Rangers Have Major Questions to Answer About Their Defensive Core Moving Forward

The New York Rangers are coming off an embarrassing loss on home ice to the Calgary Flames, and with that loss, they now find themselves on the outside looking into the playoffs. With most of the teams around them having games in hand, they are running out of time to gain these crucial points and have too many games recently in which they are playing poorly against weaker opponents. One of the main issues over this season and for a majority of the past few seasons has been the defensive play and the play of the defensemen in particular.

For years now, the major weakness of the Rangers has been their defensive play and not having a good enough defensive core to take them to a Stanley Cup championship. This trend has continued into this season and has gotten worse along with the entire team as this season took a turn nobody expected. With not many games left and teams around them getting hot at the right time, the Rangers need their defensemen to step up to end the season, but they also will have major questions to answer about their defensive core moving forward into next season and beyond.

No Legit Top Pair Defensive Options Outside of Adam Fox

The only player the Rangers can truly build their defense core around moving forward is Adam Fox. Despite him having a down year offensively, he is still by far and away the best defenseman on the team and will continue to be for years to come. He is amazing on both sides of the puck and when he is truly on top of his game, there is an argument to be made that he is the best defenseman in the entire league. While he doesn’t have the size or skating of a Cale Makar or Quinn Hughes, he makes up for it with his hockey IQ. He makes plays you wouldn’t think are possible, and he can make something out of nothing in very little time. He is signed for another four years at $9.5 million, and he will be the guy they build the defensive core around.

While having a player like Fox is great, he is the one carrying the load for the majority of the season and that is a major problem. The Rangers don’t have a second legit top-pairing defenseman who can either play with Fox or on a different pair and take some of the defensive responsibilities off of him. Ryan Lindgren was his partner for many years and while they were a great pairing, Lindgren was never seen as a true top pairing guy and when his play started to decline, he brought Fox down with him. Now that he is gone, the Rangers don’t have someone that can automatically fill that role. The players they have on the team now are just not good enough, and putting them in a top-pairing role would be putting them outside of their comfort zones, and it would not end well. So, one area that needs to be addressed this offseason is getting another top-pairing defenseman who can either play with Fox or take some of the burden off of him going forward.

What Will They Do with K’Andre Miller?

One player who is currently on the team that could have the potential to be a top-paring player is K’Andre Miller. The problem with him is that just when you think he is making the next step in his development, he takes two major steps back. He has just been too inconsistent and has yet to prove himself as even a legit top-four defensive option for this team, but he plays that role because they don’t have anyone else who can right now. This is now his fifth season with the Rangers, and yet it still feels like he is making the same mistakes that he was in his rookie season. It is tough to see him struggle because he has all the tools to become a top defenseman in the NHL. He has the size, speed, and reach, and when he wants to, he can be a physical threat. The issue is that he never can put it all together on a game-to-game basis. In some games, he looks very good and in others, it looks like he shouldn’t even be on the ice.

He is being brought up in this piece because he is a restricted free agent this offseason and will be looking for a long-term, big-money contract. He is one of two defensemen on the current roster that isn’t signed through at least next season. So, the big question is will the Rangers decide to stick with him long-term, or will they look to move him in a deal that gets them back at least a suitable top-four defensive option? There are pros and cons to Miller and his game, so they are going to have to decide if the upside is worth overlooking the weaknesses and will signing him long-term be a smart decision to make going forward.

Rangers Must Add Another Top-Four Defenseman This Offseason

Going into next season, the Rangers already have five of their current defensemen under contract. This includes Fox, Will Borgen, Braden Schneider, Carson Soucy and Urho Vaakanainen. If they decide to bring Miller back, that would be six, and they could say that these six players will be the guys they run with to at least start next season. The problem with that is those six aren’t good enough and probably won’t be next season as well. General manager Chris Dury needs to realize this and make a big splash to try and address his defensive core. Whether it’s via trade or free agency, the Rangers need to bring in another top-four defenseman this offseason.

It would likely be easier to go through free agency to try and find a top-four option, and the biggest name that could be available is Jakob Chychrun. He is having an amazing season with the Washington Capitals with 18 goals and 43 points in 63 games played. The Capitals will try to sign him to an extension, but if he does hit the free-agent market, the Rangers should be all over him, and he would be a great fit next to Fox. If he isn’t available, some other possible names to look at who could become free agents are Aaron Ekblad, Ivan Provorov, Vladislav Gavrikov, and Dmitry Orlov. All of these names have experience playing in big-time roles with their teams, and all of them would be upgrades over what the Rangers currently have going into next season.

The saying is “defense wins championships” and over the past few years, the Rangers’ defense hasn’t been good enough to win them championships. If this season is any indication of what is to come, it’s that this group still is not good enough and needs major upgrades if they want to improve going into next season. Drury is going to have a lot of questions to answer about this defensive core going forward, and he better make the right moves, or they could come back to hurt this team in the future.