a career.
Knuble -- Is he a real player, or were the Red Wings right when their
depth chart had him as a fourth- or fight-line player?
Leetch -- He must be sick of missing the playoffs. The captain has to
lead the team back into the postseason.
Schneider -- Been in Muckler's dog house so long he has a leash at his
locker.
Popovich -- Had an eye injury last season, and needs to re-establish his
career.
The Rangers were a bizarre case study in 1998-99. On an individual basis,
a lot of players had statistics that the club should have been pleased with, but the team
never got going.
And in the early part of the season, there was no sense of urgency -- a
situation which
should not be repeated this fall.
Whatever direction is taken by the Rangers this season should be known
very early.
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Atlantic Division: Rangers up the ante
Northeast Division: Depth is a strength
Central Division: Wings unflappable
Southeast Division: Fighting for respect
Pacific Division: Stars stud of the group
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