Rangers Free Agent Targets!! Is Sam Bennett a realistic option?? Trent Frederic? Ivan Provorov?

Rangers Free Agent Targets!! Is Sam Bennett a realistic option?? Trent Frederic? Ivan Provorov?

The New York Rangers desperately need more edge and more energy next season. So, should they make a run at Sam Bennett? We debate. You’re Locked on the New York Rangers, your daily podcast on the New York Rangers, part of the Locked On Network, your team every day. Welcome back Blue Shirts fans to episode number 1316 of the Locked On New York Rangers podcast. I’m your host John Chick. Just want to thank you guys as always for making locked on New York Rangers your first listen every day. We are free and available on all platforms including YouTube. And today’s episode of Locked on New York Rangers is brought to you by FanDuel. Right now, new FanDuel customers can get $200 in bonus bets if your first $5 bet wins. And we are, of course, part of the Locked on Podcast Network. your team every day. So, in what’s become obviously something of an offseason tradition here unlocked on New York Rangers, we are turning our attention to unrestricted free agents from around the league that could make some sense for the Rangers. Some guys that the Rangers might want to think about making a run at, some guys that could uh really improve this team going forward in some cases. And in some other cases, we’re going to look at some free agents around the league who maybe there’s some buzz, maybe there’s some hype, but maybe it’s not the best move for the Raiders to make. And we begin. The first player we’re going to debate here is going to be Sam Bennett. We already discussed Mitch Mner in a recent episode. I believe it was two episodes ago, right after the Toronto Maple Leafs were eliminated. So, if you want my thoughts on Mner, you can go back two episodes and check that out. But for today, once again, we begin with Sam Bennett. We’ll have a couple of other uh UFAs to discuss a little bit later in today’s episode. But for a lot of Ranger fans, this is the guy. And it’s not hard to see why as far as like the ideal free agent target for the New York Rangers this off season. Obviously, there’s some scoring there, but you think Sam Bennett, you think toughness, edge, nastiness, snarl, straight line hockey that the Rangers need to play a heck of a lot more of than certainly we saw uh this past season. Whether or not the Rangers can actually afford Bennett or not, that’s a different story and we’ll get to that shortly here as well. But it’s very very easy to see why so many Ranger fans covet this guy and myself included I would love to add a Sam Bennett type player to this Ranger team. Although considering the contract that he might be looking at might be very very difficult for the Rangers to pull it off. And even if they do that might be just about it as far as free agent spending for I mean who knows how many years. There is some money opening up next off seasonason. But if you give a big contract to Bennett that’s obviously going to be you know a big dent in whatever cap space you would have next off seasonason. But, you know, to kind of go through the background with Sam Bennett, he is now 28 years old, so getting into his late 20s, but obviously still uh quite young and I think a good investment for just about any team that were to sign him. He plays center and left wing. The Raiders do have an abundance of both, but there are always ways around that. And I think that, you know, you’re probably going to see a situation where Mika Zabanad is going to be playing right wing going forward, assuming that he’s back this upcoming season. And on top of that, you look at leftwing, it looks deep now, but you know, Paneran’s entering the last year of his contract. Krider could be traded, and even if he’s not, he’s only got two years left on his contract. Lafrronier is technically a left winger, although I think at this point a lot of us think of him more so as a right-winger since that’s where he’s mostly been playing the last couple of seasons. So, you can always make the pieces fit. You can always find a way uh to make it work, especially for a player the caliber of Sam Bennett. Uh it must be said this is a guy that toes the line and certainly crosses it at times as well. Uh the sucker punch to Mar Shannon in last year’s playoffs was just unbelievable. Um even by like you know dirty NHL play kind of standards that that was brutal and you know I know people don’t like Marshian but getting sucker punched in the side of the head is something that I don’t think really anybody deserves. And then you’ve got the hit uh to Anthony Stars in this year’s postseason against the Maple Leafs. kind of one of those accidentally on purpose kind of deals. I mean, here’s