New York Rangers

The Rangers have announced that they will introduce Alain Vigneault as the new head coach Friday afternoon during a press conference from Radio City Music Hall. Vigneault officially signed his five-year $10 million contract this week. It is assumed that the Rangers may announce the assistant coaches at this press conference. Previous head coach John Tortorella was fired shortly after Memorial Day, and it is likely that assistants Mike Sullivan and Jim Schoenfeld will also be relieved of their coaching positions. Tweet

The New York Rangers will hold a Press Conference on Friday, June 21 at 11:00 a.m. MSG Network will have live coverage of the Press Conference.

The team announced that they will hold a press conference at Radio City Music Hall on Friday at 11 a.m.

As per a report from Andrew Gross, the New York Rangers will officially announce Alain Vigneault as the new head coach on Friday afternoon. Due to ongoing renovations at Madison Square Garden, the press conference will take place at Radio City Music Hall. Vigneault was officially signed to a 5-year contract back on June 15, according to Pat Leonard of the New York Daily News. The contract will pay Vigneault $2 million per year, which is about $200,000 more than he received with the Vancouver Canucks. This is the first official confirmation that we have seen from the New York Rangers, as they have kept Vigneault's hiring on the down low for quite some time. Glen Sather also spoke with the Pat Leonard at the General Manager meeting in Boston, and shed some light on what led to the firing on John Tortorella. The biggest issue was the lack of puck possession in the offensive zone, and low-scoring offensive production with the amount of talent on the roster.

Per Larry Brooks, Henrik Lundqvist made his first public comments since his “Comments heard ’round the world” that set all of New York into a panic. Per Brooks, Lundqvist denied having any say in the decision to fire John Tortorella: “I know there is some speculation regarding Torts being fired, but let’s be clear on one thing,” Lundqvist said via an e-mail on Wednesday that contained his first comments on the matter. “It’s not my call who the coach should be for the New York Rangers. “I would never put pressure on the management on decisions like that. I’m just a player. My focus is to play the game and do the best I can on the ice. Whatever [happens] off the ice, I leave to our great staff we have working for this club.” Lundqvist elaborated on his comments a little more, and it’s definitely a good read on the whole Hank situation. Tweet

The Rangers will hold a press conference Friday at Radio City Music Hall. While the team has not made an official announcement about the press conference just yet, it will be to introduce Alain Vigneault as the team’s new coach. Vigneault, 52, agreed, in principle, to a five-year deal worth $10 million on Saturday after receiving a similar offer from the Dallas Stars. However, the deal had to be finalized and Glen Sather is currently in Boston for a general managers’ meeting. It will be the first chance for Vigneault to meet the “vaunted” New York media and, no doubt, there will be a heavy Canadian contingent in attendance for the former Canucks and Canadiens coach. But handling large media gatherings should not be an issue for Vigneault after his experiences in hockey-crazy Montreal and hockey-crazy Vancouver. If anything, the Big Apple might seem like a relaxed atmosphere for him once he gets past this initial press conference. Among the key questions for Vigneault will be his staff - there have been reports Ulf Samuelsson might be a candidate to be an assistant - and just how different his presence will be from predecessor John Tortorella, who, ironically, has a chance to succeed Vigneault in Vancouver. ====================================================== Follow me on Twitter at twitter.com/AGrossRecord Follow the Record Sports Staff at twitter.com/TheRecordSports

