Dobber’s offseason fantasy hockey grades – New York Rangers

For the last 17 years (12 with The Hockey News) Dobber has reviewed each team from a fantasy-hockey standpoint and graded them.

The 18th annual review will appear here on DobberHockey throughout the summer…er, winter. This is not a review of the likely performance on the ice or in the standings, but in the realm of fantasy hockey both for the season ahead as well as the foreseeable future. Offensively, will the team perform? Are there plenty of depth options worthy of owning in keeper leagues? What about over the next two or three years? These questions are what I take into consideration when looking at the depth chart and the player potential on that depth chart.

Enjoy!

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Gone – Michael Haley, Greg McKegg, Jesper Fast, Vinni Lettieri, Henrik Lundqvist, Lias Andersson, Marc Staal, Boo Nieves

Incoming – Anthony Bitetto, Jack Johnson, Keith Kinkaid, Colin Blackwell, Kevin Rooney

Impact of changes – The biggest change for the Rangers this offseason has nothing to do with trades or signings. It was the draft. Alexis Lafreniere adds an element to the forwards that no trade or signing could ever do. More on that further down.

The next biggest change was the fact that the team bought out the face of the modern-era franchise Henrik Lundqvist. With King Henrik off to Washington, the Rangers have handed the reins over to Igor Shesterkin. Sure, you'll have some poolies and 'experts' trying to convince you that Alexandar Georgiev is a great goalie in his own right and could theoretically become the starter. But, no. Not happening. Georgiev is an average backup goaltender. His 49.4 QS% in 77 NHL games isn't great, and hasn't improved at all over two years. His SV% has dipped from 0.918, to 0.914 to 0.910 – and last season the numbers didn't get better as he went long. He's still only 24 and has a bright future, but he has shown nothing to me that would indicate that he is a future star starter.

Meanwhile, Shesterkin has done nothing but excel at every level. A career SV% of 0.951 in the Russian VHL, a 0.947 in the Russian MHL, a 0.935 SV% in 117 career KHL games, a WJC silver medal, a WC bronze medal, and an Olympic gold medal. As a rookie in the AHL he made the All-Star team and posted a 0.934 SV% in 25 games. And in the NHL with the Rangers after 12 games he posted a 0.932 SV%. Letting in three or more goals is almost foreign to this guy. Shesterkin, who turns 25 on December 30, is the real deal and the net is his.

Ready for full-time – What more can I say about Lafreniere that hasn't already been said? He won't lead this team in scoring this year. Especially not with Artemi Panarin around. But that's where he's headed, possibly in three years. This season look for him to flirt with this year's equivalent of 70 points – even coming off the third line and first PP unit. To have him and Kaapo Kakko on the third line (I have them together with Filip Chytil on a new Kid Line) is bound to be exciting.

Shesterkin was already touched upon above, and it's hard to remember that he's still just a prospect with only 12 games under his belt. But don't worry about the lack of NHL experience. Go ahead and dive in with both feet on this guy – he's a safe play.

Kaapo Kakko played the entire season last year and he's probably going to stick with the big club again this time around. But I wanted to mention him because it's not a guarantee. I put it at 95% he makes the team. But last year he was often out of his element and some AHL time 'could' be in store in the early part of the campaign. Just beware of that possibility. But if he sticks, with the Rangers' depth up front he is bound to play with great players, likely even Lafreniere. So he could surprise.

Julien Gauthier was picked up in a quiet deal in February, and he quickly showed that he was NHL-ready, playing in 12 games for the Rangers and not looking out of place. He got into all three play-in games, too. He has become nearly a point-per-game player at the AHL level and at 6-4, 227 pounds he needed a couple of extra seasons to develop. I think Carolina may have given up on him too early, even though they got a nice return in defenseman Joey Keane. Gauthier should be good for 20 points and 60 Hits in the 56-game season, but longer term I think he can be a 50/150 player.

Vitali Kravtsov showed last season that he was not at all ready for North American pro hockey. However, with his extra time in the KHL this fall he has been doing very well. He's getting a leg up on everyone else in the NHL with the playing time, and so instead of being a longshot to make the club – let's put him at 50/50. The skilled winger is not going to take the world by storm in his first season, but with his talent he has tremendous upside in the long term.

New York Rangers prospect depth chart and fantasy upsides can be found here

Fantasy Outlook – The rebuild has been ridiculously good. Teams can only 'dream' of having such a quick, successful rebuild. It sure helps to be able to sign a franchise player such as Artemi Panarin, have a top prospect defenseman like Adam Fox push to be traded to your team, and draft a stud goalie prospect like Shesterkin seven years before he's ready (let's face it – projecting out by seven years is just throwing darts). The also struck gold when Mika Zibanejad decided that he was a superstar sniper. The 27-year-old scored 41 goals in 57 games (!) last year. He has missed significant time in three of the last four seasons so he would need to put a stop to the frequent injuries if he's going to truly ascend. All the same, when he does play, the Rangers have enjoyed that second elite element up front and it has absolutely contributed to the quick rebuild.

But… falling bass-ackwards into the first overall draft pick during a Lafreniere-caliber draft sure helps too. I've never seen such great luck for a rebuilding team.

So now the Rangers have three lines that can seriously put the puck in the net and three elite offensive defensemen in Fox, Tony DeAngelo and Jacob Trouba with another one (Nils Lundkvist) on the way. The only issue with the latter is that all four of those youngsters shoot right. The defense options who shoot left is a pretty spotty list. But that's nothing that a trade or two can resolve.

Between the pipes is, for my money, the top young goaltender in the NHL. Sure, he's unproven. But if I'm wrong, then Shesterkin is 'merely' a 10^th or 12^th best goalie. If I'm right and he's the best, then you will thank me for reaching for him at the draft in keepers. So we have elite offense up front. Elite offense on the blue line. And a top goalie between the pipes. If you're rebuilding in your keeper league and you have four or five Rangers on your squad, you're gonna do fantastic.

Fantasy Grade: A (last year was B)

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2020 Offseason Fantasy Hockey Grades

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Washington

Vegas

Vancouver

Toronto

Tampa Bay

St. Louis

San Jose

Pittsburgh

Philadelphia

Ottawa