The Rangers hold the 23rd pick in tonight’s first round of the NHL Draft.

The Rangers next pick will be 91st overall.

Adam Rotter:  There is little to no buzz about the Rangers right now as they have very little cap space with which to make moves, very few players that are either movable or the team seems to want to move and not many draft picks.

I wouldn’t be surprised if the Rangers tried to move down in the first round or possibly out of the first round to acquire more picks not just for tomorrow’s Day 2 of the draft, but for next year’s draft that they could use as capital at the trade deadline. It would seem, as of now, that the Rangers are going to be running back most of the same pre-deadline team from this year and so if that is the case, it wouldn’t be a shock if they were going to try and be big players at the deadline again next year.

Trading down for picks this year would certainly help increase the prospect pool that has seemed to lose it’s depth via some trades/guys not developing. If they can turn their first round pick tonight into 2-3 picks tomorrow or a later pick tonight and another pick or two tomorrow they could start re-stocking the system and then maybe trade down or out again tomorrow in the mid-rounds to acquire more mid-round picks to use at the deadline next season. They still have their first and second round picks in 2024, but if they could find ways to move around tomorrow and recoup next year’s third round pick or add multiple fourth round picks next year they could be in a better position to fill holes and add depth while still holding onto the players that they draft this week. It’s a bit of a tough situation to navigate, but I think that you’d rather keep the few players that you draft now and then trade unknown and hopefully late round picks next year for upgrades.