The Rangers’ fourth line has been a tire-fire, the team are tight against the cap and the team needs an infusion of youth; all reasons for the Rangers to have a complete overhaul of their fourth line this summer.
As a fan – or even the team’s decision makers – you’re surely happier to endure difficulties from your fourth line if there is an end-game, if there is an element of development and if it’s cost controlled young players learning on the job rather than the Tanner Glass’s, Dan Paille’s and Dominic Moore’s either regressing or offering no hope for the future.
Rick Nash file photo by Lewis Bleiman
While the Rangers don’t have a ton of youth up front that are ready for the NHL, there is enough in the organisation – in New York and Hartford – to allow Alain Vigneault to put together a fourth line that shouldn’t be a disaster and that can offer some reasonable potential.
Dominic Moore is almost certainly off this summer. Unrestricted, old and regressing, the loyal veteran has past his sell-by date for a team needing a re-make. With one wing being a revolving door and the other being manned by Glass, it shows the Rangers really need to rid themselves of the current options for the fourth and go all-out-young.
The fourth line – allowing for full health – should be centred by Oscar Lindberg. The Rangers were a better team when former bottom six staple Brian Boyle wasn’t playing too high up the line up and if Lindberg is your fourth Center times aren’t so hard. Lindberg offers the team cap value (650k), two-way skill and some upside. He’s surely done enough to be counted upon if/when he returns to full health, so the real question is who do you put either side of him?
Assume for a moment Jesper Fast is found on the third line, then the Rangers need two wingers because hopefully the team moves on from Tanner Glass this summer (we hope). One of those wingers should be Marek Hrivik.
Barring bad off and pre-seasons forcing the team not to give him a try, Hrivik has done enough to show he can be a legitimate option for a fourth line role. He is a big body, he has some skill, he should be cheap and he’s homegrown – don’t underestimate this last aspect.
Utilising Hrivik shows other organisational prospects that if you’re patient, if you work hard and you show the team that you are developing then your effort will be rewarded. That’s an important aspect of organisational culture that needs to be fostered. Hrivik has been with the organisation for a long time now and there are certainly worse options for the bottom line. He’s served his apprenticeship.
So who gets the third spot on the fourth line? Well whatever the Rangers do, it shouldn’t be a veteran. Whether they go outside the organisation or promote from within it needs to be a young player. Someone they can develop themselves and someone that critically, that can be cost controlled.
The obvious internal option is Niklas Jensen who has been a borderline revelation in this summer’s World Championship for the Danish national team. Jensen scored five goals in seven games, had several big moments and has improved his two-way game to the point where he can definitely be a bottom six option at the NHL level even if he may never become the offensive player he was drafted to become.
A fourth line of Hrivik – Lindberg – Jensen potentially offers the Rangers so much. It offers mobility, it offers relative youth, it offers skill and above all, it offers value for money. The worst case (financial) scenario of that line should be less than 3m and thinking worst case scenario performance wise, the Rangers in theory should be able to walk away from the entire line in a year’s time if the trio of Europeans fail to develop (Lindberg has one year remaining, both Hrivik and Jensen are RFA this summer).
If the trio develop then the Rangers can boast a nice two way line that offers upside. If they are a tire fire of a line are they really that much worse than the fourth line the Rangers ‘enjoyed’ this season?
Go young, go cheap or go home. The Rangers fourth line needs to get younger. Time for an overhaul.
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