Devils or Rangers: Who has the better future?

[Dread Clawz]

Devils are stronger at center for the future, that is still the Rangers' weakness. They should have pulled the trigger on Eichel by now, not sure why they haven't. Both teams look really stocked in goal. The Rangers to me have an edge on the wings and on the blueline. But that weakness at center is a glaring hole. It makes me want to go with NJ.

 

[Zeeker]

Devils...Defense? Ranger's blow them out of the water with their future on Defense.

This is how every one of your posts on the main boards reads:

 

[FlameChampion]

Should of been the Rangers easily, but I dont think things have trended quite as nicely as expected. Still dont get the firing of Gorton and hiring of Drury. That being said I still think its the Rangers.

They have better players to surround their young players to grow properly.

Both Hughes and Kaako have been pretty disappointing. Lafreniere had a disappointing year but I expect him to bounce back. Still not sure that Luke Hughes was the best choice at #4 but I'm not sure they really had a choice. Hamilton signing will help for sure.

Rangers are still a decent team at the moment. NJ pretty much a bottom feeder. NJ still has to pull up from the nose dive which is easier said than done for some teams.

 

[KevinFinnerty]

NYR due to higher octane potential at F, deeper D, and also better in goal.

 

[Doctyl]

Should of been the Rangers easily, but I dont think things have trended quite as nicely as expected. Still dont get the firing of Gorton and hiring of Drury. That being said I still think its the Rangers.

They have better players to surround their young players to grow properly.

Both Hughes and Kaako have been pretty disappointing. Lafreniere had a disappointing year but I expect him to bounce back. Still not sure that Luke Hughes was the best choice at #4 but I'm not sure they really had a choice. Hamilton signing will help for sure.

Rangers are still a decent team at the moment. NJ pretty much a bottom feeder. NJ still has to pull up from the nose dive which is easier said than done for some teams.

Lafreniere’s rookie season was literally the same production as HF’s ubermensch at ES

 

[KovalSNIPE]

NYR now, NJ long term.

 

[bl02]

this should go well

I say it's been pretty civil so far lol.
Both teams have a very bright future obviously. Let's hope that coincides with the downward slide of the teams like the Caps and Pens who have monopolized playoff spots for a while now lol.

 

[The Hockey Tonk Man]

I’d think the Rangers if the kids develop

Also don’t know much about Devils prospects not in the big leagues so there’s that

 

[Zacha37]

Should of been the Rangers easily, but I dont think things have trended quite as nicely as expected. Still dont get the firing of Gorton and hiring of Drury. That being said I still think its the Rangers.

They have better players to surround their young players to grow properly.

Both Hughes and Kaako have been pretty disappointing. Lafreniere had a disappointing year but I expect him to bounce back. Still not sure that Luke Hughes was the best choice at #4 but I'm not sure they really had a choice. Hamilton signing will help for sure.

Rangers are still a decent team at the moment. NJ pretty much a bottom feeder. NJ still has to pull up from the nose dive which is easier said than done for some teams.

definitely agree with them having the better players to develop around. it’s fairly obvious, but important. devils need to get hughes a real winger badly for his development

 

[JT Kreider]

Rangers but not so easily due to Hughes and Hischier down the middle. The Rangers have the Devils beat up and down the board except at center but that's the most important position in the sport and it also happens to be the Rangers biggest weakness.

For the short term the Rangers probably have 4 of the top 5 best players if you combined the teams (Panarin, Fox, Zibanejad, Shesterkin and then Nico/Kreider/should be Buch in that order)

crap forgot Hamilton for a second so he's number 4 then Shesty is 5

 

[Voight]

I think the Devils are looking to be built better for the long haul 5+ years from now, but the Rangers have some fairly young and high performing core pieces. I just worry that the Goodrow, Kreider and Trouba deals will make Drury's job difficult next season and beyond when resigning some young guys.

They have cap space NOW, but in 2022 they have to re-sign Strome, Zibanijad, Georgiev, Kakko, and Fox in a flat cap world. Then in 2023 they have to re-sign Lafreniere, Jones, Chytil and Miller. They'll be up against the cap pretty quick.

The way Laf and Kakko have played thus far, re-signing them won't be terribly expensive.

 

[JT Kreider]

Should of been the Rangers easily, but I dont think things have trended quite as nicely as expected

Ok this is getting out of hand now. It's almost as if the Rangers had impossible standards this offseason after the last two of bringing in two of the best players at their position and two of the top prospects in the world, and the only natural progression that would be satisfying would have been finding a way to bring in Brayden Point and Zach Werenski.

