Rangers FORCED into MASSIVE decision…

Rangers FORCED into MASSIVE decision…

The Rangers have been forced to make a massive decision. The Blue Shirts have had a busy offseason thus far, making some splashes and some sneaky good signings, but one major question mark still lingers. We’re going to break it down here in just a moment. Welcome back to Rangers Digest. I am your host, Brett Bodfeld, and it is great to be back with you guys on this beautiful Thursday, the 3rd of July, for another sizzling edition of Rangers Digest. And before I break down that major question mark that still lingers for the Rangers because it’s going to be a lineup decision that Mike Sullivan has to make here, folks. A quick reminder that about 77% of you that currently watch these videos are unsubscribed. So, what are you guys doing? Please hit that free subscribe button down below so you can stay up to date with everything New York Rangers. But not only that, you guys could be part of something special here at Rangers Digest. Let’s hop right into the video. The Rangers have had a busy offseason. A busy first day of free agency. It was for Chris Jury still being active here. And late late that night, the first day of free agency, the Rangers made a move. Not a splashy move, but they signed Taylor Radish to a 2-year contract worth $1.5 million per season. Here is what Chris Drury had to say after making the signing. He had some good offensive production from the third line in Washington. We like his size and he can play both wings. I think he’s a good valuable bottom six forward and kind of a good value signing for us. So guys, let’s get into Taylor Radish’s statistics here from last season. So Chris Jory thinks he’s going to get some solid offensive production here from Radish. So let’s start off talking about the good and then the bad. So the good is that this is a durable player. As you can see, coming off of 80 games played, didn’t have much ice time, but he did appear in 80 games out of 82 this season. If we take a look at his physical size and stature, he is 6’3, 216 lbs. He’s relatively young, uh, a young age 27. But now, let’s get into the to the bad here. So coming off a decent year, chipped in 27 points in 80 games, which isn’t horrible, but you know, he will be able to chip in uh the year prior. He was even worse. He was actually abysmal the year prior. So this past season was a bounceback for Taylor Radish, but this is a player who has shown he can really contribute offensively. going back to the 2022 2023 season with the Chicago Blackhawks. He was able to score 20 goals that season. Now, I know we’re a few years uh removed from that, but it’s still not too long ago that he was able to score 20 goals there. And uh this is a cost effective move. A guy that, like Chris Jury said, is expected to play bottom six. and the Rangers certainly need help uh when it comes to middle to bottom six at all uh positions uh all forward positions quite frankly. Other than that, I mean, he is an aggressive for checker and you know that Mike Sullivan loves that. He loves aggressive for checkers. He’s solid on defense, not outstanding. This is just a solid two-way player that the Rangers are acquiring here. Coming off a solid season, the year prior, like I said, was abysmal. and hopefully he could tap back into his Blackhawk days when he was able to contribute 20 goals there. Moving right along, let’s take a look at his JFresh hockey chart. So, this intrigues me a bit here. As you can see, it’s pretty obvious the strides that he made last season compared to the season prior. As you can see, his w his war percentile rank increased. You can see that his offensive production increased. Uh you can see here that defense dipped slightly, but like I said, he’s not a allworld defender. He’s a solid defender, but you’re not going to get uh you know, a defensive stopper out of Taylor Radish. And I know the Rangers aren’t expecting that. You know, we got our big uh defensive stopper in Vladislav Gabriov. So that’s good to see. Moving right along, as you can see, Ball Panaran, great account on X. He said, here’s two scenarios with the Rangers forwards. This is the first line would be Will at left wing, JT Miller at center, Mika at right wing. That second line would be Paneran, Trochek, Lafernier. Then the third line, Oman, Parsonin, Radish. Fourth line, that identity line, Edstrom, Carrick, and Rempy. Moving along to the other scenario is Kulie, Miller, Lafrrenier, Paneran, Mika, Peralt, uh, Oman, Troek, Radish, and then that identity first line. Guys, just going to cut to the chase here. I like the top scenario better after the acquisition of Taylor Radish. And the Rangers still have a major decision to make which I’m going to get into here in a second. But if you look at the balance here with this first scenario, you can see that at left wing, the Rangers are solid there. Will Kulie and Art Paneran, you’re going to get a ton of production there. Oman, I like what I see. Edstrom part of that identity fourth line. We don’t have to worry about that fourth line. At times last season, it was the best Rangers line. It was quite frankly winning them some games late in the year. Let’s move over to center. You can see the balance at center as well. Very solid. You have JT Miller on that first line with Vincent Troche, Parson, Sam Carrick. We have that identity fourth line. Then we move over to right wing, which you guys know I’ve been critical of the white of the right wing. So we have Ma Lafernier, uh Taylor Radish, the new acquisition, and Matt Rempy. So as you guys could tell by now, I’m content with that fourth line. So, I’m not really worried about, you know, I don’t need extreme production out of that fourth line. I just need them to be solid and do what they did last season. But if we look at the the balance here, especially from the top three lines from left wing, center to right wing, there’s some good balance there. If we take a look at this second scenario that Bald Paneran is pointing out to us, you can see that left wing is solid, but