Breakaway Takeaways – January 29th

[custom_headline type=”left” level=”h4″ looks_like=”h4″ accent=”true” id=”” class=”” style=””]Do It For the Kids[/custom_headline][text_output]We’re going to be beating this theme over your heads for the next several weeks leading up to the trade deadline – the Rangers need to sell. But, that doesn’t mean they aren’t capable of playing entertaining hockey, and that surely doesn’t mean everyone over the age of 30 needs to vacate the premises.

Yes, the likes of Nick Holden, Rick Nash, Michael Grabner and David Desharnais need to exit stage left. And yes, offers for Ryan McDonagh and Mats Zuccarello need to seriously be considered. However, there’s one elder statesman the Rangers may actually benefit from putting on their roster.

Jaromir Jagr.

Jagr could, in a way, serve as a player-coach for the Rangers down the stretch. Nobody has a deeper knowledge of what it takes to be an impact player in the league for decades on end, and he surely could pass wisdom/guidance on to the likes of Pavel Buchnevich and his countryman Filip Chytil. Plus, there isn’t a single fan who wouldn’t enjoy a trip down memory lane in what could become an ugly final two months of the season.

If Jagr is the one who no longer wants to hang around the NHL and head back to pasture in Europe, that’s his call. I can’t fault him for that. But it would be somewhat silly if the Rangers didn’t knock on his door one last time and see if he’d like to play the role of mentor, all while getting to skate again for an NHL team.

– Greg Kaplan[/text_output][image type=”thumbnail” float=”none” src=”1989″ alt=”” href=”” title=”” info_content=”” lightbox_caption=”” id=”” class=”aligncenter” style=””][custom_headline type=”left” level=”h4″ looks_like=”h4″ accent=”true” id=”” class=”” style=””]Hope Springs Eternal [/custom_headline][text_output]As I was constructing a new analytics learning resource that will be available on this site very soon (some of which you can preview already, just hover-over or tap any underlined statistic name you see, such as Game Score), I was forced to look at just how abysmal much of the Rangers on-ice results have been so far this season. Despite this, I still am fairly optimistic about this team going forward.

No, that does not mean I think that this team will have some magical turnaround and make a run for the cup this season; in fact, at this point I would bet the Rangers miss the playoffs entirely. But, I am optimistic, relative to many of my friends and many of you reading this at least, that the Rangers recognize that they are not a great team right now, and will make the appropriate moves to put themselves in a position to be competitive possibly as soon as next season. I can go on forever about why I feel this way, but for now, let’s just quickly discuss one particular reason why I’m feeling somewhat hopeful.

I personally was thrilled to read Larry Brooks’ recent article for the New York Post, where he emphatically stated that the Rangers will be sellers at the deadline. I understand that he was wrong a few times in the offseason, which people are pointing to as evidence to not believe Brooks’ current piece. However, if you go back and re-read his articles from the summer about the offseason plans, and then read how strongly worded this latest article is, they are night and day. Brooks CLEARLY trusts the information he was given here—whether he should or should not I guess can be debated—but fact of the matter is, Brooks was as plugged in as any beat writer for any team in the pre-Gorton era, and I haven’t seen him provide insider-type information with such conviction in a while.

[/text_output][image type=”thumbnail” float=”none” src=”1993″ alt=”” href=”” title=”” info_content=”” lightbox_caption=”” id=”” class=”aligncenter” style=””][text_output]Maybe I’m just being an optimist here and clinging to this for hope, but I personally believe Brooks here, and am hopeful that the team makes the correct decision and becomes sellers at the deadline. The most telling line in the article in my opinion, was the second paragraph here he states that, contrary to the beliefs of most fans, Jim the Kazoo man Dolan’s mandate is to “build a Stanley Cup winner rather than to simply extend a seven-year playoff streak that is in jeopardy.” As far as what the Rangers can realistically hope to receive in return for their UFAs (and possibly some of their more prominent non-UFAs); well folks, you’ll just have to check out the piece that Shawn Taggart and I will be publishing later this week.

– Drew Way[/text_output][custom_headline type=”left” level=”h4″ looks_like=”h4″ accent=”true” id=”” class=”” style=””]All-Star Rebuild [/custom_headline][text_output]The All-Star game as a kid was something I was excited for. Seeing all my favorite players come together to play for conference bragging rights was something I was excited about.

Now that I’m an adult. It’s boring to me now. The games mean nothing, they don’t have the bragging rights of the winning division giving its conference anything. Most importantly, they only focus on the stars that are household names.

How many people would like to see the young stars take center stage? Or even better yet, how many of you are beyond sick (as I am) of having Patrick Kane constantly shoved down our throats as the American star? Even ignoring the fact that by all accounts, Kane is a trash human being, the fact that the NHL refuses to promote any of these fantastic young players in America is beyond infuriating.

Take the youth movement that is pushing into this game represent your conference, or in this case division and show case them.

If the league isn’t interested in making the All-Star game about the youth movement, take into consideration the skills competition.

The NHL is the only league that I know that doesn’t take advantage of its young stars to make them and push them to be bigger. You want to find a way to make the younger stars more of a house hold name? You push them down our throats and put them in select games on the national level here in the United States, you make them the center piece of your All-Star Weekend. Bring back the Young Stars game if you must, just center the youth movement around more than just Eichel, McDavid and Matthews.

– Shawn Taggart[/text_output][image type=”circle” float=”none” src=”1996″ alt=”” href=”” title=”” info_content=”” lightbox_caption=”” id=”” class=”aligncenter” style=””]