Regarding the Rangers in the midst of a summer recess.
1. Whether to play Mika Zibanejad in the middle or at right wing, and whether to move Braden Schneider to his off-side on the second pair or leave the natural righty in place on the third defense tandem are the most critical decisions that incoming head coach Mike Sullivan will confront at training camp.
But the organization’s most consequential decision ahead of the season is whether the hierarchy will name a captain after the past three men to wear the “C” — Jacob Trouba, Ryan McDonagh and Ryan Callahan — were all traded no more than four seasons into their tenure and the one before that was a buyout victim ahead of an injury-related retirement, and oh, that happened to be Chris Drury.
So the hierarchy might be gun-shy. Probably is. The inclination might be to revert to keeping the position vacant, going with multiple alternates as the organization did for the four seasons between McDonagh’s exit at the 2018 deadline and Trouba’s ascension to the role ahead of the 2022-23 season.