center is extremely heavy. You see how heavy center is. And then if you move over to right wing, it’s very very weak. Lafernier as your first right wing with Gabe Perau who didn’t score a point last season. Look, I like Gabe Perau. I know he’s skating right now with Patrick Kane and you know that was one of his favorite players growing up and he’s getting some tips from a Hall of Famer, but if you look at this right wing, it’s just not going to cut it. You’re not going to get enough production from Lafernier, Gabe Perau, Taylor Radish, and Matt Rempy. It’s just not going to cut it. If we look at the first scenario, there’s a lot more balance. You slide Mika Zabanagad over from third line center to firstline right wing. First of all, he’s making $8.5 million. So when you have a player making that much money, you expect him to be a firstline player, not a third line player. So it’s just outrageous to me that the Rangers would have a guy making nearly $9 million on that third line. And that is the major decision that Mike Sullivan is going to have to make here, folks. Does he keep Ma at center on the third line, or does he make the right move in my opinion? move him to right wing where we saw him score 28 goals in 25 games last season at right wing. We know how well he played with JT Miller. I would love to see him I mean the guy’s making so much money. I’d love to see him on that first line at right wing. He played better at rightwing last season guys. So Mike Sullivan’s going to have that major decision to make. Not me. That’s just my opinion. I’d love to see Ma over there on right wing. Moving right along just to stay on topic guys here folks. So this is actually from today from this morning and I just said the Rangers need some depth at rightwing. So this is from Mark Sheg. He says I don’t know the exact details but I am hearing former Columbus Blue Jackets Trey Fix Lansky has agreed to terms with the New York Rangers. And then you can see Vince Maglaniano here. He all but confirms that shortly after. He says, “From what I’ve gathered last night slash this morning, New York Rangers did in fact make a push for Maxim Shabinoff. Fix Wansky is a solid fallback option for scoring depth on the wing. So, let’s first guys get into Maxim Shabinoff because as Darius and I spoke about on stream, the Rangers were interested in him. came down to the Rangers or Islanders much like the Arti Paneran decision came down to many years ago and it looked like he was going to be an Islander but he turned out to be a Ranger which is great for us. But Shabinoff was was intriguing. He was an intriguing player from the KHL. The KHL is obviously uh a great league, the Continental Hockey League. Second best in my opinion and uh in a lot of people’s opinions when it comes to uh outside the NHL. I think it’s the best league in the world. And if we look at him, he really scored in that league. And we’ve had some great players come out of the KHL. You know, the Vaselkis of the world, the Kousnets offs of the world, the Capri offs of the world. So Shabino would have been a very, very intriguing gadget type player. He’s a prolific player. His speed is off the charts. Unfortunately, the Rangers were not able to get him. So, as you can see, Marciano says they checked in, but Fixable Lansky is a solid fallback option. So, this is a player that is 26 years old, provided scoring depth at right wing. He’s 5’7, 193 pounds. So, the good when it comes to him is that he scored 60 points or more in three consecutive AHL seasons. The bad when it comes to fixable Lansancy is his size. Can he play at that build in the NHL? We’ll just have to see. And also, in 26 NHL games, he was not very productive. He had six points and he was a minus six on the ice. So, we’ll see what happens with Fix Wansky. They signed him to the league minimum, one year, $775,000. Expect him to be in the minors for a bit here, but Vince Magliano does believe we can see him in the NHL sometime this season. So, I’m really curious to hear what you guys think about this. Do you guys think that the Rangers need to move Mika to right wing? Do you think they need to continue bringing in depth at right wing? because you guys know how concerned I’ve been about the right-wing position and fixansky is going to be a depth piece, but you know, I don’t expect him to start here uh you know to start off the season. So, I really like the the two scenarios that Bald Panaran gave us on X, those two lineup scenarios. I like the first one the best. I want to hear what you guys think in the comment section down below. Nevertheless, the Rangers still have to make move moves here, guys. Chris Jury has made it known he wants to continue improving the middle to bottom six forward position and I think Taylor Radish is a step in the right direction. But make sure you guys leave your comments below. Don’t forget we are on X now. So give us a follow at Rangers Digest YouTube. The YouTube is abbreviated so it’s Rangers Digestyt and the conversation will continue over there guys. We are very active on X and we’ll have all social media platforms up soon. And one last quick reminder that if you haven’t hit that free subscribe button, hit that free subscribe button down below so you can stay up to date with everything New York Rangers.

Bret Botfeld breaks down a busy offseason from the Blueshirts as one MAJOR question mark still lingers for Chris Drury, Mike Sullivan, and the rest of his staff.

Rangers Digest is a YouTube Channel dedicated to bringing you the latest news, trades, reports, analysis and rumors surrounding the New York Rangers. We cover everything from game highlights and player performances to in-depth analysis of team strategies and management decisions. Our channel focuses on key players such as Artemi Panarin, Mika Zibanejad, Adam Fox, Igor Shesterkin and JT Miller, as well as the insights of Head Coach Mike Sullivan and General Manager Chris Drury. Join us for comprehensive coverage and engaging discussions on all things Rangers!

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