the thing with a play like that. I could buy the fact that maybe it was an accident if it was a player that didn’t have the extensive track record that Sam Bennett does. Once you’ve done the amount of things that he’s done over the years and come under scrutiny as many times as he has, you lose the benefit of the doubt. At least for me. And I don’t know, to to me, it kind of looked like one of those things where he sort of looked like he knew what he was doing on that play. And I’m not condoning dirty play at all, but the Rangers do need somebody with more edge. They do do need more of those players that as an opponent, it’s like, okay, we got to keep an eye on that guy. We got to be aware when he’s on the ice. We got to keep our heads up. We got to be ready to go to battle. And right now, especially this past season, the Rangers just did not have enough of those guys. They they were few and far between. And even the ones that they did have, you know, I know a lot of people would point to Matt Rempy and and that’s true and everything, but I mean, how many minutes a night is Matt Rempy gonna play? You need a guy that’s gonna be a prominent member of this team that brings some snarl, bring some edge, bring some nastiness, and and hopefully you can tow that line and stay on the clean side of it more often than not, but you do need guys that are difficult to play against in this league, especially come playoff time. Obviously, that’s a moot point for the Rangers right now because they didn’t make the playoffs this year. Uh, we all know that, though. As far as like you the overall physicality, I mean, we know all about that. Again, he he does do a decent amount of scoring, does Sam Bennett, but you think about Bennett, you think about the physicality first. 1,294 hits in 691 career games. He’ll fight, too. Um, we saw him fight Brady Kachchuck in the Canada versus United States game at the Four Nations. That was one of those first couple of fights right off of the opening faceoff there. I mean, there were three in the first nine or 10 seconds, whatever it was. Uh we saw him get into a fight with Jacob Trouba all the way back in 2017. Bennett was on the uh the Flames at the time. Shoua was on the Jets and uh some big punches being thrown. Trouba was bleeding quite a bit after that fight was over. So I’d give the edge to Bennett in that one. And you know Bennett as far as like you know offensive stats are concerned again he’s not like an offensive juggernaut obviously but he is somebody that will contribute. I think most people see him as a middle six forward type player. But you look at his career numbers as far as offense is concerned. 691 regular season games, 162 goals, 174 assists, and 336 points. So, he will contribute there as well. And he’s somebody that also steps up his game when it comes to the postseason. I’ll elaborate on that in just a little bit. We we’ll get to his, you know, playoff uh resume. But one thing that I I have to mention here is that I am worried about the price tag when it comes to Sam Bennett and whether the Raiders can even be competitive, whether they’ll be priced right out of it. And honestly, at a certain point, if it even makes sense to give Bennett the kind of contract that he honestly might end up commanding, I think hockey fans right now, Ranger fans and otherwise, are at least somewhat underestimating what his next contract is going to look like. I see predictions of like, you know, six years at five and a half million, six years at six million, somewhere in that ballpark. Honestly, guys, I could see it being more like seven million a season, 7.5 million per season, maybe even creeping up on eight. And that does seem like a lot, but GMs around the league covet players like this. And you add that to the fact that again, this is a very, not very, but it is a weaker free agent market than we’re used to seeing. There aren’t a lot of like high-end superstar players available. The one like true superstar that’s out there is Mner and we saw the way that he just played in the playoffs and people are really down on him. I don’t want him coming anywhere near the Rangers. He’ll still get a payday and he’s earned that, you know, through, you know, the amount of offensive production that he’s had in his career. But, I mean, beyond that, where are the superstar players? They just aren’t really there. And players looking to improve their team, they’re going to have to overpay to get some of these, you know, top free agents in this year’s class. Also to consider is the fact that there will be a jump in the salary cap, which is both good news and bad news for the Rangers if you’re looking for this team to land Sam Bennett. The reason why it’s good news is because it would make a player like Sam Bennett, even