Briere is to be bought out, and will hit the UFA market. While this has not officially happened yet, the rumors are abound that the Flyers have informed Danny Briere that the organization will use one of their two compliance buyouts on the 35-year-old winger and his $6.5 million salary. Not only are the rumors rampant, but Briere himself seems to think he will be bought out as well. Briere is fresh off one of the worst two-year stretches of his career, a stretch where he shot under 10% in both seasons, well below his career average of 14.4%. Briere is still pretty decent offensively, capable of putting up 15 goals and 50 points, and can play both center and right wing. However, this year was just an atrocious performance for Briere, who posted a 0.9 OGVT and 0.8 DGVT in the lockout-shortened year. While he has never been a defensive stalwart, the 0.9 OGVT is a significant drop from the 7.5 OGVT of last season. The big decision here is determining whether or not this horrible season –where he shot an abysmal 6.9%– was an off-year or a sign that the 35-year-old has hit a wall. Looking back at Briere’s metrics, he was a major puck possession driver in the 2009-2010 season, leading all Flyers with a 10.1 RCorsi. However, that appears to be the last season where Briere actually posted a positive RCorsi, despite being used in favorable situations (Corsi Rel QoC always under 0.3, always over 50% OZone starts). In 2010-2011 his RCorsi was -0.3, 2011-2012 was -3.1, and this 2013 season was -1.8, all with minimal variation in his Corsi Rel QoC and OZone start percentages. On the scoreboard, Briere still managed to post 50 point seasons despite his declining puck possession ability, but it wasn’t until the past two seasons where we saw his goal totals take a big hit, dropping from 34 in 2010-2011 to just 6 in 34 games this season (16 in the 2011-2012 campaign). Briere’s name is going to be brought up many times when the Flyers officially buy him out, but this is a classic case of buyer beware. Briere has a name value, but he has been declining in all major categories over the past three seasons. Briere isn’t just on the wrong side of 30, he’s on the wrong side of 35 as well. There are better top-six options available for the Rangers, even if he does come at a likely discounted price. Tweet

Sometimes other teams show you what certain paths are going to look like. The New York Rangers have made it clear they're looking for a righty defenseman with a booming shot, mainly to help boost the power play. This ideology was furthered along by the fact that Alain Vigneault power plays generally create a lot of one timers and shots from the point. This isn't a new thought process. The Rangers have been linked with pretty much every single offensive defenseman with a big shot the past few years, regardless of whether or not said player is even available. So it's no surprise the Rangers are interested in a player like that. The reality of the situation is, like I said above, sometimes opposing teams give you a good idea of what the road is going to be like. Let's look at the two big offseason moves for offensive defenseman: 1) The Dallas Stars traded a sixth round draft pick to the Ottawa Senators for Sergei Gonchar. The stars then signed Gonchar to a two-year $10-million contract. 2) The Philadelphia Flyers traded a fourth round pick to the New York Islanders for Mark Streit. The Flyers then signed Streit to a four-year $21-million contract. Take a look at those two situations. Gonchar is 39 years old, is a $5-million cap hit and is signed for two years. The Streit contract makes even less sense. Streit is 35 and got four years for a $5.25-million cap hit. So, to review, not only did both teams have to shell out draft picks (arguably not high picks, but still) and then sign both players to pretty massive deals. The Flyers, who already have cap issues, made huge strides to close the gap with Streit that the Islanders couldn't. The Stars did better in terms of length, but that's still a big cap hit. What does this mean for the Rangers? The market on available UFA defenseman is think. Remarkably thin. The best players available right now are Marek Zidlicky (36) and Joe Corvo (35). There have been rumbles Sather is interested in Zidlicky, but considering the contracts both Gonchar and Streit got he might be too expensive -- especially since his services are going to hit the open market. So who is available on the trade front? I'm not sure. There haven't been many reports about defenseman on the block at all. But if the UFA market is any indication the price for a defenseman is going to be pretty steep. I doubt the Rangers make a move but I'm sure Sather is kicking tires around the league. What do you guys think? Who are you interested in seeing the Rangers go after? Should they look at the UFA market? Do the Rangers even need to bring on a defenseman?

