Kitchener Rangers 2019 Offseason Thread (Part 2)

[EvenSteven]

Really going to miss Joe G; fun to watch on a weekly basis and always provided some good post game entertainment in his interviews.

Farwell and Pope must be beside themselves. They interviewed him nearly every game. Now maybe we'll get to hear from some of the other players. No disrespect to Joey, but it got a little old knowing you were going to hear from him just about every game. Consequently, some of the other players on the team are pretty much strangers to the Fanbase.

 

[EvenSteven]

McHugh would look pretty good now.

 

[Tarantula]

McHugh would look pretty good now.

Sounds like there is a good chance he is available. Liked him, saw aspects of his game, but he seemed hampered with the jaw injury.

 

[Rangers True Blue]

this likely opens up 2 spots at camp. obvious front runners being Martin and Fishman, but excited to see if any 02 draft picks come or a free agent can open some eyes

Well, Martin and Fishman were on their roster early this morning....the one where Gareffa was not....and when it was pointed out, it was quickly revised. Now, these two players are not there. Hmmmmmmm....seems coincidental that those are the two that MM says they're excited about and I'm not one to believe in coincidences. HOWEVER.....McDonnell was on that roster before revision and now he's not. There have been no rumblings about this and I sure hope it's just another error by the person who updates their webpages.

 

[Rangers True Blue]

McHugh would look pretty good now.

Wouldn't he? Love to see him back. I hated to see him go the second it happened.

 

[EvenSteven]

Wouldn't he? Love to see him back. I hated to see him go the second it happened.

I hated to see him go too. But he can't come back unless he cleared waivers. 13 month rule. And he'd never clear waivers.

 

[Ward Cornell]

Well, Martin and Fishman were on their roster early this morning....the one where Gareffa was not....and when it was pointed out, it was quickly revised. Now, these two players are not there. Hmmmmmmm....seems coincidental that those are the two that MM says they're excited about and I'm not one to believe in coincidences. HOWEVER.....McDonnell was on that roster before revision and now he's not. There have been no rumblings about this and I sure hope it's just another error by the person who updates their webpages.

I would imagine that's an incomplete roster.
Some names I thought would be on would be mcBride, Dakota Betts, Pinelli the older, and one or two of the U18 draft selection players from this year.

 

[OhSheila]

Going to miss Joseph for sure. Loved how he played, whatever position he played. I can understand his decision. He's be playing this season for the chance at a pro contract. His size would likely limit his chances in the NHL or AHL. He can play pro in Europe, make some good money and have a good life. Why not start earning a living now. All the best to Joey G.

 

[Rangers True Blue]

I would imagine that's an incomplete roster.
Some names I thought would be on would be mcBride, Dakota Betts, Pinelli the older, and one or two of the U18 draft selection players from this year.

This roster includes signed players only.

 

[Ward Cornell]

This roster includes signed players only.

Pinelli's brother

 

[MatthewsMoustache]

I wouldn’t look too much into a preseason roster in mid August. anything out of the ordinary would be addressed by Brown or Farwell at this point as we saw with Garreffa, Gordon. Serpa was missing from the original one, McDonnell is missing from the current one. Martin and Fishman were on the original one but someone has to play the preseason while Damiani, Meireles and likely Yantsis are away for camps

 

[GeoBlue]

I hated to see him go too. But he can't come back unless he cleared waivers. 13 month rule. And he'd never clear waivers.

Not sure how waivers work but what if McHugh played the "I don't want to play for anyone but the Rangers" card? Is this a possibility?

 

[GeoBlue]

Gareffa probably upset they are deep on defense so limited time if any for him back there. Too bad, leaves a big hole to fill or little skates if u will LOL. One of my favourites!!

My days of screaming, "Giddy up, Little Joe" are over again. :-(

 

[GeoBlue]

It does throw a big wrench into the plans. As I have posted on here earlier, we don't have a lot of assets to throw around to improve this team. Had Joey returned, we'd be looking at picking up one high-end forward. Now, we are without a player who very well could've hit 100 points this year.

