- New York Rangers head coach Peter Laviolette says he’ll open camp with 2020 first-overall pick Alexis Lafrenière at right wing. Many have speculated a move to his off-wing could be beneficial for the 21-year-old, who’s struggled to find ice time on the left wing behind Chris Kreider and Artemi Panarin. It could work out to be a prudent move for the Rangers’ new bench boss, as getting both Lafrenière and Kaapo Kakko clicking in top-six roles out of the gate alongside the team’s veteran firepower would be incredibly impactful for their long-term futures with the team.
Rangers Rumors
Latest On brennan Othmann
- As one of the New York Rangers’ top prospects, Brennan Othmann is expected by many to make an impact on the Rangers’ NHL roster sooner rather than later. But according to USA Today’s Vince Z. Mercogliano, Othmann may have to wait. Mercogliano writes that the “expectation is that” Othmann will begin the season in the AHL with the Hartford Wolf Pack, although a strong training camp could obviously change things. But since New York signed several veteran bottom-six forwards such as Alex Belzile and Tyler Pitlick, Othmann may begin his pro career off Broadway.
Drury Not Ruling Out Signing Someone To A PTO
- At the moment, the Rangers don’t have any players on PTOs heading to training camp with them. However, Arthur Staple of The Athletic relays (Twitter link) that GM Chris Drury hasn’t ruled out the idea of bringing one in over the coming days. New York doesn’t have many openings on their roster and they have a handful of forwards and blueliners that should contend for a spot so unless there’s a proven upgrade willing to come to camp on a tryout, it might make more sense for the Rangers to stay with what they have.
Nick Holden Retires, Joins Golden Knights Front Office
Longtime NHL defenseman Nick Holden is retiring after a 12-season career and will immediately join the Vegas Golden Knights’ player development staff, according to a team release. His specialty will be working with the team’s group of young defensemen.
Initially eligible for the 2005 NHL Entry Draft, Holden went undrafted and didn’t make it to an NHL organization until the Columbus Blue Jackets signed him to an entry-level contract in 2008 after completing his junior career with the WHL’s Chilliwack Bruins (who have since relocated to Victoria to become the Royals). He would remain in the Blue Jackets organization until 2013 but spent most of it in the AHL, playing just seven NHL contests without recording a point. An unrestricted free agent in 2013, he signed a two-year, $1.2MM contract with the Colorado Avalanche, which jumpstarted his career. Finally playing his rookie campaign as a 26-year-old in the 2013-14 season, Holden recorded 25 points in 54 games for the Avs while averaging nearly 19 minutes per game.
He would settle into a top-four role during his peak, averaging over 20 minutes per game from 2014 to 2019. His career-best season came as a member of the New York Rangers in 2016-17, posting 11 goals and 23 assists for 34 points in 80 games and a +13 rating. With the Rangers struggling the following season, however, they dealt him to the Boston Bruins at the 2018 trade deadline, where he played a depth role down the stretch. That led him to sign with the Golden Knights for their second season, and he gave them solid play over the course of three seasons from 2018-19 to 2020-21. After slipping down the depth chart and playing just 17 regular-season games in 2020-21, however, they dealt him to the Ottawa Senators in a swap for scoring winger Evgenii Dadonov.
Holden spent the final two seasons of his career in a Sens jersey, recording 35 points in 141 games while averaging 18:24 across the 2021-22 and 2022-23 campaigns. His final NHL appearance came in an overtime loss to the Buffalo Sabres on April 13 of this year, in which he recorded a +1 rating, four shots on goal, 23:13 of ice time, and one block.
After turning 36 in May, Holden steps away from the playing side of the game with 654 career appearances. During his time with the Avalanche, Golden Knights, Blue Jackets, Rangers, Senators, and Bruins, Holden amassed 52 goals, 126 assists, 178 points, and a +16 rating.
“Nick was widely respected by management, teammates, and coaches during his time with the Golden Knights as a player,” Vegas general manager Kelly McCrimmon said. “He fills an important role with our player development and will work not only with our drafted prospects but also with our young pros with the Henderson Silver Knights.”
