Rangers Stuff

The Rangers weren't allowed to talk to Trouba before they traded for him, so they will begin their contract talks with his agent, today.  Also today, the front office is travelling to Vancouver, which is the site of this year's draft. They're going their early, with tradeable assets. Let's hope they can get back into the first half of the first round Friday Night.  Would love to see them get Zegras or Caufield or Newhook or a falling Podkolzin.  I'm not leaving out Turcotte, I just don't see him falling past 3 or 4.  If he does, the Ranges must pounce. Though I think Zegras might be their target. Few others, too. I really do hope they get someone from the USNTDP, which has turned into an amazing player development machine.

Speaking of player development, it's been a problem for the Rangers, so it's being revamped. Players weren't developing at all down there, so we saw the situation this year where Libor Hajek looked average in the AHL, then came up and lit the rink on fire for 5 games before getting injured.  Yankees were like that for awhile, too. Just using the minors to play games, while they hunted for other people's big leaguers. That changed several years ago, unless they get injured and miss time, the kids are just getting better in the minors and coming up when called upon and excelling - like Thairo Estrada did, and most others have.

The Rangers need the same kind of system, and it might be wise to try to hire someone away from the USNTDP, because it's been been developing so many first round type players lately. They need to find their Gary Denbo.  And it's sort of unclear where they're going in the revamping, but two years into his term, Ortmeyer hasn't accommplihed much. So did he not have the institutional support or is he just not up to the job?  I guess we'll see.

We do know that part of the program will involvine 3 or 4 development guys, most here and one in Europe, who will keep an eye on the college prospects, like a K'Andre Miller, the kids in Sweden like  Nils Lunkdvist, the Fins, like Tarmo, etc. We know that Tanner Glass is one of them, and he's probably handlind Europe.

Also the Harford Coach hasn't been named, and it's unclear if he or his staft have been chosen.  If only the Rangers and a guy like the Toronto Marlies, Sheldon Keefe.... Oh, yeah, they had Sheldon.  I guess they didn't see whatever it is that has Toronto continually extending him.

Anyway, the goal of revamping Player D has been articulated by Davidson and perhaps they'll announce something while they're in Vancouver.