We are not going to replace Garreffa, and what he would've brought to the team, on the cheap. People here are suggesting that we could pick up an overager here or there. But are we going to pick up an overager who would've given us the offensive output that Joey would have?

If we do, it's not going to come cheap. This has me seriously reconsidering if we should even go all in this year or not. I said in prior posts that this team could be a contender but we would need all three overagers to return.

I feel we can contend for sure in 21-22. I also feel that we can also contend either in 19-20 OR 20-21. Would it make more sense to sell off this year and go all in the next two years?

And I agreed with you. Still do. I think this all of the sudden is turning into a sell year. Cannot see us winning it with only Meireles and Yantsis coming back. (Oh yes, and Richie) If there is 0% of Joey coming back then we should sell. And why would anyone say that they are definitely NOT coming back unless they are A. extremely confident on going pro or B. extremely upset with their situation in Kitchener? Should have seen the writing on the wall when we built our D. And there will be big skates to fill (okay, little skates) on the PP. Someone is going to have to step up. Either way, we would need to sell the farm in order to replace Joey and go for it in general.

 

[EvenSteven]

Joey wanted to play D here period. Was getting miffed at getting jerked back and forth between F and D. He was ok with it in his younger years (anything to get icetime and help the team) but felt he earned the right to settle in as a D. The team knew this but refused to stop putting him up front.

Drafting of two import D meant the writing was on the wall. Hence his not returning for an OA season.

 

[EvenSteven]

And I agreed with you. Still do. I think this all of the sudden is turning into a sell year. Cannot see us winning it with only Meireles and Yantsis coming back. (Oh yes, and Richie) If there is 0% of Joey coming back then we should sell. And why would anyone say that they are definitely NOT coming back unless they are A. extremely confident on going pro or B. extremely upset with their situation in Kitchener? Should have seen the writing on the wall when we built our D. And there will be big skates to fill (okay, little skates) on the PP. Someone is going to have to step up. Either way, we would need to sell the farm in order to replace Joey and go for it in general.

Going into the season with Garreffa, to contend we would be looking to add one top six forward. Now with Garreffa out of the picture, we would need to add two top six forwards to truly contend. Losing Garreffa means losing a top four, potential 100 point forward. How much would it cost to bring in two top six F's?

Based on our asset pool, too much.

As it stands today, I'm all for selling unless we acquire an OA F very early on the cheap who has a break out season. A lot can happen between now and the deadline so it remains to be seen. But count me as being on the fence regarding contending this year with some leanage towards selling off the remaining vets.

 

[SYWTom]

The way I see it, we make a push this year, sell for 2020-2021 and make another push is 21-22.

As stated before
Selling Vukojevic in 20-21 would recoup a lot of assets.

The west is down a bit this year and we are still returning a lot of players. Let’s see what happens by November with the team we have. (Unless a Kole Sherwood type deal presents itself)

 

[EvenSteven]

The way I see it, we make a push this year, sell for 2020-2021 and make another push is 21-22.

As stated before
Selling Vukojevic in 20-21 would recoup a lot of assets.

The west is down a bit this year and we are still returning a lot of players. Let’s see what happens by November with the team we have. (Unless a Kole Sherwood type deal presents itself)

We make a push this year but it won't be easy. We need two top six F's now. We have five 2nds and seven 3rds over the next five years. We want to contend in 21-22 so trading quality youth this year is off the table.

The west is down a bit but look at the multiple 2nds and 3rds London has. Seven 2nds, eight 3rds and an Evangelista who my be trade bait.

No way we one up them at the deadline.

 

[MatthewsMoustache]

The way I see it, we make a push this year, sell for 2020-2021 and make another push is 21-22.

As stated before
Selling Vukojevic in 20-21 would recoup a lot of assets.

