Ahead of Wednesday night's 2024-25 season opener in Pittsburgh, editor-in-chief Dave Brezow joins Post's Rangers beat writer Molly Walker and Hockey Hall of Fame columnist Larry Brooks to discuss some of the Rangers' issues. Check.
Larry, you've written a lot this offseason about how the Rangers are almost “getting back” with the same core that got them so close to winning the Stanley Cup but ultimately didn't win it. Sam Carrick and Riley Smith are the only players new to this organization, but what has to happen over the next six months to get this group good enough to finally take home a trophy? Or?
brooks: Is it too flippant to suggest that the most important day of the season will be the March 7th trade deadline? Probably, but for the past three deadlines, general manager Chris Drury has… A swarm of draft picks to find the missing piece.
However, with 62 games to go until the deadline, manager Peter Laviolette will have to expand the role of the club's young players (the head coach vowed to do so late last week), and young players will have to take another step forward. must be taken. Specifically, that means Alexis Lafreniere, Capo Kakko, Will Quill, Quandre Miller, and Braden Schneider. Of course, Filip Sittil is in a category of his own. The Rangers also need to add more physical elements to their game so that it won't be a foreign concept when the playoffs come around.
