The New York Rangers are at a major crossroad in their long history.
Two Ranger greats may be on their way out. Brendan Shanahan may have played his last season and Jaromir Jagr may be headed to another city, or even overseas.
The franchise must ask where to go from here.
In the past, the Rangers have bloated their roster with spicy free agents that have produced inconsistently. This year’s installments were Scott Gomez and Chris Drury.
This year’s Stanley Cup finalists feature two teams that have done the complete opposite.
Both the Detroit Red Wings and Pittsburgh Penguins have grown from within. The Red Wings nabbed superstars Niklas Lidstrom, Pavel Datsyuk and Henrik Zetterberg in later rounds, while the Penguins were fortunate enough to get the dynamic duo of Evgeni Malkin and Sidney Crosby in the first round of their respective drafts.
These players and several others will lift the Stanley Cup with their first and only franchise.
This trend is not just prevalent in Detroit and Pittsburgh. Philadelphia and Dallas employ various former prospects and see great success.
The Rangers do not have a Datsyuk or Zetterberg to show for previous drafts. Rather, they have Jagr and Martin Straka, two now mediocre stars who were acquired via free agency.
Although these free agents have big names and paychecks, they have cast a spell of mediocrity on a storied franchise in America’s hottest sports market.
The only way to remedy the mediocrity is internal growth, which is hockey speak for patience.
The Rangers have many promising prospects.
The Hartford Wolf Pack (the Rangers’ American Hockey League affiliate) boasts two of the AHL’s top scorers in Pierre-Alexandre Parenteau and Greg Moore. Andrew Hutchinson has also developed as an offensive defenseman with Hartford.
In Finland, prospect Jarkko Immonen put up solid numbers.
2007 first round draft pick Alexei Cherepanov
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