Free Agency begins at 12PM today and the Rangers are slated to have $15.6 million in cap space according to Puck Pedia.
Braden Schneider is the main RFA that the Rangers have to sign.
The Rangers remain engaged on a potential Vincent Trocheck trade and they have been reportedly trying to acquire defenseman Alexander Nikishin from Carolina.
11:15AM: The Senators are “one of several teams” interested in Will Borgen. (Garrioch)
Adam Rotter: If the plan is still to re-tool and start getting younger than I’d expect the Rangers to only hand out short-term, maybe even one-year deals, to any free agent they sign. There are no top-end free agents worthy of a long-term deal and while there are plenty of good NHL players available, going long-term on any depth player seems like a recipe for a future buyout or trade. I don’t think the Rangers are going to go long-term on any depth free agent that is around 30 or older. Even with a rising cap
In terms of players that could fit in the top-six, a return of Mats Zuccarello would be awesome. It is probably unlikely as he would probably want to go and play for a team with a better chance to win and there may still be hard feelings about how he was traded, but one last little run with Mika Zibanejad would be cool. Patrick Kane does not have the history that Zuccarello did with the Rangers but he too would fill a playmaker spot in the top-six, potentially setting up Pavel Dorofeyev for a lot of goals. One thing that also may work for either Zucarello and Kane, at least from the Rangers point of view, is that they are unlikely to command the term that many of the other free agents are going to.
Had the Rangers already traded Vincent Trocheck then someone like Boone Jenner might have worked as a third line center, same with Scott Laughton but if the Rangers want to continue the illusion that they may bring Trocheck back if they don’t get what they want then they can’t really sign another center until Trocheck is dealt.
Guys like Jonny Brodzinski and Conor Sheary as veteran 12/13th forwards and possibly veteran depth/AHL defensemen like Connor Mackey and Casey Fitzgerald are likely to be replaced in some way, but those aren’t going to be big signings.
Any heavy lifting the Rangers do to the roster is likely to come via trade. When/if those trades happen or if they will be reliant on other trades needing to happen first remains to be seen, so today could just be a day of bottom-six/depth/AHL signings. Or maybe Chris Drury has another Pavel Dorofeyev-type of surprise move.