if he gets a bigger contract than expected, a little bit more affordable going forward, you know, as the salary cap continues to rise and rise and rise as it’s been doing. But the bad news is that it also results in a bigger contract for Sam Bennett. And it results in other teams realizing that trend as well, the salary cap going up and realizing that, hey, we can afford this guy and we can afford him this season and he’ll get more and more affordable as the years go by because the salary cap will still keep going higher. So yeah, Bennett’s cap stays the same. But the percentage that he would be taking up of the salary cap, that will go down with every passing year if the salary cap continues to trend in the direction that it has. So, I mean, I don’t know, man. You know, good all-around player like this with some serious bite, some serious edge. Uh, obviously he’s been to the two Stanley Cup finals the last two years. He might make it back to another one. Uh, he’s won a Stanley Cup GMs love players like this. And I think there’s going to be a lot of suitors for Sam Bennett. And it’s entirely possible that he ends up getting a contract that the Rangers just can’t afford or certainly wouldn’t feel comfortable uh giving out to Sam Bennett. With that being the case, if you still are on board with Sam Bennett and you say, “No, we need a guy like this. Bennett’s my guy. Let’s make this thing happen.” Here’s how I would expect the Rangers to try to play it. If they are in on Bennett, I think you take a similar approach that you took with Vincent Trochek, you know, years ago, couple of years ago. you give him a longer contract for less money per season. The most amount of years that you can give to a UFA from another team is seven. It might require the Rangers, if they’re going to be in on Bennett and be competitive here, giving him the full seven years, which isn’t terrible because that would only take him through his age 35 season. So, he’s getting up there a little bit, but certainly not Ancient. And then that’s the name of the game when you’re trying to sign a free agent in general. A lot of times you’re going to have to give him a little bit more money than you’d be comfortable with. you’re going to have to give him a couple more years than you might like as well because you got to find a way to um you know separate yourself from the pack from the other teams that might be in on a unrestricted free agent uh such as Sam Bennett. So I would expect them to go the Vincent Troche route if they’re trying to get him to try to keep the average annual value as low as possible. You give him a whole bunch of years and you hope that you know the total amount of money then that would make Bennett happy. All this is not even considering the fact that he could end up staying with Florida. I mean they’ve obviously done a bunch of winning. He might win another Stanley Cup this season. At this point, I don’t see how you look at any team other than the Panthers as the favorites to to win this thing. So, he might end up staying there. You know, we’ll see. But, you know, there’s there’s a lot to consider here when it comes to adding Stan Bennett, the the cost chief among them. Something else that I think merits some consideration here is the amount of players on the Rangers that you would have to move to even have a shot to be able to afford Sam Bennett. I’ve mentioned this before, but you’d have to trade probably Chris Krider. You’d have to move on from Keandre Miller, not give him a new contract. Cars and Susie becomes a trade candidate as well. That would open up some cap space. Um, trading guys like Panera and Mika, that does not sound all that feasible given that they both have full no move clauses, but you’re going to have to make some moves to be able to afford Sam Bennett. And even then, it’s going to be tough to fit him in under the salary cap. Again, I really think he’s going to get a much bigger contract than people are anticipating. One other thing I have to say in uh Bennett’s favor here though, proven playoff performer. I mentioned this, I alluded to this a couple of minutes ago. We know that the Stanley Cup playoffs are tailor made for somebody like Sam Bennett and that hard-hitting, in-your-face physical style that he plays. But even offensively, he steps it up come postseason. For his career in the regular season, he averages about a half point per game. It’s just a shade under that. For the playoffs, 96 games. So it’s it’s not a small sample size. We’re we’re talking a full season of NHL hockey there and a couple of games left to spare. 