Wild Speculation!

You know what I missed most about sports blogging, you guys?  No, it wasn't the steady paycheck nor the inherent respect that comes with the position, but good guesses.  No, it was the wild speculation!  You see, when actual hockey is happening, it's easy to stay entertained by hockey, because there is hockey.  But when shit like a week of training camp in Banff, Alberta between preseason games happens, what is an obsessive fan to do?

I'll tell you: blog irresponsibly about what the fantasy Rangers in my head might look like in a few weeks, when there is actual hockey!  Now is arguably the perfect time to be a fan, in one's imagination: we've already got enough specific information about the squad to imagine what the lineup might look like, but we've yet to experience any of the inevitable disappointment that comes with watching the actual team play actual games.  Hooray!  Let's go Rangers!

Vigneault has said that he ultimately wants to carry 8 defensemen on the roster, because he feels like they're more versatile (it's easier for them to fill in for forwards than vice versa), which gives us an idea of the ultimate opening night roster size: 12 forwards, 8 blue liners, and 2 goalies.  The netminders are easy: barring catastrophe, Talbot needs the playing opportunity afforded by the starting position on the Wolfpack, leaving Biron to back up Lundqvist.

On D, it's starting to look like the opening night top 6 are pretty much set. The coach has said that he likes McDonagh with Girardi, Staal with Del Zotto, and Stralman with Moore.  I'd like to see Falk paired with Moore instead, but like so many of his predecessors, Alain Vigneault stubbornly refuses to call me for advice.  That basically leaves Bickel, Falk, Johnson, Allen, Hughes, McIlrath, and Syrvet competing for the 2 spots in the "extra" pair. I'd be disappointed and surprised if one of those didn't go to Falk, but I imagine the other is legitimately up for grabs.

Up front, conventional wisdom is that the top line is shaping up to be Richards centering Nash and Kreider.  Score one for conventional wisdom.  Conventional wisdom also expects a line of Brassard between Pouliot and Zuccarello.  I'm not as convinced of Pouliot as conventional wisdom is, but we're blogging irresponsibly, so let's go with it.  With the "missing persons" line (Stepan between Callahan and Hagelin) likely to be back within the first month, that leaves us two lines to totally fabricate: the "4th line" (which would be promoted to 3rd in the beginning of the season) and the "5th line" (which would be cut once the missing persons line returns).

It seems pretty clear that Boyle and Moore are the two centers who round out those lines, and it's likely they'll also include Pyatt and Dorsett.  That leaves 11 forwards vying for those last 2 opening night wings.  Haley, Lindberg, and Miller are all natural centermen, and Asham's a fuck, which brings us down to 7 legitimate candidates for those two spots: Powe, Fast, Hrivik, Kantor, Kristo, Mashinter, and Yogan.  Based solely on his play last week, I'd really like to see Fast get a chance with one of them.  Meanwhile, to split the lines, let's say that Pyatt and Dorsett are the "4th line" wings, and that Boyle vs. Moore is a legitimate competition to center those two.

Incidentally, we can now do some clearer cap math.  Let's assume that the missing persons line is back and that we were right about all our wild assumptions here.  Then, given the least expensive variation (Syrvet as the 8th D; Moore at center), the Rangers' cap total without Stepan would be $59,102,500.  The most expensive variation (Allen as the 8th D; Boyle at center) ups that to $60,990,000.  This year's cap is $64.3 million, leaving the Rangers somewhere between $3.3 million and $5.2 million to sign Stepan and leave room to maneuver throughout the season.  With the Rangers reportedly offering Stepan $3 million while he asks for 3.5, it sounds like best case, we'll have just over $2 million of wiggle room this season, and worst case, we'll be right up against the cap.

Of course, that's all based on lineups I completely invented, so none of it really means anything.  But that's what you get when the team is at training camp in Banff.