The New York Rangers making a ‘youth movement’

By Catherine Silverman | Oct 6, 2014

May 25, 2014; New York, NY, USA; New York Rangers left wing Rick Nash (61) warms up before game four of the Eastern Conference Final of the 2014 Stanley Cup Playoffs against the Montreal Canadiens at Madison Square Garden. Mandatory Credit: Andy Marlin-USA TODAY Sports /

The New York Rangers went to the Stanley Cup last year, but they’re already thinking about their future by instituting a youth movement.

Teams are becoming increasingly gun-shy with young guys on their starting rosters. The Boston Bruins have reassigned second-round pick Ryan Spooner to the AHL Providence Bruins once again, the Arizona Coyotes chose to let Max Domi simmer in the OHL for another season, and even the Toronto Maple Leafs are shipping William Nylander back overseas until he’s another year older.

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The New York Rangers, on the other hand, seem to be pretty confident in their young offensive core- they’ve got five forwards under the age of 23 that have been announced as members of the team’s official roster.

Some of those players have some regular season experience, and yet others have proven themselves in the post-season. Chris Kreider, for example, is only 23- but he’s going into this season with the team’s highest SH% for the 2013-2014 season (a stat I’ve been beating into the ground, because I feel it bears repeating).

Kreider isn’t the only name to look out for, though. J.T. Miller is now legally able to drink, and is celebrating his newfound legal status with an official roster spot this time around. I’m glad to see this- I’d kind of forgotten about Miller after his amazing breakout game with the Rangers a couple of years prior.

The team seems so determined to showcase it’s growing youth core, in fact, that they’re willing to make some roster changes in order to find room for these young guys on the team. Forward Anthony Duclair, who is only 19, had what NBC Pro Hockey Talk’s Mike Halford called a “breakout” pre-season campaign- so the team traded Steve Kampfer and Andrew Yogan for Florida Panthers forward Joey Crabb in order to clear up a roster spot for him.

With so many teams reassigning their youth back to the minors, it should be interesting to see how the Rangers stack up this season.

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