96 games, 31 goals, 34 assists for a total of 65 points in 96 playoff games. And I’m realizing now that they played last night and they won. I did not update this stat since that happened. But bottom line, it’s in the same ballpark. And that is approximately 68 points per game. So his scoring goes up by a decent point come playoff time uh for Sam Bennett. So as far as like a verdict here, I don’t think this is going to happen. But if you want a really good all-around player that brings that toughness, brings that meanness, uh I think Sam Bennett is probably your guy. But I I just think the price is going to be quite a bit higher than people are uh currently anticipating. But in just a second, we’ve got an alternative to Sam Bennett. He’s not on the same level, but he’s somebody that does have some of the same attributes, brings some similar qualities to the rink. That is going to be Trent Frederick. And we’re going to talk about him in just a second. All right, we just want to take a minute to let everybody know that today’s episode of Locked on New York Rangers is brought to you by FanDuel. The NBA playoffs are in full swing and every night delivers highlight worthy performances, major momentum shifts, and can’t miss moments. Whether it’s a game-winning shot or a breakout player, there’s never been a better time to get in on the action. FanDuel makes it easy to stay in the game better before tip off and live. With player props, performance trends, and same game parlays, fans have more ways than ever to play smart and win big. You look at the New York Knicks right now in the conference final for the first time in 25 years. It’s obviously very exciting. I think all the Ringer Magic somehow got transferred to the Knicks this season, but be that as it may, there’s a lot of interesting player props. Jaylen Brunson is doing his thing that you can check out on FanDuel. Uh definitely a good time to visit that website and see what you can do there. If you’re new to FanDuel, it is the perfect time to sign up. Head to FanDuel.com and place your first $5 bet. If it wins, you will get $200 in bonus bets. Make every moment more with FanDuel, official sports betting partner of the NBA. All right, let’s go ahead and keep everything rolling here. Unlocked on New York Rainers. Big big shout out to the everydayers as always. I think in our next episode, what we might do, it’s going to be our last episode of the week, so we’ll do something fun. will relive the best five Ranger wins from this past season. I know it was a rough season, even in a pretty brutal campaign, though. There were some fun moments. There were some exciting wins uh in the mix there. So, so we’ll do that. We’ll also get to the five worst losses at some point, too, which I feel like in a weird way, people might enjoy that even more because I think it will be cathartic for a lot of us. But that’s for another day. For right now, let’s keep our focus on unrestricted freedoms from around the league. and another player that I like quite a bit and that is Trent Frederick. He’s very very high on my list and I’m still going through the entire class and trying to figure out who’s affordable and who might be a good fit for this team. But when you consider, you know, value versus price tag and value versus length of contract, Trent Frederick is very, very high for me. And I’ll get to the reasons why in just a second, but as far as the background, because he’s not like a superstar player, I think we all know that. but he’s 27 years old, plays center, plays left wing, former first round pick by the Bruins in 2016. He went number 29 overall that year. He was actually traded by Boston to Edmonton in a three-team deal that also included the Devils. The Devils had to retain some of Trent Frederick’s salary to make that thing happen, and they were compensated with, I believe, a draft pick if I’m not mistaken. But the bottom line, Frederick is finishing up a two-year deal that carried a cap hit of $2.3 million per season, and he’s set to be an unrestricted free agent for the first time. Full disclosure here on Trent Frederick. I could not stand him when he was a member of the Bruins. But that’s the idea, and I mean that as a compliment because just like I mentioned with Sam Bennett, it’s true of Sam of uh Trent Frederick here as well. The Rangers need more guys that are difficult to play against. The Rangers need more guys that are going to be a headache for the opposition. The Rangers need more guys where you got to keep your head on a swivel when they’re on the ice. Guys that feel just a little bit dangerous. Guys that, you know, tow that line ever so carefully as far as, you know, what’s clean and what might be over the edge a little bit or over the line a little bit. You know, with Trent Frederick, you think of uh as far as like him potentially coming to the Rangers, he would go from somebody that I I don’t think many of us really like that much when he was on the