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Jeff Gorton

Eastern Notes: Buchnevich, Kreider, Johansson, Krug, Tavares

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No one really knows what the plans are of general manager Jeff Gorton and the New York Rangers. The team could continue quietly rebuilding this summer or accelerate that process and bring in a big-name free-agent or two. Regardless, many of the team’s decisions will depend on what their overall plans are.

That will certainly be the case in how the Rangers intend to deal restricted free agent Pavel Buchnevich. While the 23-year-old hasn’t been as impressive this season as last point-wise, Buchnevich has scored a career-high 18 goals and with his entry-level contract ending, is in line for a significant raise. With quality restricted free agents getting more and more money on their next contracts, Buchnevich could be an interesting case.

The Athletic’s Shayna Goldman (subscription required) writes that much will have to do with the Rangers’ plans. If the team intends to make a significant splash in free agency, going after an Artemi Panarin-type of player, the team might be better served locking him up to a long-term extension to keep his salary down. However, if the team intends to quietly go one more year into its rebuild, then the team would have ample cap room to sign him to a shorter-term contract until they know what they have in him.

  • The Rangers announced that forward Chris Kreider will be out Monday and remains day-to-day with a lower-body injury. He has been out since  Tuesday. Kreider has been a key asset to the team’s offense as he has 26 goals this season.
  • The Boston Bruins received some good news as the Boston Globe’s Matt Porter reports that Marcus Johansson, who has been out of the lineup since Mar. 5 with a lung contusion after colliding with Carolina’s Micheal Ferland, is back on the ice. He is in a gold non-contact sweater, suggesting that he hasn’t been cleared for contact. The 28-year-old was acquired by the Bruins in a trade deadline acquisition, but has appeared in just four games for Boston, registering only an assist. Porter also notes that Torey Krug is also wearing a non-contact jersey at practice today. Krug has been out since Mar. 12 with a concussion.
  • The Toronto Maple Leafs caught a break after John Tavares took a tough cross-check from the New York Rangers’ Marc Staal, as the star center was at practice today, according to TSN’s Kristen Shilton. The Maple Leafs have lost five of their last seven after falling in overtime to the struggling Rangers.

Decision Looming For New York Rangers

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It’s not very often that a team decides to dismantle their team quite as thoroughly and openly as the New York Rangers have over the past year. Starting with a letter to their fans in early February 2018, the Rangers’ front office explained that they did not believe the roster as then constructed was going to bring any realistic success or a chance at a Stanley Cup. Just a few weeks later the team began selling off their biggest assets, dealing Nick Holden, Michael Grabner, Rick Nash, Ryan McDonagh and J.T. Miller in the span of just a few days. After that kind of a deadline, it was obvious that the Rangers wouldn’t stop there.

This season’s deadline brought much of the same, as New York jettisoned Mats Zuccarello, Kevin Hayes and Adam McQuaid for almost entirely future assets. One name that was brought up repeatedly but never moved however was power forward Chris Kreider. Kreider represents the last member of the former core with an expiring contract, as his deal is up following the 2019-20 season, and now sits as the biggest decision the team must make this summer. The talented winger will turn 28 in April, and could be an extension candidate if the team believes he can help them get back to the playoffs with their rebuilt lineup. He could also be their biggest trade chip at the draft if they want to take another step backwards to build the prospect cupboard up. In fact, Larry Brooks of the New York Post writes that there is “not even the slightest chance” that Kreider will report to Rangers training camp in the fall without an extension, implying he would be traded without one.

That decision will come after a potentially career-best season from Kreider, even if it has come with some ups and downs. The 6’3″ forward is just two goals and four points from his previous highs, both set in 2016-17 on a team that finished with 102 points and made it to the second round. There would certainly be a lot of teams lining up for his services if available, given his 30-goal potential and all-around effectiveness. Hayes, for instance (who admittedly is a center) has never scored 50 points in a season but landed the Rangers a good young player and first-round pick even as a pure rental. The fact that they potentially could get more than that for Kreider with a bigger market may be too much to pass up.

