from Larry Brooks of the New York Post,

This team is too homogenous. The Rangers need to add a measure of size, strength and malevolence on the wing to wear down the opposition and score the dirty goals they didn’t manufacture enough of during the playoffs, though the emerging J.T. Miller has the physical attributes and the grit for the job, if encouraged to play to those strengths.

And the Blueshirts most certainly need to add a physical defenseman capable of forcing the opposition to think twice before either crashing through the crease and into Henrik Lundqvist, as the Capitals did with impunity in Round 2, or zooming through the slot, as the Lightning did without a care in the world throughout Round 3.

Vigneault has had no use for 22-year-old righty Dylan McIlrath — the 2010 first-rounder who is owed a qualifying offer, will no longer be exempt from waivers, whose game in the AHL has received mixed reviews, but who is of the very ilk the Blueshirts require.

Now, the Rangers will either have to use him or lose him. It would be ridiculous to lose McIlrath without seeing what he has to offer in a regular season that will mean less than ever (as long as they get into the playoffs).

If that means buying out the final year of Dan Boyle’s contract even though his over-35, $4.5 million cap hit would remain on the books if he is unwilling to waive his no-move or nobody will take him in a trade, then so be it.

The Rangers have to diversify.

And they have to stop turning the other cheek.

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