Bruins to being somebody that I think could become an instant fan favorite. He’s another one of those guys that’s very hard-hitting, plays that straight line style and will get in your face and will drop the gloves when the occasion calls for it. Somebody that can certainly get under your skin if you’re a member of the opposing team. But again, that is what the Rangers need. The Rangers need more guys like that that will drive the opponents crazy from time to time. They need a loose cannon or two on this roster. Not guys that just kind of I mean I you you look at this last season, guys that kind of just go through the motions. I mean that’s what it was in too many games. There just weren’t enough guys out there mixing it up. Enough guys that were bringing that fire and that energy and that nastiness every single night. There just was not nearly enough of that. And I think Trent Frederick can give you some of that. And if Sam Bennett becomes too expensive, if the contract’s too long, if the contract is too rich for the Rangers, Frederick is not on Bennett’s level, but again, he’s kind of Bennett light, if you will. Bennett Jr., whatever you want to call it, plays that hard-hitting bluecollar style. He’s been in a lot of fights with the Razers over the years. Maybe that’s part of the reason why I don’t like him so much, but we actually saw him drop the gloves with Trouba uh last season, not the one that just concluded, but the season before. The short fight, but a couple of big punches each way. Uh there was also an incident, you know, last year, Peter Lavallet’s first year with the Rangers for reference, uh where there was like a two-on- fight between the Rangers and Bruins. We had Braden Schneider absolutely just cream Frederick uh as Frederick was entering the offensive zone. So that was awesome. Schneider actually ended up fighting Greer because Greer basically jumped him and then Frederick got into it with Barklay Goodro. And I would give an edge to Frederick in that fight. Uh we also saw Frederick fight Brennan Lemieux when Lemieux was on the Raiders all the way back in 2021. uh just haymakers both ways. We saw this doesn’t involve the Rangers, but we saw Frederick also fight Tom Wilson. So, this is somebody that’s not afraid. He’s not going to back down. And again, that is the very description of the type of player that the Rangers could really use right now. And he can contribute a little bit offensively as well. I mean, if we’re being honest here, you probably wish there was a little bit more offense to his game. He’s basically a third of a point per game player for his career. 338 games, 55 goals, 54 assists, 109 points, uh, while averaging 12 minutes 24 seconds of ice time per night, 157 block shots, 672 hits. You know, I do feel like maybe there’s been times where on the Bruins where he’s been buried on the depth chart a little bit and on one hand, if you’re good enough, you know, you forced your way up the depth chart, right? But you got to remember some of those Bruins teams that he was playing on were absolutely loaded. We saw just a couple of seasons ago where they had one of the was it the best record in NHL regular season history or maybe the most points in NHL regular season history. It was right there and they lost in the first round. So that was pretty funny. But yeah, I mean Frederick, it it’s hard to climb too high up a depth chart for a team that’s doing that that’s setting, you know, the all-time record for most points in a season. So he was on some, like I said, absolutely loaded Bruins teams and maybe that prevented him from getting a more prominent role and now he’s with the Oilers. but he’s a free agent after the season ends. Maybe with the Rangers, you know, he’ll be given a little bit more of a chance to to stake out a bigger role for himself. I mean, you know, you look at the top six, I think it would be difficult for him to crack it. I don’t think it would be impossible, though, depending on some other moves that the Rangers might make this off seasonason. Obviously, if Krider gets traded, which may or may not happen. We don’t know. But if that does happen, that opens up a spot. I mean, I would prefer it to go to one of the Rangers homegrown prospects, whether we’re talking, you know, Offman or Perau or whoever it might be. But the bottom line, the door would at least be open. The door would be cracked for Trent Frederick to carve out a big role for himself on the Raiders. And again, I think it’s an affordable contract as well. I don’t know exactly what he’s going to get. It’ll be a probably a raise on what he’s making right now, just $2.3 million per season. Um, but I I think it’ll still be within reason. I I don’t think it’ll be nuts. You might be talking like 3.75 million a year. I