A fellow Ranger fan and I rapped a bit about our “ideal” (within the constraints of reality) line-up for the upcoming season.
This is what we came up with (parentheses indicate players we felt could be interchanged with any similar role-player) while [brackets indicate we know it won’t happen]:
Forward Lines:
Straka – Nylander – Jagr
Shanahan – Gomez – Hossa
Callahan – Cullen – Avery
Prucha (that’s a revision) – York – (Hollweg)
Defense Pairings:
Tyutin – Girardi
Roszival – Staal
[Souray] – Mara
Pock Despite what some of you are saying about York, putting him at the fourth line pivot automatically gives the Rangers more depth than they’ve had the past two seasons. Look at the Red Wings of ’97 and ’98 for a great example of the success that comes from rolling four full lines.
If it were economically feasible to have Souray, and then put him and Mara on the points for the power play, the Habs’ blueliner’s man-advantage goal total speaks for itself. Imagine a power play that produces like that. I’m up for disposing of Malik in the manner most advantageous to the club (but who would take him off the Rangers hands?).
For me, it’s still a toss up between Gomez or Drury, but my cohort liked Gomez and was emphatically in favor of him, his style of play and what he could bring to the club both tangibly and intangibly that I slotted him at the second line center.
Let’s see the line-ups you’d set up if you were GM. Sure, all of this is just idle fun … but it’s a good barometer of what we all think is good for the team.