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Eastern Notes: Rangers Re-tooling Defense, Repo

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The New York Rangers, unsatisfied with the way their 2016-17 season ended, decided to retool their roster this offseason and yesterday’s signing of top-two defender Kevin Shattenkirk and the re-signing of trade deadline addition Brendan Smith should prove to be a key investment to building up their strength on their blueline.

So far, the Rangers have traded away their top center in 27-year-old Derek Stepan and his $6.5MM salary as well as their talented backup goaltender Antti Raanta. In exchange, they have upgraded their defense through free agency, adding Shattenkirk at $6.65MM per year (almost the same salary as Stepan) and re-signing Brendan Smith to a $4.35MM a year deal. Don’t forget the Rangers parted ways with veteran defenseman Dan Girardi in a buyout, but Girardi’s deal was at originally at $5.5MM, so all they have done so far is relocated already spent money. Add Ryan McDonough and veteran Marc Staal and the team has a high-quality defensive top-four. In fact, if you add in veteran Nick Holden, former first-rounder Brady Skjei and new acquisition Anthony Deangelo, a 21-year-old 2014 first-rounder, the team is suddenly overloaded in defensemen.

They have signed backup goaltender Ondrej Pavelek to replace Raanta. The only problem now is the team has holes in the middle as the team only has two centers under contract in Kevin Hayes and J.T. Miller and little money remaining to make another major splash. They currently have $8.35MM, according to Cap Friendly, of money to spend, not including the expected retirement of defenseman Kevin Klein or the fact that the Rangers still have two restricted free agents they need to lock up in Jesper Fast and Mika Zibanejad. Perhaps a one-year deal with a remaining veteran center would be a possibility.

  • The Florida Panthers tweeted that they have locked up Finnish forward Sebastian Repo to a three-year entry-level deal worth $925,000 per year. The right-winger was a sixth-round pick in this year’s draft and impressed the organization at their recent development camp.

Rangers Expected To Sign Ondrej Pavelec To One-Year Deal

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TSN’s Bob McKenzie reported earlier this morning that Ondrej Pavelec was on his way to New York. The Winnipeg Sun’s Ken Wiebe tweets that the deal is a one-year, $1.3MM agreement. The deal was anticipated, as it was reported yesterday that the Rangers were in discussions with the netminder.

Pavelec will now be the backup to Henrik Lundqvist, following the departure of Antti Raanta. Last season, Pavelec only saw eight games with Winnipeg and posted a 4-4 record with a .888 save percentage.

Arizona Coyotes Acquire Antti Raanta, Derek Stepan

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The Arizona Coyotes aren’t finished just yet. The team has completed a trade that would bring both Antti Raanta and Derek Stepan to the desert from New York, with a return of defenseman Anthony DeAngelo and the seventh-overall pick in this year’s draft. The Rangers now own two selections in the first round, a place they haven’t found themselves in many years.

Arizona has clearly green-lit some big changes in the last few weeks, parting ways with Shane Doan, Mike Smith and Dave Tippett, while now trading away Connor Murphy, Laurent Dauphin, DeAngelo and their top pick. It’s time to compete in the desert, as they’ve brought in a top pairing defenseman, a solid center and starting goaltender just in the last few hours. While there will undoubtedly be some hand-wringing in the price they paid, it is a bold move by GM John Chayka and Owner Andrew Barroway to signal the rebuild has come to an end. Derek Stepan

Stepan, 27, is locked into a long-term deal that will cause a $6.5MM cap hit for the next four years. The interesting part, especially for the Coyotes, is that the salary is substantially lower than that, dropping all the way to $5MM in the last two seasons. For a team cash-strapped team like the Coyotes, every dollar counts. Stepan is a legitimate top-six center, but there is some debate over whether he’s really an answer on the first line. Now in a division with Connor McDavid, Anze Kopitar and Ryan Getzlaf among others, he’ll face the same problem he had in New York; his offensive performance just isn’t as good as the centers around him.

Stepan is a lock for 50+ points every year and is a solid two-way player capable of improving his linemates play, but with an extremely young group behind him down the middle in Arizona, he’ll face some tough matchups on a nightly basis in the Pacific division. Hoping that he’ll take the next step may be a long-shot, though he obviously gives more hope than another new prospect.

On the other hand, Raanta has been highly touted as the next Cam Talbot and is on an extremely team-friendly $1MM deal for next year. He will hit free agency after that, making an extension likely this summer if the Coyotes believe he—and not Louis Domingue—is their next starting goaltender. Raanta has a career .917 save percentage in the NHL and is coming off a .922 this season, making him look more than ready to take the next step. At 28, he has filled in admirably for Henrik Lundqvist in the past and should be a solid replacement for (if not upgrade on) Mike Smith this season.

For the Rangers, owning their own first-round pick was foreign territory enough. The team hasn’t selected in the first round since 2012 when they picked Brady Skjei, and will now pick higher than 10th for the first time since 2004 (Al Montoya). That should provide them with a pretty solid player, and give them an opportunity to start refilling the system with young talent.

DeAngelo will also be a part of that, though the 21-year old has been known to have “attitude” issues before. Any problems off the ice will be dealt with by the Rangers as they try to develop the 2014 19th-overall pick. With incredible offensive ability, DeAngelo has never been able to put it together in his own end and thus has had trouble finding a role in the NHL. In 39 games this season, the defenseman posted 14 points but a -13 rating. Part of that is because of how bad Arizona was, but there has never been much positive to say about his work in the defensive zone.

