Columbus Blue Jackets and the Metro in 18-19 Part VIII: The Rangers
The Metropolitan Division is home to the last three Stanley Cup Champions. How do the Columbus Blue Jackets stack up heading into the 2018-2019 season?
The final team in our Metropolitan preview is a team that isn’t used to being at the end of anything. But that’s where the New York Rangers find themselves this year as they enter year two of their rebuild. The Columbus Blue Jackets might soon lose Artemi Panarin to New York, but I don’t expect them to lose many games to the Rangers this season.
The rebuild has put the Rangers, along with their New York brothers the Islanders, at the bottom of the division. Last year they shipped away talented skaters such as J.T. Miller, Ryan McDonagh, Rick Nash, and Michael Grabner to acquire high end future assets.
The Rangers will field one of the younger teams in the East this year and we should see a lot of young, promising talent on the ice for the blueshirts. Highly regarded prospects such as Lias Andersson, Libor Hajek, Filip Chytil, and Ryan Lindgren should all get time in the NHL and could blossom into a fierce young core for the Rangers.
Columbus Blue Jackets
The Rangers also had three first round picks this year where they acquired some top end prospects as well. Forward Vitali Kravtsov and defensemen K’Andre Miller and Nils Lundkvist further bolster the Rangers farm system.
Kravtsov was one of the best picks in my eyes at this year’s draft. The Russian winger is a great all around player and should be a top six forward in the KHL this season and NHL in 2019.
All of this promising talent needs time and opportunity though which could make this season an long one for hockey fans in New York. The play of Henrik Lundqvist will give them a chance in almost every game he starts, but the team will be outmatched at every other spot on the ice. Mika Zibanejad is still an excellent player but the Rangers will just be too young and too raw to make a run at the playoffs.
Last season the Columbus Blue Jackets went 3-1 against the Rangers and will look to duplicate that again in 2018. While all games against Metro opponents are important, the Jackets and Rangers final tilt of the season will have a big effect on the future of both franchises.
On April 5th the two squads will face off in the second to last matchup of the regular season for both teams. That game very will could determine the playoff seeding for the Columbus Blue Jackets as well as the lottery odds for the New York Rangers.
Next. Expectations for New Jacket, Ryan MacInnis. dark