But at some point, the team will have to decide if they’re ready to compete again. A multi-year extension for Kreider, expensive as it may be, may help the team do just that in the next few years when young players like Brett Howden, Lias Andersson and Filip Chytil are still on their entry-level deals. There’s plenty of talent in the system now for New York, and it may be time to start retaining it instead of cashing it in.

For now, Kreider and the team will focus on finishing out the season strong and without injury—something the forward has battled for much of the season, according to Brooks—while developing their young players at the highest level. But come this summer there will be a point where GM Jeff Gorton and his staff will have to decide when the next phase of the plan is scheduled for, and if Kreider is a part of it.

Rangers Notes: Tanking, Panarin, Shattenkirk

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A concern of New York Rangers fans all season long has ironically been that they aren’t bad enough. The team had little expectation of pushing for a playoff spot in 2018-19, yet continued to hang around with the likes of the Buffalo Sabres, Florida Panthers, and Philadelphia Flyers in the Eastern Conference standings, rather than down with the Ottawa Senators, Detroit Red Wings, and New Jersey Devils. When the postseason is out of reach, many focus only on an improvement of their draft lottery odds, which has certainly been true with New York fans. While the Rangers’ pipeline is well-stocked and deep with talent at every position, the team is still looking for their next surefire star. Surely after the trade deadline, in which their third- and fourth-highest scorers – Kevin Hayes and Mats Zuccarello – were dealt away, the Rangers’ play would drop off, right? Entering last night, the team was on a six-game win-less streak; however, they had picked up the loser point in four of  those six games and then got back in the win column by taking down the Devils. The Rangers continue to stay afloat, currently ranked 13th in the East and 23rd in the NHL, with multiple teams less than two points ahead of them. If they stay on their current trajectory, the Rangers will likely have between a 3% and 6.5% chance at the No. 1 pick and combined odds of no more than about 20% of landing any of the top three lottery spots. They stand a much higher chance of picking outside the top ten than inside the top three. And there’s no reason to believe that their pace won’t continue. According to NHL.com’s strength of schedule calculations for the remainder of the season, the Rangers have the easiest stretch run of any team in the Metropolitan Division and are second only to the Sabres in the conference. Only half of their remaining games are against playoff-bound competition and five of their final 14 games come against teams presently below them in the standings. So as for those hopes of tanking, they may be all for not. With weak competition on the schedule and top young talent taking more responsibility in the lineup, the Rangers could potentially improve or at the very least stay the course for the remainder of the campaign.

  • If they can’t land one of the top prospects in the coming draft, will Rangers GM Jeff Gorton and company look to add star power in the free agent market? The Athletic’s Craig Custance writes that the expectation that New York will add heavily in the off-season may be overblown after speaking with Gorton. The GM states that he is only looking for players that will be “part of the rebuild, not someone who is going to restrict it.” This likely means a free agent on the younger side who fits the preferred system and the style of the Rangers’ up-and-coming young players. While Custance knows Gorton would never say it outright, Columbus Blue Jackets star winger Artemi Panarin sounds like the ideal target to fit that mold. The 27-year-old has the immense talent to be a short-term difference-maker and the youth and longevity to be a long-term fit who doesn’t clog up cap space down the road. All three of the New York-area teams have been considered likely landing spots for Panarin, the top free agent forward this summer, but the draw of playing in the heart of the Big Apple in front of a Madison Square Garden crowd could be enough to entice Panarin, who has his sights set on growing his persona in the next stage of his career.
  • If the Rangers are going to sign Panarin, it is going to take money and a lot of it. One player who could be shown the door to accommodate the need for extra cap space could be defenseman Kevin Shattenkirk. The Rangers’ big free agent addition just two years ago has not been the player that the team expected and the New York Post’s Larry Brooks believes that he is fighting for life in these final games of the season. Shattenkirk was a healthy scratch the other night for the second time this season, parking himself and his $6.65MM AAV salary in the press box. He has just 23 points on the year so far, the same amount as last season when he missed close to half of the season due to injury. Compare that to 40+ points in five of his six seasons prior to joining New York and it explains why patience is running out. Brooks feels that if Shattenkirk cannot show substantial improvement in his effort and results down the stretch, he could be a prime candidate for a buyout this summer. Per CapFriendly, such a move would save the Rangers more than $5MM against the cap next season, with minor savings in 2020-21 as well, at a cost of just $1.433MM in each of the two seasons after. Despite it being a buyout that makes sense on paper, Brooks writes that “no one wants this”. He has spoken to both Shattenkirk and head coach David Quinn about what Shattenkirk needs to do to improve on his slow, overly-methodical style and it sounds as if they are on the same page. “I know what I have to do, I know how I have to play,” Shattenkirk says, but the question is whether he can actually do it. Failure to act on his shortcomings could mean his days in New York are numbered.

