Rebuilding? Yes. Suicide? No!

If the New York Rangers are truly in a rebuilding mode, then someone may want to talk to the GM to find out why he is making moves that fly in the face of a rebuild.

In the last 2 days, the Rangers have added veterans RJ Umberger, Derek Morris and Pascal Dupuis for draft picks. The very life blood of rebuilding teams. What gives?

Well, we asked the GM that very question, he was open and honest with his answer and while somewhat conflicting, the rationale made sense.

"We ARE rebuilding. Make no mistake about it. We are going to go with a younger team, but in the sense that it's done correctly. I don't believe in throwing out a bunch of teenagers to compete in the MRFHL and expect to create an environment of growth and understanding. In those situations there is no one to learn from, no one to watch and no one to help remain competitive. We want a team that will be competitive night in and night out. We are not looking to tank for a good pick next year, in fact I'd prefer if we made the PO's than picked 1st overall. That would mean that some of our kids took a bigger step forward thsi year then expected and that is never a bad thing. We have some vets here that are on short term deals and those guys are going to see significant ice time. We are still negotiating with Joel Ward and hope to see him signed soon as we are going to be leaning hard on him all season in all situations. We are going to try to surround the kids with some vets that work hard all the time. Talent can only get you so far, it's those guys that put in the hard work that seperate themselves from the rest. We think we have added a few really good hard working players that can help the team win games and hope to get Ward signed to add to that."

The GM went on to lay out in general terms what the team could look like on opening night (assuming Ward signs)

AT FORWARD

Joel Ward - Mikael Backlund - Nail Yakupov

Matt Cullen - Brandon Sutter - Kyle Palmieri

Dustin Penner - Mikhail Grigorenko - Pascal Dupuis

Jason Zucker - RJ Umberger - Matt Nieto

Extra forwards rotating regularly  -  Drayson Bowman and Anton Lander

ON DEFENCE

Ryan McDonagh - Derek Morris

Matt Carle - Andrew Ference

Ron Hainsey - Ryan Murphy

Extra Defenders - Free Agent signings

IN GOAL

MA Fleury

Cam Talbot

Can things change from now until opening night? Absolutely. We are going to look at Free Agency to see if there are options there that can help us now and 3 years from now. We have some guys here that are going to help us bridge the valleys that some rebuilding teams often times suffer through when going through a rebuild phase. We think we are good enough to be a playoff team and will be approaching the 2014-15 season with that goal in mind.

Head Coach Kirk Muller was asked about the overall look of the team as seen through the eyes of GM Phil Grote "I think the organization is seeing through the same set of eyes in the sense that we want to surround the kids with vets and the vets with kids. As much as the older guys help the younger guys, it's an amazing dynamic to watch teh impact that the kids have on the vets in the sense that it sort of invigorates them to try to keep up. It can have a great impact on the older guys as they know coming into the season for the most part what their role is going to be therefore the off-season workout programs are ramped up a bit and these guys come to camp in great shape. In order to keep up with these kids nowadays it's a must. So, I see what Phil sees. We are on the same page and that makes what we are trying to do here all that much better."

The Free Agent Frenzy is fast approaching. We know the Rangers will be looking for Defence. There are names out there that fit the now help and the now/future help catagory. I will be inetresting to see who they zero in on.