The Rangers biggest offseason move was bringing in the best coach on the market which everyone seems to be ignoring, Quinn and being bowled over by Matt Martin and Cal Clutterbuck were our two biggest problems that have now been solved. And yes the Islanders are now the team we are gunning for in the East.

Trading away Buch will make sense very soon since Fox now has to get a 8-9 million contract way ahead of schedule among all our other young high end talent that will need to be retained.

 

[FlameChampion]

Ok this is getting out of hand now. It's almost as if the Rangers had impossible standards this offseason after the last two of bringing in two of the best players at their position and two of the top prospects in the world, and the only natural progression would have been finding a way to bring in Brayden Point and Zach Werenski.

The Rangers biggest offseason move was bringing in the best coach on the market which everyone seems to be ignoring, Quinn and being bowled over by Matt Martin and Cal Clutterbuck were our two biggest problems that have now been solved. And yes the Islanders are now the team we are gunning for in the East.

Trading away Buch will make sense very soon since Fox now has to get a 8-9 million contract way ahead of schedule among all our other young high end talent that will need to be retained.

I just felt like the Rangers had more of a plan under Gorton and Davidson.

But you do bring up a good point. I forgot about Gallant. Thats an obvious upgrade over Quinn so kudos for Drury that.

 

[thethirdhockeyman91]

Rangers by a mile, Devils have absolutely no wingers.

 

[Zacha37]

Rangers by a mile, Devils have absolutely no wingers.

holtz, mercer, foote, bratt, sharangovich all solid to great pieces for the future + tons of cap space for a potential trade. fitzgerald been active for a top 6 winger.

 

[JT Kreider]

I just felt like the Rangers had more of a plan under Gorton and Davidson.

But you do bring up a good point. I forgot about Gallant. Thats an obvious upgrade over Quinn so kudos for Drury that.

Plan under Gorton lmao the same GM that in the course of a week traded away our best player (Stepan) at the most important position in hockey, the first move to kick off a rebuild, but then two days later goes ahead and makes a win now put us over the top as contenders UFA signing (Shattenkirk).

Oh and by doing so just delayed the inevitable in trading away McDonagh thus forcing himself to trade Mac at the deadline with a market that has now been cut in half, oh and now you need to compete for offers with the best defenseman of this generation now also on the trade market.

Of course Gorton got a horrible return for Mac, he boxed himself into one and only one trade partner.

Oh how is this for planning: letting AV force JT Miller out of town because he was "uncoachable" then firing AV two months later anyway.

Gorton is and was horribly overrated. He had the easiest job on planet Earth being able to liquidate a roster that was just a year removed from another near ECF appearance, no other GMs got such a head start on their rebuild getting to trade off huge names like Stepan, Brassard, McDonagh, Miller, Nash, Zuccarello. etc.

Look at what BA has done in AZ with nothing but Connor Garland and cap space, he brought in the equivalent of all that Gorton acquired and to his detriment he had a defenseman on the worst contract in the league unlike McDonagh and his measly $4.5 million cap hit.

The only difference is that two of the best players in the league forced their way to NYC and not Glendale.

 

[Uncle Scrooge]

Assuming the Rangers find a way to deal with the #1C situation, either keeping Zibanejad or dealing for Eichel, they should be ready to realistically be in the playoff mix and probably on the positive side of it most of the time, in a very tough conference for the next 5 years (not predicting past that). That's great because the team is going to develop a winning culture in a very competitive environment. Also, there's only so many spots for offensive roles and for 2nd line you can usually find something from the outside if you need to, so there's some flexibility in their roster building as far as those young wingers they have.

Sure, Drury has made some moves that make people question him but at the same time he's clearly trying to do things to help a skilled group round up their game. They've also got Gallant coming in.

The Devils.. i don't know. They haven't showed any meaningful progress yet on the ice. Yeah their back-end is actually competitive now, but at the same time the forward group is meh in a very tough conference where like 11 teams have the expectation of making the playoffs or otherwise the season is a disaster. And i can't stress that conference enough. It makes it hard for the Devils in the next couple years to take big steps forward. At some point they need to start winning games so that this doesn't turn into one of those situations where they're young up and coming team every year but it never goes anywhere.

Im taking NYR for the next 5, could be them after that too but hard to say. By then this NJ team could have like 30-50% turnover so what that will look like impossible to say.

