Three Rangers who are Making an Impact in 2023-24

Erik Gustafsson Making an Impact

For the last few years, ever since Artemi Panarin signed a seven-year contract and became a New York Ranger, the Rangers have been a ‘loaded team’. That isn’t an exaggeration. Panarin is a three-time all-star who has scored over 90 points in each of his three full seasons with the Rangers. Fox is one of the NHL’s best offensive defensemen and has the 2021 Norris Trophy to back that up. If that weren’t enough, the Rangers also have the goaltender who is considered by many to be the best or a top-two goalie in the league. In any league, having three players who are considered to be one of the top five best at their position would be considered a major advantage, but it’s important to juxtapose the Rangers star power with the fact that NHL teams also need to have depth.

Depth in the NHL refers to scoring as well as having versatility. defensive forwards and offensive defensemen. One of the less appreciated reasons that the Rangers have gotten off to a great start this season has been Erik Gustafsson. During a recent media availability, head coach Laviolette described why he pushed the Rangers front office to sign Gustafsson during the offseason.

He’s played well since he’s been here. His training camp was good, the start of the season was really strong. It doesn’t surprise me that he’s able to step in and play that way. He did it for me last year on a different team and he’s doing the same exact thing for me now.

The great thing about this writer pointing out that Gustafsson has made a positive impact on the 2023-24 Rangers is, his stats are so clearly good. The Swede has played in all 14 of the Rangers’ games, scored 10 points and posted a plus-seven +/- rating. His 10 points rank sixth on the Ranger roster, ahead of Mika Zibanejad.  Fox had 11 points through the first 10 games of the year, but Gustafsson has earned the promotion to the Rangers second defensive pairing, which he received before Fox exited the lineup. Gustafsson has taken over Fox’s spot on the Rangers first power play unit. Last season, he played for the Washington Capitals where Laviolette was head coach and Laviolette recently said “it doesn’t surprise me that he’s able to step in and play that way.” So far, it’s looking like signing a proven offensive NHL defenseman on a one-year, $825,000 contract has been one of the best signings that an NHL team made during the 2023 offseason.

Bonino Helping Rangers with Little Things

During the offseason, Chris Drury and the Rangers front office signed Bonino to a meager deal. They wanted to add the 38-year-old forward who has two cups on his resume to bring that experience to their team and he’s done all of that so far. Recently, the former Sharks center was bumped up to the Rangers third line where he’s taken Will Cuylle and Kaapo Kakko under his wing.

The best thing that a defensive center can do if he’s not ending up on the scoresheet is to be unnoticeable and, in a way, Bonino has done that. Over the course of the first 14 games of the season, the Connecticut-native has zero points, but he is helping the team out in an area they have struggled with. That’s face-offs and Bonino’s 58.6 % ranks second on the team only behind Vincent Trocheck (64.4%). That’s a valuable skill to have especially when your team’s first line center struggles at winning them. Mika Zibanejad on the other hand has succeeded on 53.5% of face-offs he’s taken which is an improvement over the 49.5% he had last season.

Let’s not forget about the other thing that Veterans are there for, which is boosting team morale so let’s look at Bonino’s background. Bonino was born in Hartford Connecticut in 1988. He might’ve grown up rooting for the Rangers or Boston Bruins but, what stands out about his youth is that he played for the junior Hartford Wolf Pack when he was 16. The Wolf Pack of the AHL switched their affiliation from the Hartford Whalers to the Rangers in 1990. This means that the Rangers have had influence and have been relevant in the Hartford area for almost all of Bonino’s childhood.

Bonino is the second player from Connecticut that the Rangers brought on board. The other is Jonathan Quick, who interestingly enough, won two cups with one team during the 2010s, like Bonino. This shared background may help the two veterans get to know each other more easily. Who knows what kind of positive effect that could have, if two of the team’s most experienced players are just a little happier. Bonino is the kind of ice hockey veteran that the Rangers needed this year; they needed to balance out their young talent with some hard-nosed defensive forwards like Tyler Pitlick and it has paid dividends at this early stage of the regular season.

Signing #3: Jonathan Quick

Last summer, Jonathan Quick was one of the very first signings the Rangers made when the NHL’s free agency signing period began in July. I remember sitting in my car, hearing the news on WFAN Radio and thinking that the signing was underwhelming. And at that time, I was right because Quick had turned in a 3.41 Goals Agaisnt-Average (GAA) last season.

The L.A. Kings traded Quick to the Columbus Blue Jackets and he then was shipped to the Vegas Golden Knights. When he was traded in March, Vegas’s first choice goalie, Logan Thompson was on the IR and Laurent Brossoit couldn’t play either. Quick ended up going 5-2-2 over nine appearances with the Golden Knights, but Adin Hill ended up being the guy for the remainder of that Stanley Cup run. How much Quick helped the young Vegas goaltenders by sharing the knowledge that makes him a future Hall-of-Famer cannot be understated. Hill winning 11 games for Vegas during the 2023 playoffs while sporting a .932 SV and 2.17 GAA.

Fast forward to the current season and Quick has been granted the wish of joining the team he rooted for as a kid despite being in the twilight of his career. Last season, over the 25 appearances in which he was in net, Jaroslav Halak put up a .901 SV % and 2.72 GAA. Those numbers are better than what Quick did last year, but the current back up to Shesterkin, has looked more like his old self this season.

Through six games, Quick has posted a 5-0-1 record, two shutouts, a 1.68 GAA and .940 SV %. To give you an idea of how good those stats are, he ranks first in GAA, SV % and is tied for second in shutouts. It’s early, but those are really outstanding numbers for a backup who looked to be declining coming into this year. All of the athletes who make it to the NHL, NBA, or NFL– to name a few made it there because of their mentality, work ethic and talent. The ones who were one of the best at their position for any length of time like Jonathan Quick was, are not flukes. This writer may have thought the New York Rangers weren’t getting the best version of the 2011-12 Conn Smythe trophy winner, but so far, Quick has proved all of his doubters dead wrong.