The New York Rangers have only missed Adam Fox for two and a half games thus far, but it's become evident how big of a hole he creates when gone.
The New York Rangers have a ton of talented players on their roster.
It's fair to say the three that stand out are Artemi Panarin, Igor Shesterkin and Adam Fox. When talking about the most important position in the game of hockey, often times it's the goaltender that takes the title. In the case of the Rangers, there's an argument to be made that their most important player is their top defensemen.
Fox hasn't missed many games throughout his career. But now that Fox has been ruled out with a lower-body injury, it's become evident how different the look of this team is without him on the ice — particularly on the blue line.
Through the first 10 games of the season, Fox was off to an incredible start. He scored three goals, all of them coming on the power play, which already tied his career-high for goals on the man-advantage. He also added eight assists for a total of 11 points.
For a team that often lives and dies by the success of its power play, there might not be a more important player in the NHL to its team's man-advantage than Fox.
According to the NHL Edge, Fox leads all NHL defensemen in time spent in the offensive zone on the power play, having spent 71.1% of the power play time in the opponent's defensive zone. The Rangers' first unit hasn't gotten a ton of reps without Fox just yet, but from the small sample size we've seen, they already look pretty lost without him.
I spoke with Mike Kelly, a Hockey Analyst for the NHL Network and Sportlogiq, about this and he had a very strong opinion on the matter.
"A perfectly logical question to ask and not one to outright dismiss," said Kelly. "The case for this, in my view, lies on the Rangers currently not having to lean so much on Shesterkin — not yet, at least."
In years past, the Rangers have left Shesterkin out to dry and relied on him to steal games. This season, the Rangers have looked much sharper in their own end, thanks to the influence of head coach Peter Laviolette.
"This season, the Rangers have been solid defensively, better than in years past and Fox is obviously a big part of that," said Kelly. "He’s played 150 minutes at five-on-five and the opposition has two goals in those minutes. He might be the smartest player in the league in terms of hockey sense and IQ — making the right play most often and difficult plays look easy."
Fox might not have the crazy athleticism of a Cale Makar or even a Quinn Hughes, but there aren't many players that can be as effective as him without those same physical qualities.
"He’s not overly physical but engages in and wins a lot of puck battles," said Kelly. "His ability to extend plays in the offensive zone to open shooting and passing lanes is elite — only Quinn Hughes and Roman Josi are averaging more possession in the O-zone among defensemen this season.
"There really isn’t an area of the game he doesn’t touch with positive results. I still lean towards Shesterkin being the most important Ranger if we’re talking about plucking a guy of the roster and seeing what happens. As far as skaters go — Fox gets my vote."
I also spoke with Meghan Chayka, an NHL Data Scientist with Stathletes about what Fox brings to this team. She made me aware that Fox ranks 10th overall in shot assists and is the second highest defensemen on that list. He currently leads the Rangers in puck recoveries and zone exit passes.
"The Rangers have a really talented offensive team and he is the player that orchestrates it all and makes it go for them," said Chayka. "He has the unique ability to dictate the pace of the game when he is on the ice."
Chayka added: "He plays a puck-possession style and leads the Rangers in Pass/Advance ratio, where his puck control and play-making ability is evident."
The Rangers will be without their star defensemen for quite some time due to injury. In that time, we'll find out just how effective he really is.