mean, does that sound about right for Trent Frederick? I I think that’s about where he would come in. And I think that would be uh certainly affordable. May maybe not even that high. Maybe we’re talking like 3 million, three and a half million somewhere in that ballpark. That could be money well spent for a Ranger team that, you know, doesn’t have a ton of money to do it. And I don’t think he would have to go crazy with the length of the contract either. Um I I just don’t think that Trent Frederick is going to go out there and command a 60 or sevenyear uh deal. I just don’t see that happening. I mentioned his offense just a second ago. There’s one thing I want to get back to here. He was contributing more and more offensively every season for four straight seasons with the Bruins until this past year. And of course, this past year, the floor fell out from underneath the Bruins. Everything collapsed. Everything fell apart. It was a mess and they ended up selling and uh dealt Trent Frederick uh around the trade deadline. But his offensive numbers were slowly creeping up there. Just little by little with the Bruins. Um again, not like dazzling incredible numbers, but respectable third line uh type numbers from Trent Frederick. uh you know toward the end of his um tenure with the Bruins this current season notwithstanding he could win a Stanley Cup. That’s the other thing too. He’s played in all 11 playoff games for the Oilers. He’s got a goal and an assist in that time. Uh his goal was actually the series clincher in the game six win over the Kings in the first round. So he could end up with a Stanley Cup. As far as uh his role with the Rangers, I mean I would see him probably like a third liner. I think mostly a bottom six type player, but somebody that could play the top six in a pinch and somebody that might honestly have some top six potential, especially if you’ve got a line in the top six, whether it’s your top line, your second line, whatever it might be. Maybe there’s two Rangers on said line that are good offensive players and will produce offensively, but they don’t really do the dirty work. Maybe Frederick would fit in great and be a great compliment to a line like that. I’m talking myself into this guy even more than I already was. Like, I really like this idea. Um, given the fact that I don’t think it’s going to be too rich of a contract, I don’t think it’s going to be too long of a contract either. You can keep it within reason. He’s still just 27 years old. Give him like a three-year deal that takes him only to age 30. I mean, that could be a steal. I I think this is somebody that could be a steal on the open market and somebody that teams that miss out on Sam Bennett might look to target. I I would hope that, you know, hopefully he’s a little bit under the radar and hopefully the Rangers can kind of just, you know, make their move and and get him before, you know, anybody else overpays for him or, you know, whatever the situation might be there. But I I I really do like Trent Frederick as a as a target for the Rangers this offseason. We’re keep everything rolling in just a second. We’re actually going to get to a free agent defenseman who I think that frankly is a little bit overhyped. I’m just being honest. I have to keep it real on here. We’ll get to that player in just a second. All [Music] right, let’s go keep everything rolling here. Unlocked on New York Raiders. Going to go ahead and close out today’s episode by talking about another unrestricted free agent. Somebody that has some buzz and somebody that I think will probably benefit in being sort of a big fish in a small pond both literally and figuratively here because you know it is kind of a weaker free agent market class this off seasonason. But that player is Ivan Prov. I gotta be honest, guys. I’m not really getting all the hype here. I don’t know why so many Raider fans are so gung-ho about adding Ivan Proof. He’s not a bad player, but I think that he’s somebody that, as I’ve mentioned in recent episodes, kind of like in passing, I feel like he is destined to be overpaid due to the weaker free agent market that we’re seeing right now. He is one of the better uh left-handed defenseman that’s available. I think the two that a lot of Ranger fans have their eye on right now are Prover and Gavricov. And certainly we’ll discuss Gav Gavov, excuse me, in a future episode. But with Prov, we’ll start with the good stuff because again, fair trial for everybody on here, right? There are some things to like. Uh, very durable. That that’s the first thing that really jumps out. He has played all 82 games for the last three seasons. The season before that, he played in 79 games. So, he’s always on the ice. He’s always out there doing his thing and logging big