New York Rangers Recall Ryan Lindgren

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The New York Rangers may have made a trade earlier today, swapping Cole Schneider for Connor Brickley with the Nashville Predators, but their latest move – a simple call-up – will likely have far more impact on the team. The Rangers have announced that they have recalled defenseman Ryan Lindgren from the AHL’s Hartford Wolf Pack. It is the first recall for Lindgren, who is considered New York’s most pro-ready defensive prospect and should yield immediate returns on the blue line.

Lindgren, 20, is in his first season with the Rangers organization after being acquired late last season from the Boston Bruins. Lindgren was the centerpiece of the package offered by the Bruins in exchange for Rick Nash, which also included Ryan Spooner, Matt Beleskey, and a 2018 first-round pick. Even after using the Bruins pick in a trade to move up and draft defenseman K’Andre Miller and then using another first-rounder on defenseman Nils Lundkvist, Lindgren has still remained the rearguard prospect with the most hype for the Rangers given his mature, well-rounded game and potential impact in the short term.

Originally a second-round pick by Boston in 2016, Lindgren was a standout in the U.S. National Development program before moving on to join his hometown University of Minnesota for the past two years. During that time, Lindgren also starred on two different United States entries at the World Junior Championship. This season, Lindgren has already earned a top-four role with the Wolf Pack and is one of the top AHL rookie defenseman in many defensive categories. While Lindgren’s offensive contributions have been pedestrian at every level, the true hallmarks of his game are his physicality and defensive ability. It would be a mistake to look at the low point totals and see Lindgren as only a stay-at-home defenseman, as the first year pro sees the ice well and is a strong skater who is more than capable of moving the puck. However, where he is destined to excel as an NHLer is with his checking game, his work on the penalty kill, his ability to win battles and shut down the opposition, and the hockey IQ needed to make smart zone exit plays. The Rangers, who hold the fifth-worst goals against per game in the NHL this season, need a long-term solution on the blue line for their oft-sloppy play and a sound defender like Lindgren will be given every chance to be that guy, down the stretch this season and moving forward.

Metropolitan Notes: Hayes, Zibanejad, Ho-Sang, Carlsson, Speers

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Many people took notice of the one-year deal that center Kevin Hayes signed this offseason as neither he nor the New York Rangers were able to agree upon a long-term contract. The 26-year-old scored a career-high 25 goals last season after posting 17 goals twice previously. With unrestricted free agency in front of him next offseason, many people wondered whether the rebuilding Rangers might opt to trade the center rather than risk losing him next season.

Hayes told MSG reporter John Giannone that he spoke to management and doesn’t feel worried about a trade.

“I had a great conversation with Dru (Chris Drury) and Gorts (GM Jeff Gorton) as soon as I signed my contract. I believe there’s no inclination of me being trade bait or me thinking that I’m going to be out of here. I did not sign a one-year deal to go to free agency. I love this organization, I love the city, what the city demands, the determination and hard work. This is where I want to be for my whole entire career. Obviously a long-term deal didn’t get done but I’m hopeful that come the right time, I think it’ll get done.”

