Rangers need to improve center depth in order to take next step

The New York Rangers got off to an impressive start to the season and even kept it going for a while after losing super star goalie Igor Shesterkin to a season-ending injury.

But lately, the Blueshirts have seen their positioning in the Metropolitan Division slip from just behind the Carolina Hurricanes for first place to effectively fifth based on points percentage with a 7-6-1 record.

General manager Chris Drury fortified New York’s defensive unit this summer, and he added Pavel Dorofeyev and Oliver Bjorkstrand to add some punch down the wings, but there is still something to be desired at center both on the current roster and moving forward, a notion driven home by the fact that the Rangers felt compelled to sign veteran Luke Glendening to play the position on the fourth line behind veterans Mika Zibanejad and J.T. Miller as well as a promising second-year player in Noah Laba.

On Friday’s episode of Daily Faceoff LIVE, host Tyler Yaremchuk and co-host and former NHL goaltender Carter Hutton were joined by Jonny Lazarus to discuss how that weakness should shape Drury’s decision-making process moving forward.

Tyler Yaremchuk: So won’t they have some tough decisions to make at some point down the line? Like if they’re a bubble team, and you know they’re not going on a run with Igor because you don’t have Igor, what do you do then, right?

Jonny Lazarus: You’ve got to improve some sort of position in front of the goaltender. They’ve done a good job at revamping their blue line, they’ve brought in Durzi and Pettersson this summer, and obviously Albert Smits at fifth overall… and their blue line is more well rounded now, but there’s still a lot of questions up front in the forward group, but I think the biggest obstacle they’re going to face right now is, listen they have Mika Zibanejad and J.T. Miller as their one and two centers. Those guys are good players, don’t get me wrong, and I have nothing but respect for those two guys, but Mika’s 33, J.T.’s 33. They both have four years on their deal. They both have no-move clauses. I don’t know how you’re upgrading your first line and second line center position while those guys are here with no-moves, and that’s I think a difficult spot for the Rangers to be in, because you look at the championship teams, and they’re built well down the middle.

You can watch the full segment and the rest of the episode below…