Igor Shesterkin and the New York Rangers have a low bar to clear this season: just don't finish last in the East again.
That's not saying much. It's also not nothing, given where this roster sat a year ago.
Health wrecked everything last time. Shesterkin and Adam Fox both went down in the same game on Jan. 5, and the Rangers went 2-13 without them.
Shesterkin still managed a .911 save percentage across 51 games and 17 wins. Fox posted 53 points in just 55 games before his injury.
New York didn't sit still this summer either. Pavel Dorofeyev arrives after scoring 37 goals and putting up 64 points on a $1,835,000 cap hit.
Sean Durzi and Marcus Pettersson now anchor the second defense pair, with Durzi carrying a $6,000,000 cap hit and Pettersson at $5,500,000.
Add in a deeper prospect pool led by fifth overall pick Alberts Smits, and this doesn't look like a last-place roster on paper anymore.
Why the path out of the basement runs through other teams falling
The Rangers can't just improve on their own. Other teams have to fall for New York to actually move up the standings.
Toronto finished one point ahead of the Rangers last season at a minus-46 goal differential, and Florida went 40-38-4 while getting hammered by injuries.
Both look like real playoff teams again, with Florida adding Brady Tkachuk to a lineup already built around Matthew Tkachuk.
So who takes their place near the bottom? Detroit feels like a candidate, with captain Dylan Larkin still asking for a trade out of town.
Betting on health and internal improvement is one thing. Betting on Detroit, Boston, or Ottawa collapsing is the part nobody controls.
Head coach Mike Sullivan inherits a roster with real pieces now, but he's also the one who has to make Durzi and Pettersson work together on short notice.
Avoiding last place isn't a bold prediction anymore, it's closer to the realistic middle for a team stuck between contending and rebuilding.
Will the Rangers avoid finishing last in the Eastern Conference again?
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