The Rangers have a problem evaluating defensemen. That shouldn’t come as news, as most NHL teams seem to have this problem as well. The biggest gap between stats and on-ice value is with defensemen, and it’s really not that hard to provide examples. Marc Staal is still a valued defensemen despite his stats. Adam Clendening is a stats darling and can’t keep an NHL role. Those are just two examples on the Rangers, but there are countless examples like this.
Despite the gap between stats and eye test on defensemen, the one thing that we’ve seen from the Rangers this season is a constant desire to give Neal Pionk top pairing ice time.