We at Pro Hockey Rumors congratulate Holden on a respectable career, and we wish him the best as he moves into the next chapter of his career in the sport.
Summer Synopsis: New York Rangers
Last summer the New York Rangers expectations were sky high as they had just come off a season in which they lost in the Eastern Conference Finals. Many viewed the Rangers as a Stanley Cup contender, as did their management group who went all in for trades to acquire Patrick Kane and Vladimir Tarasenko. The club ultimately failed in their bid to bring Lord Stanley back to Broadway and entered this season with tempered expectations after firing Gerald Gallant and struggling to find adequate replacements for a lot of their departing players. Now, the sky isn’t exactly falling in New York City, as they still have Igor Shesterkin manning the net, and they lured Peter Laviolette in to replace the departing Gallant. Couple this with a blueline that still boasts Adam Fox and a forward group that still has Chris Kreider and Artemi Panarin and you have a very solid team. Albeit one that is just outside of the upper echelon of NHL teams.
Draft
1-23: RW Gabriel Perreault, U.S. National Team Development Program (USNTDP)
3-90: D Drew Fortescue, U.S. National Team Development Program (USNTDP)
5-152: D Rasmus Larsson, Västerås IK J20 (J20 Nationell)
6-178: C Dylan Roobroeck, Oshawa (OHL)
6-183: LW Ty Henricks, Muskegon Lumberjacks (USHL)
The son of former NHLer Yanic Perreault has drawn comparisons to Lucas Raymond recently and is projected by some to be a perennial 70-point forward. While those expectations are lofty for a late first-round pick, many were surprised that he fell that far down the draft board. Perreault is headed to Boston College where he figures to play at least a few seasons before he turns pro. His skating has improved a lot in recent seasons but is certainly not his strongest attribute. Many scouts have said his skill and hockey sense was top-5 in this draft.
Fortescue was teammates with Perreault at the National Team Development Program and is regarded as a good passer and someone who can act as a quarterback from the backend. His skating isn’t particularly good, and he certainly needs to add to his 176-pound frame, but should he be given proper time to develop he could very well be a bottom pairing defenseman for the Rangers in the next half decade.
Trade Acquisitions
N/A
UFA Signings
C Alex Belzile (two years, $1.55MM)*
C Nick Bonino (one year, $800K)
D Nikolas Brouillard (one year, $775K)*
D Erik Gustafsson (one year, $825K)
D Mac Hollowell (one year, $775K)*
D Connor Mackey (one year, $775K)*
F Riley Nash (two years, $1.55MM)*
F Tyler Pitlick (one year, $787.5K)
G Jonathan Quick (one year, $825K)
F Blake Wheeler (one year, $800K)
*-denotes two-way contract
The Rangers didn’t have the cap space to make any major additions and didn’t really have much cap space to replace any of their departing star players. The team was hamstrung by a flat salary cap and did most of their shopping in the bargain bin.
Blake Wheeler was a terrific signing. At $800K (plus bonuses) he will be a solid middle six addition for New York who can easily chip in 50-60 points. At 37 years old he is unlikely to morph into the perennial 90-point player he was a few years ago, but he could provide some of the offense the team lost with the departures of Kane and Tarasenko.
The Rangers opted to pass on some of the more expensive options on the free agent market to sign Jonathan Quick, and while he brings a wealth of experience, he has been a below-average netminder for about a half-decade. New York could no doubt shop in season if they need to find an adequate backup, which they may need to do if Quick’s numbers are anything close to what they were this past year.
Speaking of experience, Bonino also brings a ton of it to the Rangers and should be a decent option for their fourth-line center role. The 35-year-old used to be a perennial 30–35-point third liner, but at this juncture of his career, he is more of a 20-point player. Bonino had a short-lived reunion with the Pittsburgh Penguins after the trade deadline but quickly found himself injured and was not re-signed. If Bonino can regain his 2021-22 form, he could be a steal at $800K for New York.
