As the Rangers look to accelerate the rebuild, the most obvious hole on the roster that isn’t on the blue line is the 2C spot. Mika Zibanejad is the 1C, and he’s certainly earned that role. But beyond him, the Rangers have a lot of question marks at the 2C role. The in-house options are there, but none are guarantees. The only player, aside from Jack Hughes falling to the Rangers at #2, that can fill this role is Filip Chytil, and while talented, he hasn’t shown that he should be staying at center or can handle that kind of role yet.
A case for bringing back Kevin Hayes