  • The New York Rangers might have to worry about another center as Mika Zibanejad left practice early Sunday, according to The Athletic’s Rick Carpiniello, after taking a hit to the head in a one-on-one drill from rookie defenseman Joey Keane. The bigger concern is Zibanejad’s history of concussions, including one last season. According to the New York Post’s Bree Cyrgalis, head coach David Quinn said Zibanejad is “fine,” and he just had the wind knocked out of him and might be eligible to play Monday night in Newark.
  • New York Islander fans were surprised when prospect Joshua Ho-Sang, who has said he’s turning the page on his past mistakes, missed training camp Saturday with what coach Barry Trotz said was a “personal day.” The Athletic’s Arthur Staple writes (subscription required) that neither Trotz or Ho-Sang elaborated on why he missed a key day of camp, Trotz’s first significant teaching day. “I don’t have any level of concern,” said Trotz.
  • The Columbus Blue Jackets have five defenseman guaranteed to be making their roster, but with the losses of Ian Cole and Jack Johnson this offseason, the team needs to find their sixth defenseman. The Athletic’s Aaron Portzline (subscription required) suggests that player might be Gabriel Carlsson, who has been highly touted since being taken in the first-round in 2015. However, back issues hampered him throughout his first full season in North America. Now after an offseason of conditioning on his back, the 6-foot-5 Carlsson may be ready to make the leap to Columbus.
  • The Athletic’s Corey Masisak reports that New Jersey Devils forward Blake Speers broke his nose yesterday when he took an elbow to the face yesterday. He is back at it again today, however, with a face shield. The 21-year-old scored 12 goals with the AHL’s Binghamton Devils and is looking to crack New Jersey’s lineup this year.

Metropolitan Notes: Tavares, Hamilton, Rask, Rangers

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In a follow-up story about New York Islanders and John Tavares upcoming free agency, The Athletic’s Arthur Staple (subscription required) writes that the Islanders’ Lou Lamoriello left the draft to fly to Los Angeles to be nearby while Tavares meets with the teams that he and his representatives have invited to speak with him. Lamoriello will meet with Tavares last in hopes of keeping the superstar in the fold.

As reported earlier, it is believed that he will meet with the Toronto Maple Leafs, San Jose Sharks, and Dallas Stars and possibly the Tampa Bay Lightning, Vegas Golden Knights and the Montreal Canadiens, although that isn’t too clear so far. However, Staples writes that an earlier rumor today that the Islanders made an eight-year, $88MM deal may not be accurate. He believes in the end, whether offered by the Islanders or another team, that Tavares will be making $12MM per year, which Lamoriello has said that ownership has said that money is no object.

  • Sportsnet’s Chris Johnston reported that the Carolina Hurricanes intend to keep defenseman Dougie Hamilton, who the team acquired in the five-player trade earlier today. The scribe said the team had no intention of flipping the blueliner for more assets. Hamilton should provide the team with a No. 1 defenseman to go with their core of young blueliners. The six-year veteran is only just 25 years old and put up 17 goals and 44 points last season.
  • Pierre LeBrun of The Athletic (subscription required) writes that the Carolina Hurricanes were supposedly close on sending winger Victor Rask to the Montreal Canadiens, but the asking price of two second-round picks in this draft (including the No. 35 pick) was too much for the Canadiens. The 25-year-old winger still has four years at $4MM AAV and seems to have regressed somewhat since a 21 goal season back in 2015-16.
  • The New York Rangers had three first-round picks in this latest draft with much speculation wondering if general manager Jeff Gorton would use those picks as assets to either acquire a pro-ready player or even to move up in the draft. Instead, the Rangers used all three picks (albeit, they traded up late in the first-round). NHL.com’s Dan Rosen reports that Gorton said he was never close to making a deal this weekend. Gorton said he was ready to change his draft strategy if he got a trade offer he liked, but never got one. “I would say there was probably less conversations than I anticipated,” Gorton said.

Rangers Closing In On Swedish Forward Michael Lindqvist

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The New York Rangers are already in off-season mode following a disappointing 77-point season that saw them finish last in the Metropolitan Division and trade away several big-name veterans. GM Jeff Gorton and company clearly have at least a restructuring of the team in mind, if not a complete rebuild. With such a process often comes some unique ways of replenishing the talent that is traded away for picks and prospects. While one player already linked to the Rangers this off-season has been KHL star and former NHL standout Ilya Kovalchuk, many have questioned if adding a 35-year-old who thrives when playing with high-end talent was really the right move for a rebuilding team. A new European rumor makes much more sense. According to a Swedish news source, the Kvalls Posten, young Swedish star Michael Lindqvist is nearing a deal to join New York.