RFA Re-Signings
D Ty Emberson (one year, $775K)*
F Anton Blidh (two years, $1.55MM)*
D Zachary Jones (two years, $1.625K)*
LW Alexis Lafreniere (two years, $4.65MM)
D K’Andre Miller (two years, $7.744MM)
D Brandon Scanlin (one year, $775K)*
*-denotes two-way contract
Lafreniere has simply not lived up to the expectations of a first-overall pick. He knows it, the Rangers know it, and both sides would surely love for things to be different. But, now with a bridge contract in hand, the 21-year-old has an opportunity to prove he is worthy of much more. Lafreniere hasn’t found anything close to the offense he displayed in junior, but he has steadily put up better offensive numbers in every NHL season. Should he reach another gear next season he could approach 50 points and line himself up to cash in just two years from now.
Miller likely wanted and likely deserved a long-term contract extension but had to settle for a bridge contract and the Rangers simply ran out of dollars to allocate. Miller established himself as a rookie in 2020-21 putting up five goals and seven assists in 53 games. In his second season, he emerged as an option in the Rangers top-4 and formed a formidable pairing with Jacob Trouba. It was there that Miller began to use his speed to his advantage as well as insert himself physically on many more occasions. Miller also started to find his offensive game this past season as he started to find more confidence with the puck in the offensive zone. Miller posted nine goals and 34 assists in 79 games and showed that he could provide much more to the Rangers than steady defensive play. The Rangers don’t have a great left side on defense and will likely rely on him a lot this season. Should Miller put up numbers similar to this past year, his next contract could end up pricing him out of New York.
Departures
F Ryan Carpenter (San Jose Sharks, one year, $775K)*
F Tim Gettinger (Detroit, one year, $775K)*
D Libor Hajek (Pittsburgh, PTO)
G Jaroslav Halak (unsigned UFA)
D Wyatt Kalynuk (St. Louis, one year, $775K)*
F Patrick Kane (unsigned UFA)
C Patrick Khodorenko (unsigned UFA)
F Will Lockwood (Florida, two years, $1.55MM)*
F Tyler Motte (Tampa Bay, one year, $800K)
F C.J. Smith (unsigned UFA)
F Vladimir Tarasenko (Ottawa, one year, $5MM)
D Cooper Zech (unsigned UFA)
Up front, Kane and Tarasenko are the notable losses and will likely create a void in the offense. The Rangers did well to replace some of their offense with Wheeler, but a lot of goals have come out of their lineup. Although they will certainly miss the depth scoring, Kane and Tarasenko never felt like a natural fit in New York and turned out to be overpayments. The Rangers were right to shuffle the furniture and although they lost some goals on paper, they may have a better mix without Kane and Tarasenko.
Jaroslav Halak wasn’t great last season for the Rangers but did provide the team with league-average goaltending and was able to take 25 games from Shesterkin. He now finds himself as a free agent and has yet to sign a contract. Although he wasn’t terrific last season he might have been a better option for New York than Quick, but was likely asking for a bigger payday than the $825K used to sign Quick.
Salary Cap Outlook
It wasn’t that long ago that the New York Rangers were viewed as a team on the rise with a ton of good young players, and a pile of cap space. But after a few trades and signings, the cap space begins to dry up very quickly. That is the situation the Rangers found themselves in this summer as they had almost no room to maneuver under the salary cap. They will face a similar crunch next summer with just 14 players signed and roughly $15MM in projected cap space. Thankfully for the Rangers, the bulk of their core is signed through the end of next season, however, it is after that in the summer of 2025 when things could get hairy. Shesterkin will be due for a new contract that will likely come with a substantial raise, as will Miller who will be coming off his recently signed bridge deal. The Rangers will have a few other contracts to deal with in the interim, but they aren’t positioned well to make any major additions to this now-aging core.
