Young core must step up for Islanders, Rangers

The Rangers and Islanders opened their training camps Friday. For both local teams, coming off missed playoff seasons, the only way to go is up.

And the only way for either team to get there is for its young core of players to take big steps forward.

That, of course, is the stated goal of both franchises. It's the main pursuit of the Islanders under general manager Garth Snow and third-year coach Scott Gordon, who have shunned a go-for-broke style in favor of a slow, steady rebuild from within.

The Rangers are in the midst of the same goal, to create a real core of youth while still spending up to - and, as of right now - over the $59.4-million salary cap. John Tortorella, starting his second full season as coach, is the driving force behind trying to make the Rangers a younger team.

At a quick glance, the Rangers' training-camp roster wouldn't seem to be a place for a young player to shine. In the final weeks of the offseason, the Rangers brought in veterans such as Ruslan Fedotenko, Todd White, Garnet Exelby and Alexei Semenov, all but White here on tryouts to fill fringe roster spots.

Even if one or more of those veterans can fill a spot, Tortorella and the Rangers will improve upon their ninth-place finish from last season only if the key young players improve.

Marc Staal, with a new five-year, $19.875-million contract, must step up to be the leader of the defense and shoulder some of the offensive load. Michael Del Zotto, fresh off an uneven but productive rookie season, must become the power-play quarterback and offensive spark-plug from the blue line.

Ryan McDonagh is a rookie the Rangers' front office wants to seize a spot on defense, ideally the one occupied by Wade Redden. Redden has come to camp re-earn a spot, but at 33, anything short of a miraculous turnaround and he will not be part of the Rangers.

Up front, the Rangers need veterans Marian Gaborik, Chris Drury and Vinny Prospal to either keep their form from a year ago or regain it, at least somewhat. But if the Rangers want to take a real step up the conference ladder, it's Ryan Callahan, Brandon Dubinsky and Artem Anisimov who have to show the most improvement. If Brandon Prust is the Rangers' most effective forward, as he was down the stretch last season, they won't be in the playoff mix.

The Islanders added some veterans, as well, and Mark Eaton, Milan Jurcina and James Wisniewski will make their defense better. But if Andrew MacDonald and Jack Hillen continue to take positive steps, as he did a year ago, the defense will be a real asset. Jurcina and Eaton are good complementary players, not top-four defensemen to eat up major minutes.

Up front, the Islanders won't go anywhere without John Tavares becoming a more consistent scorer. They won't succeed without Josh Bailey and Kyle Okposo shaking off the dry stretches from their first two seasons. And if first-round pick Nino Niederreiter can do what's asked of him in his first pro training camp, he could very well provide the creativity and scoring off the wing that the Islanders have lacked for what seems like a long time.

The Islanders and Rangers made moves this summer that would turn good teams into real championship contenders - adding Mark Eaton for defensive depth, or Martin Biron for solid backup goaltending - but the catch is this:

The Islanders and Rangers are not yet good teams. They need the under-25 guys to make progress before anyone can say that.