Lindqvist, 23, is a sharp-shooting right winger who is coming off a breakout season with Farjestad of the Swedish Hockey League. Although injuries limited Lindqvist to just 33 games in 2017-18, the young Swede still finished third on his team in scoring and had the best per-game production on the roster. In fact, Lindqvist’s 34 points in 33 games was the fourth-best points-per-game rate in the entire league among players who skated in at least half of their team’s games. Lindqvist also added three points in two playoff games for Farjestad, which was a quarterfinalist in the SHL this season.

In speaking about Lindqvist’s contract situation, agent Joakim Persson told the Kvalls Posten that there were a number of teams interested in Lindqvist, but that the list has been narrowed down. Persson adds the Washington Capitals to the list of finalists for Lindqvist’s services, but states that the Rangers are the heavy favorite. Persson says that a decision is approaching and that a deal will be official soon. While there will surely be an adjustment period for Lindqvist, the talented forward is a worthwhile gamble for the Rangers, who will look to reconstruct their roster with as much youth and potential as possible during the upcoming summer and beyond.

Snapshots: Andersson, Chytil, Gaudette, Sikura

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The New York Rangers rebuild might continue at a new level next week as NHL.com’s Dan Rosen writes that Rangers head coach Alain Vigneault, general manager Jeff Gorton and assistant general manager Chris Drury will talk later today about promoting 2017 first-round centers Lias Andersson and Filip Chytil.

Both first-round picks have fared well this season. Andersson, the seventh overall pick last year, started the season in the SHL, where he put up seven goals and seven assists in 22 games. He played in the World Junior Tournament and helped Sweden to a silver medal and then came to the U.S. and joined the Hartford Wolf Pack of the AHL. There he’s put up five goals and 14 points in 23 games. Chytil, on the other hand, started the season in New York and played two games before the team decided to assign him to Hartford. There in 44 games, Chytil, the No. 21 pick last year, has put up 11 goals and 20 assists.

Rosen said if the Vigneault, Gorton and Drury agree, the two prospects could be inserted into the Rangers’ lineup as soon as Monday.

  • With the elimination of Northeastern University from the NCAA tournament, that could be good news for the Vancouver Canucks who will try to pry prized prospect Adam Gaudette from his collegiate team now that his season is over. In fact, Sportsnet’s Rick Dhaliwal tweets that he’s heard from a source that says contract negotiations are expected to heat up tomorrow. The college junior was the Canucks fifth-round pick in 2015 and has put up 56 goals and 56 assists in his last two seasons with Northeastern. TSN’s Bob McKenzie also adds that the Canucks are expected to make a strong pitch to the 21-year-old center who is a top Hobey Baker Award candidate this year. Gaudette is expected to meet with his family/advisor soon.
  • Also, as reported earlier today, Northeastern’s elimination also fuels the report that the Chicago Blackhawks and Dylan Sikura will be coming to an agreement soon. Mark Lazerus of the Chicago Sun-Times has a new update in which a league source has confirmed that Sikura will be in a Blackhawks uniform on Thursday.

New York Rangers Open To Trading First-Round Pick

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The New York Rangers were busier than any other team at the trade deadline, tearing down their old core by trading players like Rick Nash, Nick Holden, Michael Grabner, J.T. Miller and of course Ryan McDonagh. Those moves came with the benefit of stockpiling draft picks, but that’s not necessarily where the work finishes.

Speaking with Craig Custance of The Athletic (subscription required) at the GM meetings in Florida, Rangers’ GM Jeff Gorton admitted he’s open to trading away one of the first-round picks he holds in the upcoming draft. New York has their own pick—which with every loss is getting higher and higher—along with those of the Boston Bruins and Tampa Bay Lightning. Both of those picks will be closer to the end of the round.

