This week is the Seattle expansion draft on Wednesday night and the NHL Draft on Friday and Saturday.
For the expansion draft on Wednesday, the Rangers are likely to lose Colin Blackwell or Julien Gauthier.
The NHL roster freeze that began Saturday at 3 PM extends until this Thursday at 1 PM.
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Pavel Buchnevich, Ryan Strome and Alex Georgiev have all been the subject of trade rumors.
The Rangers acquired pending UFA Barclay Goodrow on Saturday and have until July 28th at 12PM to prevent him from hitting Free Agency. Seattle currently has the option to speak with and sign Goodrow as well.
The Rangers are slated to have the 16th pick in Friday’s draft.
Adam Rotter: Well this is the week that we’ve been waiting for since John Davidson and Jeff Gorton were sent packing. On-ice changes are about to be on their way as the Rangers fully break from the rebuild and intend to start making moves. Things started with acquiring Barclay Goodrow over the weekend and while the Rangers may have to overpay in both term and cap hit, he provides a lot of what was missing and is still likely to come in under Toronto’s Zach Hyman, Tampa’s Blake Coleman and a lot less than Colorado’s Gabriel Landeskog. Some expect that an announcement on Goodrow could come not long after the roster freeze is lifted.
What would be next? There aren’t many people who believe the Rangers will be making the 16th selection on Friday and that the pick will be used to acquire someone that will step into the Rangers lineup on opening night. The pick could be used with someone like Strome or Buchnevich to add a power forward to the top-six or with one of those guys and some prospects to really shoot for someone like Jack Eichel. I still think that Eichel is unlikely and the Buffalo will do everything they can to send him out West, but we will see how thing shake out. They don’t have to make all of their moves this week, free agency starts next week, but if they aren’t going to make their pick on Friday then someone new will be coming in.