Hockey Trade Rumors

NewYorkRangers.com is reporting that the Rangers have made their final roster cuts and have finalized their 23 man roster going into the 2007-2008 NHL season.

http://www.newyorkrangers.com/pressbox/pressreleases.asp?id=3043

The final four cuts were as follows:
Goaltenders – Al Montoya
Defense – Andrew Hutchinson
Forwards – Artem Anisimov, Nigel Dawes

The opening night roster is as follows:
Goaltenders — Henrik Lundqvist and Steve Valiquette

Defense — Dan Girardi, Marek Malik, Paul Mara, Thomas Pock, Michal Rozsival, Marc Staal, Jason Strudwick, and Fedor Tyutin.

Forwards — Sean Avery, Blair Betts, Ryan Callahan, Chris Drury, Brandon Dubinsky, Scott Gomez, Ryan Hollweg, Marcel Hossa, Jaromir Jagr, Colton Orr, Petr Prucha, Martin Straka, and Brendan Shanahan.

Analysis: The major surprise here is that Nigel Dawes did not make the team. If anyone went to or saw any Ranger preseason games (which I did), it was clear that Dawes outplayed Hossa, and in my opinion, earned a spot on this team, but due to the fact that if Hossa were to be demoted, he would have to clear waivers (which he almost certainly would not) and Dawes is waiver-protected, the decision was made to keep Hossa. I am not happy to see Dawes cut, and I frankly don’t think Hossa should have been resigned, but Dawes will get the first look upon any injury to a winger.

I am happy to see that Brandon Dubinsky and Marc Staal both made the team. It is nice to see such a mixture of youth and experience on this team. I am a little skeptical of the idea of carrying 8 defensemen, but we’ll see how that works out.

Based on what I saw in the preseason game in Philadelphia (which the Rangers won despite some dirty hits and unnecessary fights sparked by Jason Smith), the lines should look a little something like this.

Straka – Drury – Jagr
Shanahan – Gomez -Avery
Prucha – Dubinsky – Callahan
Hossa – Betts – Orr
Hollweg

The defensive pairings seem to be a bit up in the air, but I would assume them to be something like this.

Rozsival – Malik
Tyutin – Girardi
Mara – Staal
Strudwick – Pock

Goal
Do I even have to tell you who the goalie is? Didn’t think so.

It will be interesting to see how the season develops. I think the Rangers have enough strong youth in Hartford that if the need arises, they can dip into that pool and bring up a player (Dawes, Lauri Korpikoski). I don’t think the cap will be an issue because I don’t think they really need to go out there and bring in any type of player that would help this team more than a young guy who has gone through the system and has grown up a Ranger.

Offensively, I don’t see many teams that can match the firepower the Rangers can throw out on the ice on a nightly basis. Defensively, they may not be all-stars, but as a whole, they play very well.

The Rangers should be the Eastern Conference representative in the Stanley Cup Finals, but as we all know, it doesn’t always work out the way we think it will. That’s why they play the games.