The west is down a bit this year and we are still returning a lot of players. Let’s see what happens by November with the team we have. (Unless a Kole Sherwood type deal presents itself)

the same could be said for Damiani at this year’s deadline.

there’s definitely pros and cons for going for it in 2020 and 2022. this year, sure the west is a bit thin. our defence looks really strong, but our forward group looks like nothing when you look at what the Knights have coming back.

there’s too many question marks up front for Kitchener to make the decision to go for it right now. will Yantsis get near 50 again? will Stepien, Valade, Langdon break out in their draft year? will Pinelli make an immediate impact?

 

[SYWTom]

We make a push this year but it won't be easy. We need two top six F's now. We have five 2nds and seven 3rds over the next five years. We want to contend in 21-22 so trading quality youth this year is off the table.

The west is down a bit but look at the multiple 2nds and 3rds London has. Seven 2nds, eight 3rds and an Evangelista who my be trade bait.

No way we one up them at the deadline.

I don’t care if we one up them at the deadline, I want to beat them in April and May.
As long as we get the right pieces (which McKenzie did a good job of two years ago) then it will be a good season. Maybe we won’t be the “favourite”, but we could have a shot.

 

[SYWTom]

the same could be said for Damiani at this year’s deadline.

there’s definitely pros and cons for going for it in 2020 and 2022. this year, sure the west is a bit thin. our defence looks really strong, but our forward group looks like nothing when you look at what the Knights have coming back.

there’s too many question marks up front for Kitchener to make the decision to go for it right now. will Yantsis get near 50 again? will Stepien, Valade, Langdon break out in their draft year? will Pinelli make an immediate impact?

If you’re trading Damiani, you better be getting like everything another team has.

I admit it’s tempting to really push all assets to the following years. But it would be an incredibly hard decision.

 

[Mein Yak]

As it stands right now here are some OA forwards with similar piont production as Joe.

-Brett Neumann
-Austen Keating
-Liam Hawel
I would say all 0f these guys would cost us about a 2nd and a 3rd similar to a Kevin Hancock deal.

The second option is to do a two part deal with either OTT or OSH since both are looking at puting in a bid for the mem cup next year.

A possible trade could be,

OSH
Neumann
Noel
McShane

KIT
4x2nd (Not including the GUE 2nd in this years draft)
4x3rd

In the offseason we send them Vuks for 2x2nd and 2x3rds. This trade is based off the Jack Studnicka, Matt Brassard deal that happened last year at the trade deadline.

 

[MatthewsMoustache]

what concerns me now this year is the powerplay. last season was Hugg Damiani Meireles Yantsis Garreffa. the powerplay was what made Meireles and Yantsis the scorers they are. even the slightest change on the special teams can throw the chemistry off. no one on the point has the electrifying style of play that Joey G has to quarterback that unit. Sebrango has the confidence to try some of the things he was doing out there but that’s all I can think of. Vuks and Bergkvist would provide more of a booming shot from the point then an agile/all over the place playmaker like Joey

 

[EvenSteven]

I don’t care if we one up them at the deadline, I want to beat them in April and May.
As long as we get the right pieces (which McKenzie did a good job of two years ago) then it will be a good season. Maybe we won’t be the “favourite”, but we could have a shot.

One upping them at the deadline would result in getting past them in the post season. Unless we move young players, they can do twice what we can do at the deadline. That keeps us behind them and hurts our chances of getting to the final.

 

[Rangers True Blue]

Joey was signed to the Rangers as a forward. He knew this going in. He was put back on D only because he had played D at one time and the situation was dire. He very well may have felt that he wanted to stay on D but the team signed him to be a forward. Feelings aside, that's not what he was contracted for. So somewhere between saying "yes, I want to stay on to my OA year" to now, he has decided that playing forward is not what he wants and playing pro D (maybe Europe) is. Good on him.