This weekend at the NHL Draft the Rangers:
- Traded Brett Berard to Montreal
- Acquired Pavel Dorofeyev and signed him to a 7-year contract
- Selected Alberts Smits at #5
- Selected Ben MacBeath at 64
- Selected Three Players in the Third Round
- Traded Adam Edstrom to Nashville
- Selected 1 Player in the 4th Round, 2 in the 6th Round and 1 in the 7th Round
Adam Rotter: It’s a big weekend for the Rangers and headlined by both the Dorofeyev move and Alberts Smits at #5. In terms of trends at the draft, the Rangers drafted five left shot defensemen, including three of their first four picks, and only one center. It seems like they got good value in the MacBeath and Morrison picks as well as the one center they took in Chrenko. A goalie in the third round is a bit surprising, not necessarily that they took a goalie, but that they took one with their first pick in the third round. It was also a little surprising that they didn’t use any of the third round picks to move higher, but again, maybe they felt like they could get the guys they wanted at the picks they had. They did move up in the fourth round but that was for a winger.
The focus now shifts to July 1 where the pool of free agents is extremely shallow. Will that allow the Rangers to get the value they want for Vincent Trocheck? We’ll see or will this linger on past July 1 and longer into the summer? There are still questions about Braden Schneider and he’s the primary RFA they need to sign. They have plenty of cap space and could certainly use some of it to acquire a veteran player, most likely a pending UFA, along with an asset from a team that needs to free up space.