Traverse City Primer

By now you surely have seen the roster and schedule for the Traverse City tournament so I won't re-post the full release here. I will just throw out some observations:

*There are eight teams split in two divisions - the Gretzky and the Howe. The Rangers are in the Great One's, as are Columbus, Carolina and Minnesota. Atlanta will not be back this year but Stevie Ys Bolts will take their place in the Howe alongside St. Louis, Dallas and Detroit. The Blueshirts finished third in '09, with Carolina beating Minnesota for the title. Other teams have yet to release their rosters but the likelihood of the Canes repeating is slim as Brandon Sutter and Jamie McBain are now NHLers. My guess is that the Blues, who the Rangers defeated for third, will be tough to beat as they have a lot of good, young talent yet to break their NHL roster.

*Only a select few will be able to actually watch the games as the NHL Network has decided to cheap out and not cover the tournament. Because you need to watch the top 10 goals of 2001 or Game 3 of this season's Bruins/Sabres series again. The other sports networks cover their sports year round, why doesn't the NHL? Oh yeah, Gary's 7.2 million dollar salary has to come from somewhere.

*The 'big' names on the Ranger roster will be Derek Stepan, Evgeny Grachev, Ryan McDonagh and Dylan McIlrath. Grachev is one of seven Future Blue playing for the second straight year. Hopefully McIlrath will show signs of the play that I saw that made me the only one outside of Gordie Clark to select McIlrath for the Blueshirts.

*Sam Klassen is one of the eight returnees. He had a good showing last September and I'd love to see him star this time around. Goaltender Scott Stajcer split time with Chad DosNueve last time and was clearly the inferior goaltender. This time he will go against Cameron Talbot, a college kid the Rangers signed this spring. Stajcer needs a good showing so he can show he isn't another Antoine Lafleur. Ethan Werek and Roman Horak both return after having solid seasons. Jess at Prospect Park has raved about the development of both so Traverse City should be a good test of their progress.

*Five of the six players the Rangers selected at the draft will be in Michigan, only Jesper Fasth won't be making it. We will finally get a chance to hear about the virtually unknown Jason Wilson and see if Randy McNaught has any skill to go with his size (I doubt it). Christian Thomas can line up alongside returnee Ryan Bourque to see who is shorter, who is faster and who has the better sniping skills.

*There are, of course, a few undrafted free agents on the roster. Undersized at 5'10, 178, Brendan Shinnimin from Tri Cities will try to show off the skills and toughness that led him to pick up 107 points and 111 PIM over the Americans' 92 games last season (including playoffs). That is the kind of score line that has me drooling but he did that against kids, could he do it against men far bigger and stronger than himself? One of Dale Hunter's proteges in London, Colin Martin has decent size (6'1, 205) but questionable talent - he had 33 points in 62 regular season games but 11 in 10 postseason. Both Shinnimin and Martin are forwards, on the blueline will be Bruin Brandon Manning. Not Boston Bruin but Chilliwack. His numbers - 75 games, 60 points and 148 PIM - are fantastic for a defenseman, leading me to believe that there is a major flaw somewhere in his game as he went undrafted. Let's hope not and hope that the Rangers giving him a chance gives them a chance to sign a diamond in the rough.

*Unless something significant happens - the Rangers don't sign Frolov after all, Sather pulls a trade out of his nether regions, a major injury bug sweeps Broadway - the likelihood that any of these kids will pull on Blueshirts this season is not particularly good. That means that Traverse City will be the lone spot where we can see whether this new "commitment to youth" by the Ranger brass is paying off. Fingers crossed!

Tread Carefully With Stepan

If Brooksie is right and the Rangers have signed Derek Stepan, let's hope he doesn't make the team. Let him spend a year in the W as the leap from the NCAA is too much ... just look at what happened with Hobey. Matt Gilroy came out of the gates well but clearly ran out of steam by Christmastime, resulting in first the demotion and then the end-of-season benching. It is one thing to star playing against kids two, three years younger than you while playing 40 games and it is another to face professionals over a grinding 82 game schedule.

As we saw in the World Juniors and the Frozen Four, Stepan has skill and it is easy to dream of him centering the first line of the Blueshirts. But let's face it, with few exceptions, making the NHL is a process and the Rangers would be well served not rushing him through it. As always - to our dismay - they will not be rebuilding and will attempt to challenge for a playoff spot. Burdening this kid with that is simply not worth it in the long run.

"Can't Figure It Out, I'm Slippin' Fast"

I know that in past years I posted a bit more over this month and I let things slip a bit this time around. So I just want to jot down some quick notes on stuff that I let slip:

*The Ranger home page is actually doing a good job providing new video content with interviews with the Rangers who are coming through the training center to run their kids camps. They also are putting in updates on the Future Blue that are playing for the red, white and blue. If you haven't heard of Derek Stepan before, you will soon. He should look great on the Blueshirts alongside fellow collegians Carl Hagelin, Max Campbell and Ryan McDonagh in a few seasons.

*The Wolf Pack will be playing at the Rock twice against the Lowell Devils twice this season, which will be great for those of us who can't get up to Hartford. But on the bad side of things, one of the two games fall on the same night as a Ranger home game. The Rangers play the Stars - Avery vs. the A-holes who treated him so poorly - on January 6th so many diehards who would go, won't. The other date, February 3rd is clear. But you have to ask about the reasoning for New Jersey to do this. The Rock is half empty for Devil games, who will show up to watch their terrible AHL team play? Lowell didn't make the playoffs last season and the franchise doesn't have many top-flight prospects. I figure that the Devs will do like the Isles did during the lockout when Bridgeport played at the Mausoleum: bus in fans from Lowell and give free tickets to season ticket holders and local schools just to make sure there are bodies in the stands.

*I personally loathe SNY but have to admit that their Ranger blog is pretty damn good. The link has been added to the blogroll on the right, which I've updated with more sites that I've found and enjoyed. If you have a site that isn't up there and think it should be, drop me an e-mail.

*nhLOL is still bringing the lolz.

*And a h/t to the guys at HFBoards for being all over the news. They caught Brooksie's latest column as it came out a few hours ago and are already are discussing the news - Mark Messier will return as part of the organization. This could be a good thing - think Yzerman on the Wings and Ron Francis on the Canes - but at some point you have to wonder how much mileage this franchise will get out of '94. Adam Graves is already a big part of the team and Mike Richter likely would be as well if he wasn't out hugging trees and preparing for public office. But then again, I've heard good things about Jeff Beukeboom's coaching skills and wouldn't mind seeing the big man back heading our blue line ...