The New York Rangers have a scouting staff of 15. That’s not counting Gordie Clark Jeff Gorton and Adam Graves who has some input and talks to players to motivate them and give them some "straight talk". That’s a big commitment to the most important aspect of an organization. The Canadiens known for the biggest staff have 18 not including their upper brass including Rick Dudley and Trevor Timmins, two of the best. If you didn’t believe that before you have to believe that now.

Staffs are not counted towards the cap. So why not load up? With over 200 hockey leagues around the world you need feet on the pavement as they say. Just because the Rangers don’t make things public doesn’t mean they aren’t making huge strides in certain areas. Listen to Hockey Prospect Radio this weekend to find out what I’m almost talking about. Clark talks about that and more.

When you find a player like Duclair, who wasn’t unknown but had some question marks you have to view a player like that 5-10 times, sometimes more, to make sure of your evaluation. The Rangers “Q” scout Daniel Dore was instrumental in pushing him to his bosses. Much the same way now with Montreal, Christer Rockstrom did for Henrik Lundqvist. That’s what it takes. Duclair has 4 more games, not days, to prove himself.

One last tidbit that I'll mention right now is Clark talking about Brady Skjei. He said if he didn’t decide to go back to school he thought he not only would have battled for a spot with the big club but based on the Dan Boyle injury could have made it. We both talked about his strength and skating and when I mentioned I thought he had a “hiccup” in the Frozen Four he concurred. It was a long season, the longest he’d ever experienced but all in all he’s made huge strides as a player and could be ready to go straight from college into the pros.

Knowing this it makes the Marc Staal contract negotiations more interesting for sure. My feeling is trade him, and get a forward you can use immediately, and a draft pick, maybe a second for this year and then promote Mat Bodie.

Dan Girardi is playing tonight against the New Jersey Devils. Hopefully the stitches stay closed and he doesn’t have to block too many shots. The fact that Girardi doesn’t want to miss any games is all playing into this decision.

Loved what I saw from Steven Fogarty the other day. I’ve been talking about the Notre Dame center for a few year’s now. The Rangers drafted him out High School and then he played in the BCHL. Adam Tambellini (65th overall in 2013) played there as well. These are the only two notables of players the Rangers drafted who played there. Tanner Glass actually played there as well. The Rangers have been heavily scouting this league for the last 3-4 years that I know of.

Check out my new Ranger book here.

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