Kakko Schmakko
Registered User
- Feb 24, 2018
- 5,025
- 1,565
I agree that neither Halverson nor Nell will be brought back. Nell is horrible. Borderline-ECHL quality. Halverson, they tried to give him a chance to show what he has, and he didn't play very well. Maybe they try to bring him back on an AHL deal, but I don't think they qualify him, regardless of where or when he was drafted. He just hasn't developed much since we took him. They'll sign another Tokarski/Mazanec-type veteran goalie and that will be about it.
I also agree that Bigras will be qualified, and given one final year. Also agreed that Gilmour, O'Gara, and Bergman are likely gone.
Meskanen coming back was, I think, a given. To my knowledge he has no EAC, so he can't leave on his own. That means they would have needed to agree to a mutual termination of his contract. He showed enough last year to warrant another season, I think.
IMO Ty Ronning was misused by being used. He looks like an ECHL-caliber player. Yes, I know he was a rookie, but I didn't see anything from him in the handful of AHL games where I saw him that leads me to believe he has the skill set to thrive in the AHL (and forget about the NHL). I hope to be wrong on that. Leedahl is a 4th line PKer at the AHL level and nothing more. He doesn't have any legitimate professional skill. You don't go 29 full games without a point, even with limited TOI, if you have AHL-caliber skill. He's a nothing prospect.
I don't see it with Vinni. He's a better Ryan Gropp, but still has the same issues of not consistently finding the space to get off his shot and otherwise not really bringing much to the table. You definitely qualify him--legitimate star 4A player, always the possibility he take an unexpected step--but I don't feel that the Rangers have made any mistakes with him. They've given him opportunities and he hasn't done much with them. And now he's about to get pushed out by higher-end prospects.
I don't know why Fontaine would be "on the bubble." He has a year left. Hopefully he takes the Fogarty leap. If not, then he's a fine 3/4C for Hartford who can also kill penalties well. He's not much of a prospect but I can't understand why someone would think the Rangers would just dump him at this point.
I also think Crawley and Gropp will be playing for a QO next year. I think Gropp's improvement towards the end of the season puts him in a better spot. I don't think Crawley is very good. Again, like some of the other guys mentioned, you can not qualify him and it's unlikely that anyone else gives him an NHL deal--so you can try to bring them back on an AHL deal if you still like something about them.
I know this is limited to existing NA prospects, but I'll add Lakatos is done in our organization and I'm 50/50 on Virta. Based on this season I would have guessed that they would not give him a deal, but there have been a few quotes from people around him/his teams about him heading to North America, so we'll see.
Crawley is much better than people think.
