No surprise, Rangers loan Anthony Duclair to Team Canada, but will JT Miller prevent his return
Anthony Duclair (AP Photo/Kathy Kmonicek)
The Rangers announced that Anthony Duclair will be loaned to Team Canada for the upcoming World Junior Championships. I for one am ecstatic that he will finally get out of a suit and into game action.
However, the big question is what to do with Anthony Duclair upon his return January 5th?
“I’m happy here,” Duclair recently said as the Rangers were faced with the decision of letting him go play for Team Canada at the WJC. Alain Vigneault and assistant GM, Jeff Gorton have now decided it’s best for the 19 year old to play than sit in the stands.
Duclair has dressed in 18 games this season but now finds himself the odd man out more often than not lately. Now that JT Miller has taken a huge step forward, it could be the final factor in the decision to return Duclair back to the QMJHL to finish the year.
JT Miller(USA Today Sports)
What the Rangers do will be contingent on how consistent JT Miller will be in the next few weeks. JT Miller registered a goal and an assist against the Flyers upon being called up on November 29th. Afterwards he talked about “being consistent all over the ice” and just “playing his game.” Now with 2 goals and 3 points in his 4 games, he may just be the big strong physical winger AV can deploy on a 3rd or 4th line unit.
It doesn’t benefit Anthony Duclair to just practice with the BIG CLUB. He needs to play, and if he can’t get into games here, he should be sent back to juniors.
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