Key Questions
Can Jonathan Quick play 20-30 games: The Rangers had precious little cap space to spend on a backup goaltender and elected to sign three-time Stanley Cup champion Quick. The gamble could pay off if Quick is able to regain his 2021-22 form in which he posted a respectable .910 save percentage and 23 wins in 46 games. However, if he is the goaltender he has been for most of the past five years, the Rangers could be in trouble. Quick has posted a sub.910 save percentage every other year since 2018 and hasn’t been able to provide consistent goaltending in Los Angeles, despite playing on a very good defensive team. Should he falter in New York, it could prove disastrous for the Rangers should they be forced to overwork Shesterkin.
Will The Young Guns Breakthrough? Alexis Lafreniere and Kaapo Kakko were drafted first and second overall (in different drafts) to much fanfare back in 2019 and 2020. While both players are clearly NHL players, that isn’t what you hope for when you pick at the top of the draft two years in a row. Between the two youngsters, they have just one season in which they’ve passed forty points (Kakko in 2022-23) and they haven’t been able to show the offensive prowess they did in their younger days. One silver lining for New York is that both players seem to be trending in the right direction, albeit slower than the team would like.
Can Kreider Score 50 Again? Perspective can be a funny thing. Had Kreider not had a 50-goal explosion in 2021-22, then last season’s 36 goals would have been viewed as an enormous success, a career year, a breakthrough campaign. But on the heels of a 52-goal season, it looked like a failure. The main difference was Kreider’s powerplay production. In 2021-22 he had 26 power play goals, last year he had just eight. While the steep drop looks disastrous, it really wasn’t. Kreider was still a very strong player for the Rangers and despite now being in his early thirties it doesn’t seem likely that he is done yet. But can he hit 50 goals again? It’s probably unlikely, but given that he potted 36 just last year it is not unfathomable to think he could score 40 this year.
Photos courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
Michael Del Zotto Announces Retirement
Longtime NHL defenseman Michael Del Zotto announced his retirement via Instagram today, ending a 13-season NHL career.
Del Zotto, 33, was drafted by the New York Rangers with the 20th overall pick out of the OHL’s Oshawa Generals in 2008. He would jump to professional hockey after one more season in juniors, recording 37 points in 80 games in 2009-10 and earning All-Rookie Team honors.
Unfortunately, while Del Zotto would turn into a serviceable NHL defenseman for over a decade, he didn’t develop into the potential bonafide top-pair player he hinted he could be at the beginning of his career. He would only beat his rookie totals once in New York, recording ten goals, 31 assists and 41 points in 77 games in 2011-12 before dropping to a bottom-pairing role in the 2013-14 campaign. Then-Rangers general manager Glen Sather dealt him to the Nashville Predators for shutdown defender Kevin Klein in a one-for-one swap in January of that season.
Things didn’t go much better for Del Zotto in a brief stint with Nashville to close out the season, which saw his ice time continue to decrease as he recorded five points in 25 games and a -4 rating. He was due a qualifying offer of $2.9MM that season with his contract expiring, which the Predators didn’t issue, and he signed a one-year, $1.3MM contract with the Philadelphia Flyers in August 2014. It turned out to be a prudent choice for Del Zotto, who, for a brief time, recaptured his former glory in Philadelphia. He notched 32 points in 64 games during his first season there while averaging nearly 22 minutes per game, but again fizzled out over the following two seasons with the Flyers.
After signing as an unrestricted free agent with the Vancouver Canucks in 2017, Del Zotto would play stints with the Anaheim Ducks, Columbus Blue Jackets, Ottawa Senators, and St. Louis Blues in depth roles until the 2021-22 season. While he didn’t appear in any postseason contests, Del Zotto was on the Blues’ roster for their 2019 Stanley Cup championship.
2021-22 was when it became clear Del Zotto’s days of playing at the highest level were drawing to a close. Despite recording a respectable 13 points in 26 games with Ottawa and posting decent possession numbers, the Senators waived him. They assigned him to AHL Belleville, where he managed over a point per game. It was enough to land him another NHL contract for 2022-23 with the Florida Panthers, but they waived him pre-season and didn’t include him on the opening night roster. He would record two goals and 10 points in 25 games with their AHL affiliate in Charlotte before they traded him back to Anaheim in the days leading up to Christmas in a three-way swap of minor-league players, including the Detroit Red Wings. Del Zotto closed the season with a strong 31 points in 40 games for AHL San Diego.
