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Last Season: 53-22-7, 113 points, first in the Metro Division.

2014-15 Season, In One Tweet

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Did They Get Better, Worse Or Are They About The Same?

Worse. Marty St. Louis didn’t have much left in the tank in the second half of the season, but still had 52 points in the regular season in 74 games. Carl Hagelin, a cap casualty, was a speedy winger who hit 17 goals in each of the last two seasons; Emerson Etem, for whom he was traded, has 15 in this career (112 games). Viktor Stalberg, who arrives from Nashville, has 10 in his last 92 games.

Plus, if Henrik Lundqvist gets injured again, it’s the Antti Raanta and Magnus Hellberg show, as Cam Talbot moved on to the Oilers.

Five Most Fascinating Players

1. Derek Stepan, C

Step got his money: Six years, $39 million, including $9 million in each of the first two seasons. But big money deals can do funny things with expectations and how players meet them; in his sixth season, Stepan needs to prove last season’s point production (0.81 in 68 games) was more than a contract year bump and part of a surge towards being a 60-point center at a minimum.

2. Keith Yandle, D

Yandle’s in the last year of a 5-year, $26.25 million contract, and the Rangers traded top prospect Anthony Duclair for him. It took him some time to figure out the Alain Vigneault system, only feeling comfortable at the end of the regular season. He’s a power-play ace that’s only scratched the surface of his offensive potential with the Blueshirts, and one imagines he’s poised to post big numbers before he signs in Boston, UHHHHH, we mean in a contract year. Plus the more he plays, the less they’ll see of Dan Boyle in what should be his last season.

3. Kevin Hayes, RW

Hayes, coming off a 45-point rookie campaign, should get an ample chance to win the second-line wing slot vacated by St. Louis along side Stepan and Chris Krieder. (Although J.T. Miller will get his crack at it as well.) That’s if the Rangers decide their lineup works better with Hayes out of the middle.

4. Rick Nash, LW

After his playoff flop in 2014, Nash roared back with his highest goal total in the NHL (42) and a team-leading 69 points. Is there any way Nash posts another 13.8 shooting percentage on over 300 shots? A healthy Mats Zuccarello on his line will help.

5. Jarret Stoll, C

It’s not every offseason that a team signs a two-time recent Stanley Cup champion who plead guilty this summer to two reduced misdemeanor charges to in a felony cocaine case. Said GM Jeff Gorton: "[Stoll is] a real character guy who made a mistake. It's a belief in our organization that it's important to have people that have won and been through it. So we view this as he's someone that can possibly help us get over that hump that we haven't been able to do."

View photos New York Rangers goalie Henrik Lundqvist (30) skates back to the crease during a break in play against the Tampa Bay Lightning during the third period of Game 5 of the Eastern Conference final during the NHL hockey Stanley Cup playoffs, Sunday, May 24, 2015, in New York. The Lightning won 2-0. (AP Photo/Frank Franklin) More

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