According to Vince Mercogliano of The Athletic, Jed Ortmeyer is out as New York Rangers’ director of player development.
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Video Transcript
Mike, looking at the teams that didn’t make the playoffs this year, who do you think is gonna be the most likely to bounce back and find their way into the mix next year, and why?
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I’ll give you one for each conference, and to me this is low-hanging fruit, but as a friend has said, “Low-hanging fruit is still nutritious.”
in the East, it’s the Florida Panthers.
I think they’ll get Barkov back.
I think they’ll end up re-signing Bobrovsky.
A lot of the injuries that have been incurred over the year, I think they’ll get them back.
And I believe they c- are now able to keep their first-round pick from, the, the Spencer Knight deal, because they’re, they’re gonna be in the top 10.
And if they do that, then they’ll get a, a good young player.
Maybe that player won’t make the NHL this year, but the, it’s a, a prospect that they haven’t had in a while.
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in the West, it’s the former President’s Trophy-winning Winnipeg Jets.
They had a bad year.
It got started off badly.
They never really recovered.
They played pretty good down the stretch.
you’ve got Hellebuych, who’s the best, one of the best goaltenders in the league, and some really good players up front.
They had injuries on defense.
I think they’ll bounce back, and they’ll be in the mix for the playoffs next year.
Yeah, low-hanging fruit is right, I think, for both of those.
definitely down years for two of the best teams in the league last year, and obviously the reigning Stanley Cup champions in Florida.
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Corinne, do you have any picks for which non-playoff teams this year are gonna be the most likely to find their way back into the mix next year?
I’m gonna reach a bit higher in the tree, and I’m going to go for not a team that’s necessarily going to bounce back, but one that’s gonna keep on growing the right way.
I don’t think anyone could bet against, the Baby Sharks carrying on and growing up nicely with, Macklin Celebrini.
I think he’s quite the leader, and, you know, the way they’ve been playing, I, I think they could quite possibly be in next season.
And in the East, I think I would go perhaps with the Columbus Blue Jackets.
They’ve only missed, you know, just missed for two years in a row.
And if Rick Bowness is brought back, I kind of get a sense that, you know, he might whip them back into shape.
But, yeah.