 

[Oneiro]

For me, the answer to this question depends almost entirely on Hischier and Hughes. I think both of them are way better than they've shown and they've had piss poor veteran scoring support outside of Taylor Hall but they have to prove it. Their defense prospects are a big question mark as well, that includes Luke Hughes. A lot has to go right.

Rangers right now, for sure, but I think they have a much weirder timeline and possibly a much narrower window than I'd like if I was an NYR fan. Potentially two ships passing in the night with respect to the group of Panarin/Zib/Fox/Trouba and the group of Kakko/Laf/Lundqvist.

Over the long run, I like the Devils approach better. They've been smart about cap space, have gotten some very nice players in the later rounds and are finally bringing in players who can be a part of the solution instead of stop-gaps.

 

[Apocalypse Dude]

Funny how the Rangers have the 2 best centers between the two teams. Yeah NJs centers are young and were drafted high but you can’t just assume they will become so great that they tip the scales so drastically. Esp considering the Rangers are better at every other position.

young talent on both sides is close? The Rangers have a 23 year old player who just won the freaking Norris. The Devils have a bunch of what if’s.

Ehhhh I think a healthy Hischier is the second best among that group but we'll see this year I guess.

Obviously Fox is a beast and rightfully praised but he's one player and the drafted high argument can be made for every other Ranger prospect as well. I just get a feeling that the Rangers young guys will develop into solid/good NHL players but NJ center duo will be among the league's best eventually.

 

[DialUp]

Question is a bit off. The Rangers should be better in the next 4-5 over the Devils, but the Devils better after that? Like, who gives a shit if the Devils are "better" than NYR in 2029 if the Rangers manage to win one with what they are doing in the next 5 years. Also, the HF main board tax would require NYR to be tiers above even peak Tampa for 3 decades straight for them to win this poll. Pointless. Drury trading Buchnevich will be a blip in the long run; NYR will be competing for 1st in the East two years from now.

 

[patnyrnyg]

I think the Devils are looking to be built better for the long haul 5+ years from now, but the Rangers have some fairly young and high performing core pieces. I just worry that the Goodrow, Kreider and Trouba deals will make Drury's job difficult next season and beyond when resigning some young guys.

They have cap space NOW, but in 2022 they have to re-sign Strome, Zibanijad, Georgiev, Kakko, and Fox in a flat cap world. Then in 2023 they have to re-sign Lafreniere, Jones, Chytil and Miller. They'll be up against the cap pretty quick.

Georgiev is a back-up, he is not going to get a lot of money. There is no chance both Zibanejad and Strome are in their plans long-term. Kakko has not done enough to earn a huge payday, yet. Fox? He will get paid.

 

[sxvnert]

Definitely the Devils. Not a fan of either team but you gotta love whats going with devils.

 

[patnyrnyg]

Rangers. Their D core is young and deep. They are much better on the wings and they will use their D core to improve down the middle. Rangers also have the edge in goal. The overreaction to the moves this off-season is comical.

Everyone: Rangers need to get tougher, they are too soft and too finesse.

Drury: Adds toughness and guys who are actually suited to play a 3rd/4th line role.

Almost Everyone: What is Drury doing? Is he stupid? He is ruining this team.

No, it was not just the Tom Wilson incident. They were physically pushed around by the Bruins and Isles all season, as well. Prior to the Wilson incident, the Rangers had done well against the Caps this year.

 

[Mal Reynolds]

Gotta go with the Rangers, as they have more established talent (ie Shesterkin, Fox, Panarin, Zibby, Lafreniere, Kakko, etc etc) and a pretty well-stocked system too but I'd have to agree they have some pretty big question marks down the middle long-term. (Devils definitely look to have the edge there)

Like what the Devils are doing though. Long term they may be the better bet

 

[JT Kreider]

Potentially two ships passing in the night with respect to the group of Panarin/Zib/Fox/Trouba and the group of Kakko/Laf/Lundqvist.

What should the Rangers have done with Panarin then? When one of the best players in the league wants to come play for your team you take whatever plan you might have and you rip it up and flush it down the toilet.

And it's not like there were any negative consequences to signing Panarin... like where we were in a situation caught in no man's land where we were not good enough to be a true contender but not bad enough to get that true franchise talent only available at the top of the draft since we just won the lottery that same season anyway.


There is no reason to believe we are not getting at least 3 more premium years for Panarin and that is your window right there at the minimum.