minutes pretty much every night. Uh, he’s got good size at 6’1, 213 pounds. Uh, for a defenseman, he does give you some offense. We’re talking 77 goals and 205 assists for a total of 282 points in 696 games. Also very mobile and a good skater and versatile as well. He can play on the power play. He can also play on the penalty kill. So, he can give you some good special teams play as well. So, he’s a good player. I’m not denying that. However, there’s some other things I’ve noticed as well. And again, this is on top of the fact that I think this is somebody that is destined to be overpaid by a team that is desperate to add a defenseman and has to overpay for somebody in a weak free agent market class. But physicality, there is none. There’s not really that much physicality from Ivan Proof, especially when you consider his height and his weight, his size. Um, at least in terms of hits. And I I realize there’s other ways to measure physicality. you know, will he clear people out of the crease and whatnot? But in terms of hits, there’s not a whole lot there. 696 games, just 787 hits for Proveroth, it’s not that much when you consider that he has averaged 23 minutes and 46 seconds of ice time per night. We’re talking basically one hit per game, one hit every 23 minutes or 21 minutes, whatever that averages out to. And on top of that, his physicality is going in the wrong direction because two years ago, which was his last season with Philadelphia and now he’s played two seasons with Columbus, uh Prov had 97 hits in 82 games. Then last year with the Jackets, just 66 hits in 82 games. And then this season with the Jets, only 28 hits by Prov in 82 games. this despite the fact that he’s averaging 23 minutes 21 seconds of time on the ice per night. What was he doing? Like where are the hits? Where’s the physicality? Right? I don’t throw this name around out there lightly. Merrick Malik, he always came under fire from Ranger fans and I think somewhat justifiably so because he was an absolute giant out there and he’s bigger than Proof, but he never used that to his advantage. He was not a physical defenseman and he really came under fire from Ranger fans. They would, it got to the point where they would boo him anytime that he touched the puck. And I’m not saying Prov is going to work out that badly. I don’t think he would if he came to the Rangers. But there’s some similarities there. This guy’s big and at least going by his hit total, he’s not taking advantage of it out there. So, there’s that to consider. There’s also this to consider. The guy’s a turnover machine. I don’t know how else to say it. When you look at his giveaways against takeaways, and those can be a little bit fickle. What exactly constitutes a giveaway and a takeaway? Some of them are obvious, some of them not so much. You know, is this a giveaway or did he just lose a 50/50 puck and it shouldn’t be a giveaway. So, I get that there’s some gray area there, but the Rangers don’t need another turnoverprone player and certainly not another turnoverprone defenseman based on what we saw from some of the Rangers uh bliners this past season. You know, people get really mad at Keandre Miller for his turnovers. And again, I think there’s times where it is warranted. Miller, at the very least, though, he does have a lot of giveaways. He gets a lot of takeaways, too. I I believe he led the Rangers this past season in takeaways. And when you look at the ratio for KA Miller’s career, 257 takeaways against 281 giveaways. So, it’s it’s not that far away from being, you know, a 50/50 split. And there have been seasons for Miller where he’s had more takeaways than giveaways. But for Proverb in his career, in 696 games, he has 188 takeaways against 717 giveaways. And again, I know those numbers can be a little bit fickle and there there’s some gray area there. I get all that. You you can’t tell me that like he’s on the like like the the NHL scorer, whoever’s scoring these games has it out for Prover that badly where he ends up getting ratioed like that. 188 takeaways against 717 giveaways. And for Prover this year, it’s even worse. Are you sitting down for this? If you’re driving, maybe just pull over for a quick second here. I’ll give you a minute. This is his ratio. 29 takeaways against 120 giveaways. Let’s again compare this to KAR Miller because he made a lot of mistakes this past season. He had a lot of turnovers and some, you know, really inopportune times during games. There were times where he cost the Rangers games. This was his ratio this past season for Miller. 