The offseason has arrived for all but the two teams who are still taking part in the playoffs. For the rest, it’s time to examine what they will need to accomplish over the coming months. Next up is a look at the Rangers.
After getting eliminated in the first round in 2022-23, the Rangers shook things up last offseason, bringing in Peter Laviolette behind the bench. He helped lead New York to their highest point total in franchise history while they made it to the Eastern Conference Final before falling to Florida. GM Chris Drury has already made one move of significance with Barclay Goodrow moving on to San Jose via waiver claim but he still has some work to do in the coming weeks.
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This has been an area of need for several years now after Pavel Buchnevich was moved out with the Rangers ultimately trying to get creative to try to fill it. They’ve brought in rentals like Patrick Kane and Vladimir Tarasenko. They’ve moved Alexis Lafreniere to his off-wing after Kaapo Kakko wasn’t able to play his way into that spot. They’ve tried moving Filip Chytil there as well. While Lafreniere showed some signs of a breakout this season, the other options haven’t worked quite as well so it remains a spot to be addressed.
While it’s possible that they could leave Lafreniere there longer (allowing him to see time on the top line more frequently), it stands to reason that they’d prefer to have him on his natural side regularly. That means that Drury will once again be trying to fill this spot in the weeks ahead.
However, one of the challenges here will be their cap situation. While they have a little under $13MM in cap space per CapFriendly, a good chunk of that will be going to their restricted free agents. There won’t be enough money left to go after the likes of Sam Reinhart or even Steven Stamkos should he actually test free agency. Instead, turning to someone like Tyler Toffoli could be a suitable Plan B although fitting him into their cap structure could be difficult as well. In a perfect world, they’ll find a way to get what they hope will be a more consistently viable top-six option, be it through free agency or a trade.
Shesterkin Extension Talks
Goaltender Igor Shesterkin has more than proven to be a quality successor to long-time franchise icon Henrik Lundqvist between the pipes, giving New York the type of long-term high-end goaltending that many franchises could only dream about. They’ve also benefitted from having Shesterkin on a contract that quickly became a team-friendly one as it was signed just 47 games into his NHL career.
That deal, which carries a $5.667MM AAV, will be entering its final year next season, making Shesterkin eligible for a contract extension as early as July 1st. It’s fair to say the top end of the goaltending market has slowed down in recent years after big contracts were given to Carey Price ($10.5MM per season) and Sergei Bobrovsky ($10MM per year) but this feels like the next goalie deal that could push past the double-digit AAV mark.
Bobrovsky’s contract counted as 12.27% of the salary cap at the time it was signed while Price’s deal checked in at 14%. There is a strong case to be made that Shesterkin should be in that range as well. Based on next year’s $88MM Upper Limit, that would put his range between $10.798MM and $12.32MM. Of course, this contract doesn’t kick in until 2025-26 when the salary cap will be even higher.
Let’s re-run those numbers with a hypothetical $92MM cap ceiling. Using Bobrovsky and Price’s percentages, the new range is between $11.288MM and $12.88MM. It’s safe to say these are the comparables that his camp will be bringing up in discussions while Drury’s camp will obviously be trying to get the number a little lower.
Still, the possibility exists that Shesterkin will double his current AAV on his next contract. Getting some certainty regarding just how much that’s going to cost would be helpful for their summer planning considering his likely raise will potentially more than cover the increase in the cap for 2025-26.
Re-Sign RFA Defensemen
With Kakko already re-signed to what would have been his qualifying offer, the list of pending restricted free agents that Drury has to contend with is pretty limited. At this point, their two main ones are both defensemen in Ryan Lindgren and Braden Schneider.
Lindgren is coming off his bridge deal, a back-loaded pact that carried a $3MM AAV but has a $3.6MM qualifying offer with salary arbitration rights. He’s also a year away from UFA eligibility. He’s someone whose long-term value is a little harder to peg as he lacks the offensive numbers to command top dollar; he has yet to record 20 points in a season. Instead, he’s more of a capable defensive second-pairing player so the asking price shouldn’t be exorbitant. A long-term agreement likely pushes past $5MM per season but it’s also possible they work out what amounts to effectively a second bridge deal (potentially another three-year pact), allowing them to keep the price tag closer to $4.5MM which would give them a bit more breathing room to try to add up front.
As for Schneider, he’s exiting his entry-level deal and doesn’t have arbitration rights just yet. He has been limited to playing on the third pairing for most of his career which doesn’t make him a strong candidate for a long-term agreement. Generally speaking, a blueliner who has yet to average 16 minutes per game in a season will be heading for a bridge deal and this case should be no exception. Schneider should be in line to double his $925K cap hit from his entry-level agreement on what might be a two-year agreement instead of the three-year bridge that Lindgren received when he was in this situation a few years ago.
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In theory, with Mika Zibanejad and Vincent Trocheck in place as their top two middlemen and Chytil recovering to play in the playoffs, this isn’t necessarily a significant need. However, with Chytil’s long track record of concussion trouble, they likely can’t simply assume that he’ll be healthy for all of next season. Finding some injury insurance for him would be beneficial as a result.
Jonny Brodzinski spent a good chunk of the year down the middle but in an ideal scenario, he’s likely not on the third line with regularity. Alexander Wennberg was brought in at the trade deadline and did relatively well but he’s probably too expensive to keep around. Jack Roslovic, their other deadline pickup, can also play down the middle but is also unlikely to return. Meanwhile, Nick Bonino, brought in to be their fourth center last summer, was released midseason and wasn’t replaced either.
At a minimum, a bottom-six addition down the middle would be beneficial, one who can kill penalties and fill the role that Bonino was supposed to cover this season. Someone a tier below that who can be a serviceable recall wouldn’t hurt either. But getting a third-line option would be some worthwhile insurance for Chytil’s concussion concerns while also allowing Chytil to play on the wing if it’s deemed a better fit for him. They can’t do that, re-sign their blueliners, and add an impact right winger but if the latter doesn’t happen, this could be their Plan B.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
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