NY RANGERS TRAINING CAMP OPENS, VIGNEAULT SPEAKS WITH MEDIA

Alain Vigneault met with the media on Thursday on the first day of Training Camp 2016

• On the roster being younger, "We are at the golf tournament yesterday and fans and players that I have talked with since I have been back here, you feel the energy. You feel a refreshed group, not just the players, but the fans and the staff. Everyone is excited about the players that we brought in from the veterans to some of the younger players that everyone has been talking about that will get a great opportunity to make this team. We have a lot of good decisions to make moving forward. There will be some great internal competition for ice time and roles on the team. It should make for a great training camp."
• On Buchnevich and Vesey, "both their first experience as far as a pro camp. Both had real good games in Traverse City, I think that will help them coming into this camp. They just gotta play to their strengths. Highly skilled players. Our staff and management really believe that we have two good young prospects there. It's up to us as coaches to help develop them and to put them in situations where they can be successful. They are both good offensive players and we need to put them in those situations and give them the opportunity to show us and their teammates what they can do. We will make the decisions that need to be made."
• Have expectations changed for the RFAs signed, "I do expect more. Those are young players and if we are going to get better as a group those players have to get better individually. The organization has shown those guys a lot of confidence in them by giving them those contracts and we gave it to them because we know that there is upside there and those players want bigger roles and want more minutes and want to prove that they can be impactful players and play a role that helps a team win. There is not doubt that those three players want that and want to be counted on and want to help this organization and team win."
• On JT Miller, "I really don't think that it has much to do with the coaching staff, it has to do with JT figuring it out. I mentioned that a few times, players at some point as they are developing and getting mature they need to figure out what it takes to be a pro and I think that JT as time has gone by has figured it out. He knows he has to have a great attitude and committed to his conditioning and that he needs to come in every day and try and get a little bit better skill wise and knowledge wise. He has done that and I am very happy for him making the team and having the success he is having right now. I've gotta see the same thing when he comes back with the Rangers."
• On the World Cup players, "I've been excited about the opportunity that they are getting. They get to play against the best in the world. I am very confident that they are all going to learn from this experience and bring some positives back to our group and share them with their teammates. The only guys that I have talked to, the only player that I have talked to, I talked to Step yesterday and he wanted to know what the plan was as far as coming back because obviously they are not moving ahead. I will wait until we talk to Mac and obviously we will give players who have been in that event a couple of days off because they have been going at it for close to 3 weeks and if they go to the finals then close to a month and we will give them the time here that they need to recover physically and mentally and hopefully they come back and bring something positive to our group."
• On the defense, "I see there is obviously ice time available, there are roles available as far as Keith and Dan were a little bit more offensive oriented. There is opportunity there...for veteran guys like Ryan McDonagh, to take a little bit more to a young guy like Brady Skjei to take a little bit more, to Dylan. There are opportunities for defensemen who are coming to our camp to show their skill sets and to grab the opportunity and earn a spot on our team. I think about bringing Jeff on board with our coaching staff, I see a gentleman who has paid his dues and went from a player who worked hard to be a respected coach and now he is getting an opportunity with our coaching staff at another level. We have been working a long time, we had meetings this summer in mid-August where we went through our prep and our system and Jeff was a big part of bringing contributions to our discussions about where we want to go and what we want to do. I feel real good about him on board. I feel real good about my staff, we have been together for some time and there is good chemistry and communication. With all of that and with Jeff coming on board with this D group where we all know that there are a few guys there who have something to prove. It's going to be real positive for this group." 
• On # of games for Hank, "Part of our brainstorming in the summer was going through what some of the goalies who have won in past years and how many games they have played in the regular season and it seems like goalies who have won in the last few years are all between 50 and 58 games. I think when I first got here I wanted to keep Hank around 60 or something in an ideal world, in an ideal world it seems now that goalies who have won have played a little bit less than that. Is that feasible, can we do that? I think this year one of the challenges that all teams are going to have is the condensed schedule. The schedule for every team, with that 5-day break, makes it for a lot of days in a short amount of time. You are going to need two goalies that can play and does that go into Hank at 50 or 58. I'm talking to you and I haven't talked to Hank about it. I am just giving you the stats, all 30 head coaches will talk to their goalies and see how they feel. Stats wise it seems like it's running in that area. Is that something we will look for moving forward. Our biggest thing for Henrik, our number one, is asking how he feels, is he energized, etc. He will be coming back from the World Cup in the next little while and we will start with that first discussion and go from there."
• On the battle for spots, "I would say that there is a battle for 5-6-7-8 on D. There are some guys there who are young players that need to prove that they belong and deserve the ice time. There is definitely, and I don't need to go through all of the good internal competition that we have, up front, but there is definitely some competition. We would like 3 lines that can score, have a fourth line where it could be maybe a little bit more defensive oriented or PKers. There is some battles there and I expect good battles in training camp and guys fighting for roles."
• On Zibanejad, "Our scouts and management all felt that he was on the upswing. He has been in Ottawa for a few years, has been able to play PP, PK, 5 on 5, the speed is there, skill, youth. We believe that he is not fully developed yet and that with the right environment teammate and coaching wise that we can get more from Mika, Z as his teammates seem to be calling him now. We think we have a good young player we will be able to work with for a long time."
• On Pirri, "Talking about a skilled player, noted for his offensive capabilities. Also talking about a player who has gone few quite a few teams in a short little while. Usually that grabs players attention, you only get so many kicks at the can. I've talked to him and explained to him the opportunity in front of him. I told him exactly what I am telling you, you only get so many kicks at the can in this league. I am sensing that we will have a highly motivated player to prove that he can make our team and contribute. Obviously his role would be more offensive, your looking at a player fighting to get into the top-nine and he has got training camp to prove he can play on our team."
• On the PK, "we made a lot of our decisions...don't like going into the past but if you look at the players we have lost, a lot of those guys are guys who played on the PK. We need to develop some or our younger guys like Jesper, we need to develop a couple of other younger guys but we brought in some players like Grabner that we feel have the capabilities of playing on the PK and helping our team there. We all know that special teams are an important part of your team having success. We know we have to improve in that area and we are."
• Expectations for this season, "our first goal doesn't change. First goal is always the same and that is to get into the playoffs. It's hard and it's demanding and we are probably playing in the toughest division in the NHL. Once you are in there, 16 teams all have the same opportunity. You look at last year, SJ and Pitt. At some point everyone was saying that Pitt was on the decline and then they won the Stanley Cup. SJ the year before doesn't even get into the playoffs, We have changed some pieces, some important pieces, added...I feel the energy. Everyone is looking forward to training camp, the demands of getting on the same page and opportunity to prove that they belong here."