The number one New York Rangers prospect has come into New York ready to make an impact. Already, his presence is being felt.
With the offseason just beginning, the New York Rangers had a quiet weekend in Buffalo at the NHL Draft.
Despite the lack of incoming big named youngsters at the draft, though, there is one bright spot in Rangerstown.
Pavel Buchnevich.
The 21-year old Russian has been on the Blueshirts watch for a while now and finally signed him to a contract this year. If he has a strong camp this summer, there will be a nice spot for him in the Rangers 2016-17 line up, for sure.
This is the very beginning of the Blueshirts’ development camp over the summer, and Buchnevich already is making a splash with this shot:
Buchnevich sends the pucks off the top of the net flying with a quick wrister pic.twitter.com/e7LWdJuXxG
— Mark Fischer (@nhlfisch21) June 27, 2016
Fans of the club rejoiced on Twitter yesterday with the sight of this, something they did not get to see much of in a short run during the post season.
Now that time period has passed and the Rangers are moving forward.
Pat Leonard of the New York Daily News recently wrote that Buchnevich is more than ready to be in New York and is displaying a high level of confidence.
“If I weren’t sure I wouldn’t come here,” Buchnevich replied in response to whether or not he’s ready to handle the physicality the NHL game brings.
Though there was a splash of speculation that Buch would get the call last year, it did not happen due to the fact he didn’t feel he was ready. The extra time in the KHL deemed to show good results for the 21 year-old.
Personally, I hope he has a good, strong training camp this summer and makes the team. He has shown his work ethic and wants to play for this team, no question. But there is also a wide scope of issues fans need to keep in mind.
He is not a big goal scorer, so Buchnevich acting as a replacement for Rick Nash is a no-no (as of right now, the season could bolster his goal scoring). The fans should expect to see a playmaker, one who has good vision and can use vision as well as speed to get out of the zone and start a good offensive rush.
Thankfully, another day has gone by and that means we are another day closer to hockey season. Anyone else bored of the offseason?
