On Saturday, Emily Kaplan said on ABC “they are trying to make two moves, they are trying to add a center and a RW. I’m told that it sounds like they are willing to part with their first round pick, it’s just gotta be worth it. They have shied away from some of these insane asking prices like that of Scott Laughton. One thing other teams have told me is that any time they have brought up the Rangers top two prospects, Brennan Othmann or Gabe Perreault in discussions the Rangers have shut it down and any deal that they do they don’t want to give up either of those players.”
Kaplan said that the price on Scott Laughton is “so high” that other teams don’t think he’s going to get traded.
Kaplan reiterated these same points on ESPN on Thursday and on Friday wrote that they are “probably” going to be one of the “more aggressive” teams.
She adds that “flexibility” is important to the Rangers as it relates to players with contracts beyond this season because of some uncertainty around Filip Chytil’s status. She adds that a reunion with Pavel Buchnevich is “likely not happening,” but that Frank Vatrano and Vladimir Tarasenko could be potential options. (ESPN)
Larry Brooks wrote recently that the Rangers have looked at pending UFA center Alex Wennberg of Seattle, but that they are not alone in having interest in him. (NY Post)
Elliotte Friedman said on the 32 Thoughts podcast that the Rangers are “kind of looking around” and that he’s wondered about Buffalo captain Kyle Okposo because of history he and Chris Drury have with USA Hockey.
Okposo, 35, has 24 games of playoff experience, though none sine he was with the Islanders in 2015-16, 11 goals and 9 assists this season and is a pending UFA with a cap hit of $2.5 million.
Adam Rotter: By this time last year, with a week to go before the deadline, the Rangers had already acquired Vladimir Tarasenko and Niko Mikkola, re-acquired Tyler Motte, and were biding their time with the salary cap to officially acquire Patrick Kane. Two years ago the Rangers acquired Frank Vatrano 5 days before the deadline and then made the moves for Andrew Copp, Justin Braun, and Motte on deadline day.
The Rangers are going to make at least one, possibly two moves to add forwards to their regular roster and possibly another, depending on cap space, to bolster their defensive depth. While everyone knows that the Rangers are going to make a move or two, it’s still been mostly quiet around them as the overall pool of players available isn’t super impactful and a number of the players available are on defense and the Rangers are unlikely to go for any defenseman that isn’t a 7-8-9 type guy.
The top-two centers (Elias Lindholm and Sean Monahan) have been off the board for a while and it’s been reported that the Rangers made a pitch for Lindholm and didn’t for Monahan. Adam Henrique is still available and probably the best center that we know for sure is going to get moved. The Flyers are likely holding onto Scott Laughton, though his fit never made a ton of sense to me because he’s signed past this season and the hope is that Filip Chytil will be back next season. Alex Wennberg is likely going to get traded as Seattle is out of a playoff spot and both he and Henrique would fill that third-line center spot nicely, though I’m not sure that either is worth a first-round pick and with so few centers available they, especially Henrique, may end up going for that. There are other centers available more suited to being fourth-line centers and I think the Rangers are set there. Jack Roslovic could be an option, but I’m sure Columbus and John Davidson would set a pretty high price for him to come to the Rangers.
There are more options on the wing with Vatrano or Tarasenko making the most sense because they have both played next to Mika Zibanejad and Chris Kreider. Vatrano has another year left on his contract, is having a career year and there is some debate about whether he’s actually available and being shopped or if teams are just calling on him. He fit in well in 2022 and Chris Drury has traded for him before, but the feeling is that since the Ducks don’t have to move him, that the price is pretty high. Tarasenko is a pending UFA and is unlikely to cost as much as he did last year. Ottawa would have to retain salary and he controls his destiny with a no-trade clause. I think he makes sense, but I don’t know how much of that is whether he’s an actual fit vs wanting to see him get another chance after sort of being pushed aside when Patrick Kane was acquired. I don’t think they are going to deal with the Penguins for either Jake Guentzel or Reilly Smith and most people expect Jordan Eberle to re-sign in Seattle. Anthony Duclair is an interesting option as he would bring speed that the Rangers could use and it’s not crazy to think that he could get hot going from San Jose to the Rangers. Okposo would be a veteran that could fill Blake Wheeler’s spot on the team, but likely not his spot on the top-line.
In terms of what the Rangers will have to give up to get any of those guys. It seems hard to believe, it always sort of did, that the Rangers are going to part with Kaapo Kakko. The one player that I might consider moving him for would be Pavel Buchnevich, but a reunion with Buchnevich and paying more to reacquire him always seemed unlikely. My guess is that the Rangers have pushed back on the idea that James Dolan wants to retain their first-round pick since the draft is at the Sphere, but that ultimately it’s not going to be used unless it’s to get a big player under team control. I don’t think they would surrender it for a rental, but with Igor Shesterkin returning to form then maybe that mindset has shifted and using it for a rental is on the table. My guess is that the Rangers are going to use conditional picks, as they have the last two years, to help acquire players. I could see them trading their second-round pick this year and adding conditions that if they reach a certain point it becomes a first-round pick. I’d love to see the conditions go in the Rangers favor, such as the pick only becoming a first if they win the Stanley Cup, but they don’t have a ton of leverage to enact that. The past two years they have traded conditional second-round picks that would become a first-round pick if they reached the Conference Finals. That happened two years ago with the Andrew Copp trade, but not last year with the Kane trade. Brett Berard, who is 5-9 and a 2020 5th round pick, is having a strong rookie season in Hartford and would likely be someone teams would want. Adam Sykora was a 2nd round pick in 2022 and is a rookie in Hartford and, like Berard, plays a pesky style that would appeal to teams. The Rangers have walled off their two top prospects and if they are probably going to hang onto their first-round pick then they are going to need to start dealing prospects and those two, among a few others, could be on the move.