Custance’s piece goes in depth on several other subjects from the meetings, but one thing remains clear. This Rangers rebuild isn’t going to be a long project. With the additions of prospects like Libor Hajek, Brett Howden and Ryan Lindgren, and promotions of some of their other young players, the Rangers could be just a few years from competitiveness. That’s good news for Henrik Lundqvist, who just turned 36 and has three years remaining on his current contract.

The Rangers have just 13 players in the NHL who are signed through next season, meaning this summer will bring many more decisions on who will be retained to be part of the solution. Players like Ryan Spooner, Kevin Hayes and Vladislav Namestnikov are all restricted free agents, and are already in the middle of their twenties. Gorton will be one of the most popular men on the draft floor, with many teams trying to mine his roster and draft stockpile for assets.

Trade Candidate: Michael Grabner

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With the trade deadline approaching, we will be profiling several players in the weeks ahead that have a good chance to be dealt by February 26th.

The New York Rangers are selling. In not so many words, Glen Sather and Jeff Gorton reached out to their fans and told them that they were going to blow up the core of the team, selling off familiar faces and beloved teammates. Not only might that include franchise leaders like Ryan McDonagh, but expiring assets like Rick Nash and Michael Grabner. While the former may be getting more headlines, Grabner is not one to be overlooked.

Michael GrabnerContract

Grabner is in the final season of a two-year, $3.3MM contract—$1.65MM cap hit, $1.65MM salary. He will be a UFA in July, and holds zero trade protection.

2017-18

In September of 2015, Grabner was traded to the Toronto Maple Leafs in exchange for five minor league players, who have combined for a total of 11 NHL games since. Several of them are no longer playing hockey in North America. It was a dump of his $5MM salary, after three consecutive injury-filled seasons for the New York Islanders. For Toronto, nothing went right for Grabner as he scored just nine goals and 18 points in 80 games.

But then, the Rangers came calling and everything changed. Suddenly, Grabner exploded for 27 goals last season, all of them at either even-strength or short-handed. His speed and ability to counter-punch with devastating efficiency was a big part of the Rangers offense. This year has been much of the same.

Amazingly, despite getting essentially zero powerplay time all season Grabner already has 21 goals. That total easily leads the Rangers, and puts him among the elite players in the game in terms of goal production given his limited minutes. His 20 even-strength markers tie him for sixth in the league behind names like Nikita Kucherov, Alex Ovechkin, Auston Matthews, William Karlsson and Sean Couturier. He’s on pace for the second 30-goal season of his career, but only has five assists all year.

Season Stats

53 GP, 21 goals, 5 assists, 26 points, -8 rating, 12 PIM, 116 shots, 14:40 ATOI, 44.1 CF%

Potential Suitors

There are basically no teams in the league who have their eye on the playoffs and couldn’t use a player like Grabner. His ability to penalty kill and versatility to play with scoring or checking units means he can fit in anywhere. He comes with an extremely reasonable cap hit at $1.65MM and got some good playoff experience last season with the Rangers (where he scored four goals in 12 games, again tying for the team lead).

The question will be who wants to pay the most for a player who isn’t as dynamic offensively as other rental wingers like Nash, or Evander Kane. Though he can certainly put the puck in the net, creating offense for his linemates has never been Grabner’s game.

One interesting destination could be Los Angeles, who have been desperate for scoring since Jeff Carter’s injury and could use another injection of speed into the lineup. Another is Tampa Bay, who have room for another winger and could really use some help on the penalty kill. The Lightning lost arguably their best defensive forward in Ondrej Palat for a few more weeks, and could easily slide Grabner into their salary structure.

Likelihood Of A Trade

A trade is all but certain for Grabner, as one of the expiring assets the Rangers will use to kick their rebuild into gear. If someone is going to offer a first-round pick, as some have suggested, he’d likely be on his way out in the next few days. Otherwise, the Rangers might be wise to hold onto him until some of the other shoes have dropped and teams feel like their rivals are getting the better of them.

The eventual return may be far less, depending on where the market sets the price for rentals, but it’s clear that Grabner will have value around the league. If there is a team who feels that he can make a big difference on their team in those key situations, there just could be a small bidding war for his services.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images

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