With the Rangers struggling for months now, there is general alignment on what—and who—are the problems. Jacob Trouba and Kaapo Kakko were merely the early departures in what is expected to be a mass exodus for a roster that has largely stayed the same the last few seasons.
Assigning blame and tearing down the walls is the easy part of a roster restructuring. The Rangers aren't headed for a rebuild but this is a team missing key pieces at prominent positions. Mika Zibanejad's sharp decline and Vincent Trocheck's return to reality leave Head Coach Peter Laviolette with zero answers at first-line center.