NHL Season Preview: New York Rangers

Welcome to the NHL FanHouse 2008-09 season preview. While other sites are previewing "30 teams in 30 days," we decided to take advantage of the extra time off before the start of the season to bring you all 30 previews over the next three weeks. We're counting down in reverse order of finish from last season in each conference every weekday from now until October 3. Look for an Eastern Conference preview every morning and a Western Conference preview every afternoon. Click here to read them all.

Who's In: Markus Naslund, Nikolai Zherdev, Dmitri Kalinin.

Who's Out: Martin Straka, Jaromir Jagr, Brendan Shanahan (could still return), Sean Avery, Fedor Tyutin.

What's Changed: Another year and it's still the same old Rangers -- spend, spend, spend. In February the team signed stud netminder Henrik Lundqvist to a six-year deal that came out to about $6.5 million per. During the off-season they nabbed UFAs Wade Redden and Markus Naslund for the low price of $11.5 million this season. Not that this is a bad tactic, they did pretty well this past season with their spending spree from the summer of 2007 (Gomez, Drury). But, in all serious, not a whole lot has changed in terms of the philosophy in New York. The faces, however, are a different story.

With Jaromir Jagr in Russia, Brendan Shanahan in limbo, and the departure of Martin Straka, the Rangers are going to be without three of their top five scorers from a year ago. The trio combined for 158 points last season, something the Rangers will dearly miss. The addition of Naslund and Nikolai Zherdev will help ease the stress, but it will certainly be interesting to see how the new faces, and the loss of some old faces, pans out.

Who's on the Hook: At this point it looks to be coach Tom Renney. This is Renney's fourth year behind the bench and with type of money the Rangers spend, more is expected than three early playoff exits. They have yet to make a run past the second round during his tenure, and if he is given more than four years if they come up short again it will be nothing short of amazing. Given the short fuse of NHL front offices and the expectations set for in the Rangers organization, he is set to take the fall.

Also on the short list of people to take the fall if this team doesn't succeed is GM Glen Sather. This will be Sather's fifth season in the front office and MSG and Renney is the second coach under his reign. It wouldn't be surprising if Sather is in hot water if the team underachieves this year.

Where They'll Finish: Out of all the Atlantic Division teams, the Rangers seem poised to take the biggest fall. They still have a solid roster and will certainly not be out of the playoff hunt, but the losses they took to their forward corps will sting. Whether or not they can overcome those losses will determine how far they go this year.

Blogs to Watch:
Scotty Hockey
Blueshirt Bulletin
Ranger Rants

NHL Preview 2008

Washington Capitals
Alex Ovechkin will need to be a valuable franchise asset on and off the ice to get the season going for the Capitals.

Bruce Bennett, Getty Images

Tampa Bay Lightning
The Lighting have Barry Melrose as their coach, the No. 1 pick from the summer's entry draft, and countless other boosts to their franchise.

Doug Benc, Getty Images

Carolina Hurricanes
Injuries have plagued this team last season and it looks like the story will be the same this season. The Hurricanes luck will have to improve for them to have a successful season.

Gerry Broome, AP

Atlanta Thrashers
Atlanta finished the 2007-08 season 22nd in the league in goals scored and also gave up the most goals in the NHL. Obviously, things have to change for this struggling team.

Dave Reginek, Getty Images

Florida Panthers
Armed with a new coach, the Panthers will have to improve from last season, as they allowed the second-most shots on goal and finished 20th in goals scored.

Eliot J. Schechter, Getty Images

Buffalo Sabres
The Sabres have missed the playoffs the last two seasons despite being in the Conference Finals for two straight years prior, the biggest challenge for this team is re-building the chemistry that they had a few years ago.

Dave Reginek, Getty Images

Montreal Canadiens
The Canadiens are hoping that a couple minor tweaks and the experience of last year's run will combine to make this year's team all the more dangerous.

Richard Wolowicz, Getty Images

Boston Bruins
A big boost for this team will be a healthy Patrice Bergeron..

Andre Ringuette, Getty Images

Toronto Maple Leafs
If they can get a few goals to go in, Toronto is probably not nearly as bad as advertised. Making the playoffs is quite unlikely, but they certainly have bad company in the Eastern Conference.

Dave Sandford, Getty Images

Ottowa Senators
The Senators have a big question mark at defense and Jason Smith is wearing the target on his back.

Bjorn Larsson Rosvall, SCANPIX / AP