47 takeaways against 97 giveaways. Once again, compare that to Prov. 29 takeaways against 120 giveaways. Prover’s ratio is far worse. So, I don’t know. I mean, are are people just unaware of this? I just I I’m not getting the hype. I’m not. One other thing that I’ll throw out there, too, because we’ve talked about, you know, playoff experience with certain free. We mentioned that with Sam Bennett. Um, you know, playoff experience. I’m not going to like look at a player and say, well, he hasn’t played a whole lot of playoff games, so that means the Rangers can’t possibly sign him. But I will, if a player has played in the playoffs a lot and has had success in the playoffs, then I’ll count that to their advantage. You can’t do that with Provo because he’s only played 22 career uh Stanley Cup playoff games, three goals, eight assists, minus four in that time. Has not played in the postseason since 2019 2020 with the Philadelphia Flyers. So, there’s not really a ton of uh playoff experience to speak of either. And then there’s the contract. And we talked about how Bennett, you know, he might be somebody that benefits from the weak uh free agent class at least a little bit. Nobody’s going to benefit from this more than Prov. Prov is coming off a pretty expensive contract. six years that paid him $6.75 million per season. That to me is already way too much for Prover, especially when you consider the Rangers salary cap situation and the fact that they don’t have a lot of money to spend anyway. I don’t see the point. I don’t think it’s a good idea to spend almost all of it on Ivan Proof, but he might end up getting more than that because again, you can make the case that he’s the best lefty defenseman in the free agent class. And I’m not denying that he’s a good player. you know, overall he’s had some success and that’s all well and good, but I think this is somebody that’s become overrated over the years. And I I think there’s a lot of I don’t know this for sure, but I think there’s a decent amount of Ranger fans that saw the Ranger defenseman this past season and say, “Okay, my god, we need an upgrade.” And you’re completely right about that. Like like if you were dissatisfied with what we saw from the Ranger defenseman this past season, I totally get it. But I feel like there’s certain fans that just kind of see that, well, Prover’s the best guy available, so let’s go get him. I don’t think that’s the way to go. I think the best thing you can do here if you’re the Raiders, I would like to see them add somebody in free agency, a defenseman to bolster the blue line a little bit, but I think you look at the veteran stop gap options. somebody like Demetri Orof, somebody that can be had, maybe they’re a little bit older, and I know some Ranger fans aren’t going to like that, and that’s fine, but get somebody that you can have on a one or two-year contract for a heck of a lot less money, and somebody that can basically just be a stop app and hold down the four until the Drew forces and the EJ Emories of the world are ready to step in there for the New York Rangers. I think that’s a much better approach than what I would consider to be massively overpaying uh for somebody like Prover. And it might be the same with Gavro, too. I got to look at him a little bit closer and, you know, see what’s out there about him. But I’m out on Proveroth. I was already out on Proveroth after looking up all these numbers and everything and really considering every aspect of this situation here, whether we’re talking his price tag, the length of the contract, uh, the lack of cap space that the Rangers have, I’m even more out than I was before. I I I have no interest in Prover, especially at the price tag that he’s going to get. You guys might feel differently. Certainly feel free to let me know. But that will do it for today. If you guys would like to get in touch with this podcast, please send an email to [email protected]. Once again, that is locked on [email protected]. Definitely give us a follow on Twitter as well, JX17. Once again, that is JCHK17. And definitely subscribe to Lockdown New York Rangers YouTube channel. Thanks again, guys. I will see you next time.

Can the New York Rangers transform their roster with strategic free agent signings? As the Rangers eye the upcoming offseason, potential targets like Sam Bennett, Trent Frederic, and Ivan Provorov are under the spotlight. Bennett’s playoff prowess and Frederic’s gritty style could inject much-needed energy into the team. Meanwhile, skepticism surrounds Provorov’s defensive capabilities, raising questions about his fit. Host Jon Chik breaks down these possibilities, exploring how each player might impact the Rangers’ strategy and salary cap. With discussions on potential trades involving Chris Kreider and the future of K’Andre Miller. Tune in to discover how the Rangers can reshape their lineup and gain a competitive edge.

Episode 1,316.

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