Carolina would be the worst possible playoff matchup for this team. They’re really good and they have a strong PK. Loss here basically locks in Rangers vs Pittsburgh. Should be a good series.
50 for Kreider. What an unbelievable season! A hot streak early in the season turned into one helluva year.
couple years ago the question was do we re-sign him or not. I fell on the re-sign him side. SOme thought too old.
i dont mean to toot my own horn, i must admit to bein biased about this player since he broke into the league and scored a fistful off playoff goals for us.
The question is whether this is his new level or his career season? I think you keep him with Zibanejad and add a scoring RW and you might have a top 10 line in the NHL - something the Rangers have been missing for awhile. Let Panarin feed Lafreniere and maybe Chytil and the Rangers have dynasty potential, what with Igor and the defense they have.
likely a career year, see jukius randle. however... the thing i have notced is that he really seems to have specialized in his tip ins and his goal mouth play... which could mean that he's bumped up from a 20-30 goals per season to the 40ish per season range.... am not really down with demoting Artemi to play w/ those mentioned... 80+ pts pere year IS a scoring winger
The 50 goal mark is definitely a career season but there's no reason to think he can't get 30-40 a season. The dude's tip-in skill is ridiculous.
It's not a demotion for Panarin. He'd be feeding the Rangers best player moving forward in Lafreniere. The Rangers would likely have two A lines in that scenario which is something you almost never see except on a dynasty team.
Problem is both Lafreniere and Panarin play LW and Laffy has already said he's uncomfortable playing RW. They gotta let the kid develop at his natural position first. I'd rather not move Panarin he's putting up 80+ points. Lafreniere needs to find a way to get minutes on PP1
Lafreniere could play C. The opportunity to play with Panarin should be more than enough to convince him. He's already indicated he'd be willing to try a switch to C.
