Rangers offseason: three takeaways
Filip Chytil of the New York Rangers against the Florida Panthers in Game One of the Eastern Conference Finals at Madison Square Garden. Credit: Jim McIsaac
The Rangers, who made it to Game 6 of the Eastern Conference final before being eliminated by the eventual champion Florida Panthers, are set to open training camp next week (rookie camp starts Wednesday) as the franchise takes another crack at winning its first Stanley Cup since 1994.
Despite lots of chatter early, it ended up being a quiet summer for the Blueshirts, who bring back almost the same team from last season. Here are three takeaways from the Rangers’ offseason:
1. They are running it back.
Only fourth-line center Barclay Goodrow, sixth defenseman Erik Gustafsson and rental forwards Alex Wennberg and Jack Roslovic are gone from last spring's team. And Filip Chytil, who missed nearly all of last season and most of the playoffs due to a presumed concussion, is returning to replace Wennberg as the third-line center.
Free agent Sam Carrick signed on to replace Goodrow — at a significant salary cap savings — and GM Chris Drury traded a couple of draft picks to Pittsburgh (with the Penguins retaining 25% of his cap hit) to get veteran forward Reilly Smith.
And why wouldn’t they run it back? They had the best record in the league last season, and they’ve reached the conference final twice in three years. They’re close, so they might as well keep it going.
2. Reilly Smith will try to fill the hole at right wing on the Mika Zibanejad-Chris Kreider line.
Fans may have wished for a bigger name to fill that spot, but the Rangers never had the cap space to contend for marquee free agents such as Jake Guentzel or Steven Stamkos.
And while Drury could have signed a lower-cost free-agent winger, like old friend Vladimir Tarasenko, trading for a vet like Smith, who is in the final year of his contract, made sense. It gives the team flexibility for next summer when Drury will be trying to create cap space to re-sign as many of the team’s 11 free agents (headlined by Igor Shesterkin, K’Andre Miller, Alexis Lafreniere and Ryan Lindgren) as he can. Having Smith’s $3.75 million cap hit coming off the books then will help.
3. This looks like a lame-duck season for captain Jacob Trouba.
Trade rumors surrounding Trouba were rampant in late June, as the no-move clause in his contract became a modified no-trade clause, with a 15-team no-trade list, as of July 1. The Rangers apparently explored trade possibilities for Trouba, in an attempt to move all or some of his $8 million cap hit off their books. But they weren’t able to get it done. Next summer, though, when they have all those free agents to sign, and really need cap space, they’ll have more of a pressing need to move on from Trouba, either via trade or buyout.
Colin Stephenson covers the Rangers for Newsday. He has spent more than two decades covering the NHL and just about every sports team in the New York metropolitan area.
