It feels months ago the New York Rangers were knocked out of the playoffs but no it was only last month. In that month of time they have begun their off-season process. There has been talk there are major shake-ups coming.
The thing is, I’ll go with the old saying “I’ll believe it when I see it”.
That brings that saying to the signing of this highly touted prospect out of Russia, Pavel Buchnevich. Believe me when I tell you, I’m not trying to be negative about this whole situation.
In fact, I believe the New York Rangers are in a terrific position to get creative this off-season and change the makeup of this team.
There has been so much talk and hype about this kid coming out of Russia and the minute the Rangers inked him to an entry-level deal people began talking about how he is the next coming of Pavel Bure. Let’s pump the breaks right there. Again, not sounding negative but let’s come down to earth here a bit. Sure he scored 16 goals in 58 games in the KHL and established career highs in numerous categories out there blah blah blah.
The NHL and KHL are vastly different; the NHL is a whole different animal. Remember Petr Prucha? Yea the kid who came in and in year one registered 30 goals in 2005-06 and everyone thought he was going to be the real deal. Now we look at him as “where are they now?” because I’m truly curious to where he is because after that 30 goal season he never came close to it again. Okay he did score 22 goals the next season but then fell off a major cliff and we never saw him again.
That is my point with this kid Buchnevich. We need to relax on the “next coming” talk because he may look good on video in some other league. This is the big leagues here in America and this is the Rangers were talking about. Anyone promising that comes to the play on Broadway usually falls short of the expectation.
All I’m saying is can we please see how camp goes and wait until the regular season starts before we start making him the next Bure. I mean there is reason to be excited but let’s collectively see how this team looks come training camp.