"With the New York Rangers season starting tomorrow night, I've returned from my writing hiatus to share thoughts on the players heading into the season. After 836 words on the top six, I decided to split up my thoughts posts by position, not because I wanted to extort Dave for a bump in pay, but because I wanted to ensure I was getting all my thoughts out."
"What's going to happen with Noah Laba? The first question is whether or not Noah Laba will make the team ( as of the writing of this post, he was still practicing with the club). I want to reiterate very strongly that Noah Laba is not going to beat down the doors as a top-line center. That being said, he's strong on and off the puck, he's responsible, and most importantly, he has a brighter future than Juuso Parssinen, his competition."
"What's imperative to me is if he makes the team, the team must be patient with him and put him in a position to succeed. We've seen so many Rangers struggle early in their Rangers tenures, only to be healthy scratched into irrelevancy and lose all their confidence. Laba should be given every opportunity to succeed as a member of the Rangers bottom 6 forwards, including and especially if he makes rookie mistakes."
Season approaches with the Rangers preparing for opener. Top-six forward group assessment is complete; focus shifts to the unsettled bottom-six forwards. Injuries and roster shuffling undermined last season's depth, but Adam Edstrom's health and NHL experience for young players should improve bottom-six performance. Noah Laba projects as a strong, responsible player who is unlikely to be a top-line center but offers more upside than Juuso Parssinen. If Laba makes the roster, he requires patience and opportunities to build confidence after typical rookie mistakes. Laba appears on track to become an NHL regular sooner rather than later.
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