But without ever getting a callup to the NHL throughout the season despite a paper-thin defense in Anaheim, Del Zotto has opted to step away from the game. His 736 games rank 18th among players from the 2008 draft class at the time of his retirement, during which he recorded 63 goals, 199 assists, 262 points, and averaged 20:03 per game over the years. PHR congratulates Del Zotto on his lengthy career in the pros and wishes him the best in retirement.
Image courtesy of USA Today Sports.
Brad Maxwell Passes Away
Longtime Minnesota North Stars defenseman Brad Maxwell passed away Sunday after a battle with lung cancer, the Minnesota Wild said today. He was 66 years old.
Born in 1957 in Brandon, Manitoba, Maxwell played his junior hockey for the WCHL’s New Westminster Bruins before going seventh overall to the North Stars in the 1977 NHL Amateur Draft. As a rookie the following season, he was arguably the best player on a team that managed just 18 wins, recording 47 points in 75 games while hitting 100 penalty minutes, a mark the physical playmaker would hit six more times in his career. He would go on to become a premier defender for parts of nine seasons in Minnesota, spending some later career stops with the New York Rangers, Quebec Nordiques, Toronto Maple Leafs, and Vancouver Canucks.
In his 613-game career spanning from 1977 to 1987, Maxwell spent years quarterbacking the North Stars’ power play and finished with 98 career goals, 270 assists and 368 points. He would add a -83 rating and 1,292 penalty minutes. His final entire season as a North Star, 1983-84, was his best. It was the only season of his career that earned him All-Star consideration, recording career-highs across the board with 19 goals, 54 assists and 73 points in 78 games.
Maxwell would become a mainstay in the Minnesota community after retiring, starting a business and making the state his post-hockey home. He would go on to become the Minnesota NHL Alumni Association president and was responsible for bringing the alumni contingent that represented the North Stars against the Chicago Blackhawks at the contest preceding the 2016 Stadium Series game in Minneapolis between the Wild and Chicago.
We at Pro Hockey Rumors extend our condolences to his family, friends and the Minnesota hockey community.
Carl Hagelin Announces Retirement
Two-time Stanley Cup champion winger Carl Hagelin announced his retirement today via an Instagram post. Now 35 years old, Hagelin missed the 2022-23 season due to severe eye and hip injuries.
“It’s been an amazing ride, but it ends here,” Hagelin said. “Unfortunately, my eye injury is too severe to keep playing the game I love.” He told reporters at the beginning of the offseason that he hoped to return to NHL play for the 2023-24 campaign, but unfortunately, that won’t be the case. His four-year, $11MM extension he’d signed with Washington in 2019 expired on July 1.
Picked in the sixth round of the 2007 NHL Draft by the New York Rangers out of Södertälje SK’s junior program in Sweden, Hagelin took a somewhat unconventional path for European prospects and immediately came over to North America, embarking on a four-year collegiate career with the University of Michigan. It was undoubtedly the right choice, however – by his senior year, he was named team captain and produced over a point per game over his last two seasons.
Aside from a few games in the minors in 2011-12, Hagelin made the jump to the NHL immediately from college, recording 38 points in 64 games during his rookie season with the Rangers, along with a +24 rating. That placed him fifth in Calder Trophy voting and even earned him a few votes for the Selke Trophy.
He would continue consistently producing in the 30-40 point range over his four-year tenure with the Rangers but never really built on that rookie campaign. That’s not a knock on Hagelin at all, however. He was a quintessential two-way middle-six secondary scoring forward with a good amount of speed to his game. That’s even more impressive in relation to his sixth-round selection, given he went on to play over 700 NHL games.
