New York Rangers Need to Address Scoring and Power Play at Trade Deadline

The New York Rangers may be the best team in the league but they need to address scoring and their power play woes at the deadline.

This season, the Rangers have enjoyed a lot of success in the standings but all will be for nothing if they run into a brick wall during the first round of the playoffs.

The team excels in goaltending and overall defense but scoring outside of Marian Gaborik is lacking.

For the longest time, the approach of both the team and the fanbase at the trade deadline has been described as "staying the course." By staying the course, the team would remain as it is, because it would be counterproductive to trade away future pieces for a shot at a cup currently.

While fans have been right in the past, this is a year where trying to make a move would make sense.

Fans have been clamoring for a chance to be the best in the league and an opportunity for the team's youth to be firing on all cylinders.

Fans have looked at making moves and countering that notion by saying, "next year we will have player X, player Y and player Z so we don't need this guy."

The team as currently constructed is solid.

Gaborik leads the team in scoring, Ryan Callahan is on pace for a career year, Derek Stepan is avoiding his sophomore slump and defenders like Michael Del Zotto, Dan Girardi and Ryan McDonagh have stepped up.

Henrik Lundqvist will likely win the Vezina and is making a strong case to be a Hart Trophy candidate.

However, players like Brandon Dubinsky, Brad Richards, Artem Anisimov and a few others have not performed as fans would like them to. They have not been complete failures but the team could benefit from an increase in their overall production. When the entire team collectively participates, it makes each individual load a bit easier to carry.

Needless to say, the Rangers need to improve their secondary scoring, power play and need to get Brad Richards going. He is too talented to wallow away with mediocre players on the third line.

That can all be addressed by adding a scorer.

It is pointless to name names because it is impossible to gauge what players would be dealt in a trade but this much is clear: Players like Ray Whitney, Bobby Ryan, Ryan Smyth and Shane Doan would be nice but any scorer will do.

Throughout Richards' career, he has been a 60 plus-point-player. He averages 20 goals and 40 or more assists a season. He is a primary pass-first playmaker and not a natural goalscorer.

This season, he has been tossed around throughout the four lines and has not been able to earn any chemistry or consistency with linemates. Throughout his career, he has always had at least one offensive-minded skill player on his line.

In Tampa, Richards played with elite talents like Martin St. Louis, power forwards like Cory Stillman and skilled niche forwards like Fredrik Modin. In Dallas, Richards also played with players like James Neal, Jamie Benn and Loui Eriksson.

The bottom line is players like Brandon Dubinsky, Ruslan Fedotenko and Brandon Prust don't matchup. Therefore, because Richards is not playing with scorers with a propensity to score goals, his assist totals are down and he is on a career-low for points.

By adding another scorer to get Richards going, the team's overall offense could become deeper. By having an offensively overpowering top six, the Rangers would score more goals and there would be less pressure on the defense and goaltending. This could also be done to help the struggling power play.

Adding a scoring forward for Richards would also enhance the power play because both could incorporate chemistry to the man advantage.

The Vancouver Canucks have one of the league's top power play units because of the familiarity associated with its participants. That is something the Rangers need. Everything the power play has done up to this point needs to be forgotten and scrapped.

If the Rangers can add a potent scorer who shoots the puck, ices a team of offensive forwards and allows the power play to gain some chemistry, then it may be possibly for the team to increase overall scoring.

With the league's best goaltender, the Rangers can go far but adding a scorer to give him a safety buffer will dramatically reduce Lundqvist's stress level and the Rangers' odds to win a Stanley Cup.

With glaring needs, the Rangers should be very active at the trade deadline.

This team has done a great job in the past holding onto players and prospects. The Rangers are finally in a great position to win a Stanley Cup and while it may be true that they could be an equally successful team next year, what sense would it make to waste what they have done up to this point.

The Rangers may sit at the top of the league, but as the defending Stanley Cup Champions Boston Bruins showed the league last year at the deadline, there is always room for improvement. 

Tom Urtz Jr. is an NHL Featured Columnist. For more NHL free-agent news, updates and alerts about players: