The risk Peter Laviolette should take for Rangers to reach win-now mandate

Regarding the Rangers, in the dead calm of the summer:

1. It is no secret the Blueshirts are operating under a Win Now mandate, which is somewhat appropriate for a team loaded with veterans playing for a franchise that is going on 30 years since its one and only Cup since, Lord help me, 1940.

Perhaps paradoxically, though, the only way for the Rangers to accomplish their objective is for incoming head coach Peter Laviolette not to take the mission statement literally the way that Gerard Gallant, his predecessor, did.

This means that Laviolette must allow Filip Chytil, Kaapo Kakko and Alexis Lafreniere — the only three forwards younger than 30 projected to make the opening roster, if you can believe that five-plus years after The Letter — to breathe and make mistakes even if that approach could cost a point or three early.

Look, I get it. The pressure to make the playoffs is immense. Every game matters. But you have to be willing to risk taking a baby step back in order to be in position take two giant steps forward down the line. This is something Gallant would not do.  

At this juncture, though, with a clean sheet and a fresh start, the Rangers really have no other choice. They have to put these three forwards in position to have growth spurts. That means awarding them meaningful minutes in meaningful situations.

I know. I know. Laviolette is not a development coach, the Rangers are not a development team and the NHL is not a development league. But the only way the team will be able to take the next step is if Chytil, Kakko and Lafreniere develop into upper-tier players commensurate with their draft status, specifically the Lottery Kids who have either been smothered with tough love or left to gestate on their own.

Seriously. From where is the growth coming, if not from the Kids? Of course, Mika Zibanejad, Artemi Panarin, Chris Kreider and Vincent Trocheck can become more effective players under Laviolette, but their respective ceilings are pretty well established. Same for Barclay Goodrow, Jimmy Vesey, Blake Wheeler, et al.

Chytil, Kakko and Lafreniere, well, who knows? That’s the point. The Rangers have to know. They have to give these three forwards the chance to soar. Maybe they will crash. Maybe the ceiling will be as low as in an RV. But maybe the ceiling can be as high as those in apartments in pre-WW II buildings on the Upper West Side. The Rangers have to find out.

Laviolette has to give them the chance. Win Now does not mean October. Win Now means June.

2. The defense is young, but the same principle applies to K’Andre Miller, whose two-year bridge at an AAV of $3.825 million per hit the sweet spot for both the player and the organization.

Of course the 23-year-old (who led the team in even-strength ice time) can improve defensively both in coverage and on his reads while adding more of a physical element to his game.

But there is no reason at all that Miller, who has uncommon offensive instincts with speed and skill to match, should not start with the assignment on the second power play unit after a season in which his average of 32 seconds per on the man advantage ranked 14th on the squad, even behind Zac Jones.

And I get it, you are never taking Adam Fox off the first unit, but Miller has the shot (and shot threat) that the Norris runner-up does not have in his voluminous bag of tricks.

Would it be so wrong to maybe get a look at both defensemen on the points of PP1?

3. I’ll tell you this. Power play time is not a birthright. There simply must be competition for spots on the man advantage and there must be competition for ice time between the two units. This first unit entitlement that took root during the 2020-21 season must come to an end. 

4. Erik Gustafsson probably goes into camp with an edge over Jones for that left D spot on the third pair (with Braden Schneider or per chance, Jacob Trouba?) but the Rangers owe it to themselves to see what Jones’ ceiling might be.

The Rangers do not have the same investment in No. 6 as they do in Lafreniere, Kakko and Chytil, but the same theory applies.

They need to find out, even if only to enhance his value on the trade market if the staff believes that adding the UMass product to the mix makes the team too undersized on the back.

5. Finally, if the Rangers needed to bring in journeymen fourth-liners like Tyler Pitlick, who hasn’t been on a playoff team the last three years, and Nick Bonino — out of the playoffs the last two seasons — for veteran leadership, then what on earth does that say about the organization’s perception of the leadership group in place?