With the conference finals ongoing in the NHL, many expected the New York Rangers to at least be back there before this season started, after they were knocked out by the Florida Panthers in six games last season. Instead, they had a season to forget and missed the playoffs entirely, and now, many fans are expecting big changes to be made. However, while it is easy to say that general manager Chris Drury should trade away these players, it is much easier said than done. In this piece, we are going to go over a few reasons as to why the Rangers will likely be having a quieter offseason than many are expecting.
Highest Paid Players All Have No-Move Clauses
One of the main reasons why the Rangers finished so poorly this season was that their veteran players failed to play up to expectations. They were unhappy with how players like Barclay Goodrow and Jacob Trouba, two leaders in the locker room, were treated on their way out, and it impacted their play on the ice for a good portion of the season, whether the players want to admit it or not. While a player like Artemi Panarin still had a good offensive season with 37 goals and 89 points, it was a massive drop-off from his 49-goal, 120-point season the season before. Vincent Trocheck had more goals this season than last (26 compared to 25), but his points dropped from 77 to 59. While it is clear that this team needs a massive shakeup, the issue is that these top paid veterans all have some sort of trade protection, and many of them have full no-move clauses in their deals.
Of the eight highest-paid players on the team, five of them have full no-move clauses, and if Drury wanted to try and move them, it would be up to the players if they wanted to go. Fans want to see players like Panarin and Mika Zibanejad get traded, but it’s not that easy to move off of them when they have control over whether they want to stay or go. The only name in the rumor mill that could be on the move from the Rangers is Chris Kreider. This is because he was in rumors all season long, and unlike the previous names, he only has a 15-team no-trade list in his deal. So, Drury could still trade him to over half the league and not have to get permission from him. While it would be nice to see this core get shaken up, it doesn’t seem like it is going to happen this offseason.
Lack of Cap Space
Despite the salary cap rising more significantly this offseason than in years past, the Rangers have used up a majority of that space already. They signed a bunch of players to contract extensions over the course of the season, including Igor Shesterkin, Alexis Lafreniere, Will Borgen, Urho Vaakanainen, Jussi Parssinen, and Jonathan Quick. As of this writing, they are projected to have $8,422,142 available to use this summer to sign players. This number isn’t going to be enough to bring in an impact player when you take into consideration that they have their own restricted free agents (RFAs) to sign that are likely going to take up a majority of this available space.
The three names that are the key RFAs for the Rangers are Will Cuylle, K’Andre Miller, and Matt Rempe. While Rempe won’t command as much money as the other two players, he is still going to get a raise over what he was making, and with Miller likely looking for a deal between $5 and $6 million, that eats up over half of the space right there. If the Rangers did trade Kreider, they would open up $6.5 million in cap space, but it still wouldn’t be enough to land a true impact player. When looking at the upcoming free agent market, there are not many intriguing names that the Rangers should even go after.
Weak Free Agent Class Compared to Next Season
This year’s free agent class had the potential to be one of the best of all time. Names like Shesterkin, Mikko Rantanen, and Sidney Crosby all could have hit the open market, but they instead signed with their original teams or with their new team in the case of Rantanen. Now, this year’s class is headlined by Mitch Marner, and while he is a great player, he is not going to be worth the money he is going to want on the open market, and the Rangers don’t need another player who doesn’t show up in the playoffs. After him, the talent drops off, and there are not many game-changing talents available this offseason, which is going to lead to teams overpaying for some of these players, and the Rangers should not be one of those teams.
Next offseason is when some of the best players in the world could hit the open market, and that is where the Rangers should be focusing their attention. If they didn’t sign anybody going into next season, including their RFAs this offseason, they are projected to have $38,083,333 in cap space. While this number is going to go down due to them having to sign their players, they could still have enough to be able to sign one of the big names if they hit the market. Two of those names are Jack Eichel and Connor McDavid. If either of these players hits free agency, every team in the league should be going after them. Drury was heavily interested in Eichel back when he was getting traded from the Buffalo Sabres, and they could revisit it if he hits the market. If McDavid is available, they should do whatever it takes to bring him to New York. This is why the Rangers need to be smart about how they spend their money this offseason, because next offseason should be even crazier with some of the potential names available.
There is no doubt that the Rangers need to make some bold moves after the season they just had, However, they need to be smart and make moves that can help them now and going forward. It is going to be tough to do this offseason with the lack of cap space and big-name players they can move off of, but if they can stay smart this summer and gear up for next offseason, they could bring some big names to the Big Apple.
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