His tenure in New York ended somewhat unceremoniously. A restricted free agent at the end of 2014-15, he couldn’t agree to a new deal with the Rangers and his signing rights were dealt to the Anaheim Ducks in exchange for depth forward Emerson Etem (along with some draft picks changing hands, but nothing of significance). Anaheim compensated him nicely by signing him to the richest contract of his career (four years, $16MM), but Hagelin couldn’t really find his game in Southern California. He recorded just 12 points in 43 games to begin 2015-16 before Anaheim moved him to the Pittsburgh Penguins for David Perron, who was similarly underperforming in Pittsburgh.
It would turn out to be one of the most underrated transactions in Penguins history. Down the stretch, Hagelin would complete the famed third line with Nick Bonino and Phil Kessel that played such a crucial role in Pittsburgh winning their first of back-to-back Stanley Cups in 2016. Hagelin exploded for 27 points in 37 games after the trade and added 16 points in 24 playoff games en route to the championship.
Again, he couldn’t quite recapture that performance the following season. While he would win another championship in 2017, he scored just two goals in 15 games during that playoff run. Fast forward to 2018-19, and Hagelin had scored only one goal and two assists through the first 16 games of the season. A move to the Los Angeles Kings in November didn’t do much for him, either – he recorded just five points in 22 games there. It was near the 2018-19 deadline that the Kings moved him to Washington, where he notched 11 points in the final 20 games of the season, appearing rejuvenated and earning himself the final four-year extension.
Hagelin would wrap up his career by scoring 20 goals and 66 points throughout 187 games in a Capitals uniform, posting solid numbers for a bottom-six scoring winger. Unfortunately, it was a freak eye injury in a practice in March of 2022 that would end his career.
PHR extends our best wishes to Hagelin in his continued recovery from both injuries and congratulates him on a championship-caliber career.
New York Rangers Add To Hockey Operations Department
This morning, the General Manager of the New York Rangers, Chris Drury, announced several promotions and hires to the team’s hockey operations department. The totality of the announcement is as follows:
- Ryane Clowe has been promoted to Co-Senior Advisor to President and General Manager
- Angela Ruggiero has been hired as a Hockey Operations Advisor
- Christian Hmura has been hired as a Skills and Performance Development Coach
- Mark Ciacco has been named Prospect Development Skills Coach
- Paul Mara has been hired as a Player Development Assistant
- Andy Hosler has been named Head Athletic Trainer
- Brandon Rodgers has been named Senior Sports Therapist
- Kayla McAvoy has been hired as an Assistant Sports Scientist
- Kathryn Yates has been hired as a Manager of Performance Data Insights
Jumping off the page, the most notable promotion and hire are represented by the top two announcements. Clowe is now in his third season with the Rangers organization, who had previously been serving as a Hockey Operations Advisor since 2022. Aside from spending 10 seasons in the NHL for the San Jose Sharks, New Jersey Devils, and Rangers, Clowe spent two seasons as an Assistant Coach for the Devils, before spending just under one season as the Head Coach of the Newfoundland Growlers of the ECHL.
Ruggiero, on the other hand, will begin her first position for a team in the National Hockey League. She is best known for her time spent with the United States Women’s Ice Hockey Olympic team, helping the team win their first gold medal in the 1998 Winter Olympics. She would go on to win two silver medals in 2002 and 2010, while acquiring a bronze medal in the 2006 Winter Olympics. A member of both the Hockey Fall of Fame, and the U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame, Ruggiero will replace Clowe in her new role with New York.
New York Rangers Hire Angela Ruggiero As Hockey Operations Advisor
- The New York Rangers are hiring Hockey Hall of Famer Angela Ruggiero as a hockey operations advisor, according to Mollie Walker of the New York Post. Ruggiero is one of the most accomplished women’s hockey players of all time, winning four Olympic medals (one gold), four IIHF Women’s World Championships gold medals, and numerous All-Star and top defender honors. Her playing career ended in 2011-12 and since her retirement Ruggiero has built up an impressive off-ice resume, serving on the board of the IIHF and the executive board of the IOC. She’ll join Rangers GM Chris Drury’s front office in New York and have a voice in shaping the team’s quest for its first Stanley Cup since 1994.