{Jared Wickerham/Getty Images North America} Usually when we do our stay or go posts, we look at pending UFAs to see if the Rangers should spend the money to keep these players around. Last week Suit wrote a stay or go for Brian Boyle, as Boyle is the subject of a lot of discussion, and I’m going to piggy-back on this. Many know that I’m a Boyle supporter,and with AV –and his significantly less aggressive systems– in, his skating issues won’t be easily exploited as much. His defensive play makes him an almost indispensable part of the fourth line. This of course brings us to Taylor Pyatt. Signed to be a replacement for Ruslan Fedotenko, Pyatt immediately showed that he has tremendous hockey IQ. He simply knows the game and knows where to be. The problems with Pyatt were his inability to score consistently –eight of his eleven points came in two different stretches of three and five game point streaks– and his foot speed, which was exploited time and time again. Scoring for Pyatt has always been a relatively difficult task, as he’s only breached the 20-point barrier twice in the past five years, so his 11 points in 48 games is actually on pace with his career average. Ditto for his shot percentage (10.7% this year, compared to 10.9% over his career). Pyatt’s usage was a happy medium between two-way and sheltered minutes, per his player usage chart. Given the bubble layout on the chart, it’s safe to say that Pyatt was actually given the most sheltered minutes of anyone not nailed to the fourth line on a regular basis. With those minutes, Pyatt would at least be expected to match his metrics from the 2011-2012 season (.140 Corsi Rel QoC, -9.3 RCorsi, 41.2% OZone starts). The problem is: His numbers this year don’t really add up. For more on the metrics we use, click here. Sure, Pyatt’s RCorsi was marginally better this year at -8.7, but considering the Rangers were a top-ten team in puck possession this year, that’s not unexpected. But when you compare that with his -.061 Corsi Rel QoC and 53.0% OZone starts, his marginally increased RCorsi seems less impressive. Throw in the foot speed, and this all of a sudden becomes a problem. What you see is what you get with Pyatt: A decent bottom-six player who can eat minutes in an unimpressive fashion. He will chip in to the tune of 20 points a season, but he won’t be consistent enough offensively to warrant a spot off the bottom-six, perhaps even the fourth line. Is that enough to earn his $1.55 million salary? In a Torts system, I’d say look to see what the Rangers could get for him. However in a Vigneault 1-2-2 system, Pyatt may be significantly more useful. After all, he wasn’t bad in Phoenix with Dave Tippet’s 1-2-2, and his two best offensive seasons came under Vigneault when they were in Vancouver together from 2006-2008, including his only 20-goal season. Perhaps Pyatt is just better suited for a trapping team. Or perhaps the 31-year old is continuing his decline over the past three seasons. The Rangers have a glut of bottom-six guys, with more on the way in the form of J.T. Miller and Oscar Lindberg. An addition of a top-six winger moves Carl Hagelin to the third line where he belongs, and all of a sudden you have a logjam and a tough decision to make. It looks like this is coming down to Pyatt or Boyle, not both. Personally, I’d keep Boyle and see what they can get for Pyatt. Boyle adds more defensively, with face offs, and with versatility (he played the wing a bit this year, Pyatt can’t play center). Regardless, one of them won’t be in New York next season. Tweet

One of the biggest (and best) acquisitions Glen Sather made by the trade deadline last year was signing Mats Zuccarello. Zuccarelo left the Rangers for a one year KHL contract last summer, and once his season was over the Rangers brought him back for the playoff run. The move was a big success. Zuccarello scored three goals and added five assists for eight points in 15 regular season games. He added a goal and six assists for seven points in 12 playoff games. Here's the deal with Zuccarello: He brings offensive creativity the Rangers desperately needed. At 25 he's still a very young option and he fit in perfectly despite being gone for an entire season. I speculated earlier in the year that Zuccarello's time in the KHL helped him take the next step this season. Some of you disagreed with me, but I do think getting big minutes in a very good professional league let him evolve into an even better player. Zuccarello's contract was worth $700,00 this year, and you can expect he would get a pretty sizable raise if the Rangers were interested in bringing him back. They have the cap space, and it's not like Zuccarello is going to break the bank anyway, so my guess is Sather is more mulling over the length rather than the dollars. It should also be noted that Zuccarello is a restricted free agent, so other teams interested in him would need to pay the Rangers compensation. To me, Zuccarello is worth bringing back (unless he makes crazy trade demands). We've talked a lot about how the Rangers were much better when they got deeper as a team, and Zuccarello is a huge part of that depth. Another factor? The power play. The Rangers man advantage is far more lethal when Zuccarello is one the ice. His elusiveness and his vision was simply on a different level in the playoffs, and the Rangers power play only succeeded (when it did) because of him. He had three power play assists in the playoffs. For a team that couldn't score to save their lives with the man advantage, that figure is massive. Sometimes with free agents the only thing you need to do is answer one question: Is the team better with or without [Player X]? In Zuccarello's case the answer is easily "better with him." To many (myself included) the answer is "much better with him." What do you guys think? Should the Rangers keep Zuccarello or drop him?