Darren Dreger of TSN was first to break it. 

Vegas Will Not Select Capitals’ Philipp Grubauer

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For all the talk of the Vegas Golden Knights potentially loading up on goaltenders, news continues to come out that makes it seem as if they have instead decided to do the opposite. After reports that GM George McPhee passed up on both the Red Wings’ Petr Mrazek and the Rangers’ Antti Raanta, Isabelle Khurshudyan of the Washington Post has confirmed that they have also decided not to select Washington Capitals goalie Philipp Grubauer. Grubauer was heavily rumored to be a target of the Knights, especially given that McPhee was the general manager in Washington when Grubauer was drafted. Instead, it will be another one of his teammates who gets the call.

Grubauer, still just 25 years old, has been putting up excellent numbers in the shadow of Vezina-candidate Braden Holtby for years now. This past season, Grubauer made a career-high 24 appearances and posted a .926 save percentage and 2.04 goals against average. Due in part to Grubauer’s efforts – though he did not play enough to get actual credit – the Capitals allowed the fewest goals in the regular season this year and Holtby was named the recipient of the William M. Jennings Trophy. Many feel that the young German keeper has outgrown his role as backup and there was a feeling among those same people that he might fit in nicely as the 1B to Marc-Andre Fleury’s 1A in Las Vegas. Instead, he will stay in Washington, as the Knights have passed on his services. The Capitals still have the option of trading the restricted free agent, but will probably be relieved to have him back and will look to retain their talented backup instead.

So who might be the pick now? Khurshudyan suggests that, if not Gruabauer, it must be promising young defenseman Nate Schmidt, who Capitals fans were equally nervous about losing. However, assuming that many of the leaked names hold true, Vegas has not exactly chosen their team according to what most thought they would do and with many defenseman already confirmed, perhaps Schmidt won’t be the pick. We’ll know one way or another in a matter of hours.

Vegas Will Not Select Rangers’ Antti Raanta

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Although New York Rangers backup goalie Antti Raanta has been a popular draft selection by the Vegas Golden Knights not only in our PHR Mock Expansion Draft, but by pundits throughout hockey media. Yet, according to a Rangers insider, the New York Post’s Larry Brooks, the pick will not be Raanta after all. Instead, Brooks is reporting that young center Oscar Lindberg will be selected.

This news should come as a major sigh of relief for Blueshirt fans, as Raanta was spectacular in relief of starter Henrik Lundqvist in 2016-17. In a career-high 30 appearances, Raanta posted a .922 save percentage and 2.26 goals against average en route to 16 wins for the Rangers. The extra rest for Lunqvist also allowed the 34-year-old veteran to stay fresh and making nine less starts than in 2015-16 led in part to Lundqvist’s strong performance in the Stanley Cup playoffs. Had the Rangers lost Raanta, not only would they have surrendered a great asset for nothing, but they also would have been pressed into the goalie market this summer to try to find a new suitable backup without much cap space to spare.

Not only should New York fans be happy about not losing Raanta, but the Lindberg leak also means they’ve avoided losing Michael Grabner as well. Grabner had an excellent first season in New York, scoring 27 goals and 40 total points as an unexpected key contributor to the Ranger offense. Yet, Grabner could not be protected what with the impressive young forward depth that the Blueshirts have. Signed on for one more year at just $1.65MM, it also would have been a shame to see such a good fit and affordable weapon leave via expansion. Instead, the 25-year-old Lindberg, who has played a regular role for the Rangers in the past two years but has failed to make the jump to a scoring role, will take his place.

Should Vegas Corner Goalie Market?

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With the recent trade of Mike Smith to Calgary, the market for starting goaltenders is dwindling even further. An interesting dynamic for the Vegas Golden Knights as they choose their team will be whether they opt to select every quality goalie out there in order to flip them to other teams. There are quite a few available – Marc-Andre Fleury of Pittsburgh, Eddie Lack (and Cam Ward) of Carolina, Calvin Pickard of Colorado, Antti Raanta of New York, Petr Mrazek of Detroit, Roberto Luongo of Florida, Jaroslav Halak of the Islanders, Michal Neuvirth of Philadelphia, Peter Budaj of Tampa Bay, and Philipp Grubauer of Washington, with a few interesting prospects also exposed.  As we’ve seen in the past few seasons, dealing a goaltender for anything remotely resembling fair value can be an enormous challenge. The salary cap has really warped the value of a solid starting goaltender in a way that has not been totally beneficial to the players.

One down season and a tender’s value goes down quite heavily. The top ten goalies in the league always seem to find a home on the rare occasion they hit unrestricted free agency, but that has been a rare occurrence. Many might point to the 2010 Stanley Cup Final when they isolate a particular moment that the highly-paid goaltender became an oddity. In that Final, Michael Leighton, third-string for Philadelphia, faced off against the very pedestrian Antti Niemi, who was then  sacrificed for cap reasons. With the whole league watching, these teams ascended to hockey’s main stage with relative no names in the crease. While that moment may have been particularly damaging, the moment for me was the fiasco that was the Luongo and Cory Schneider trade saga in Vancouver, which lasted parts of 2 seasons. Then Canucks GM Mike Gillis had a terrible time finding a suitor for Luongo before finally being forced to ship Schneider off in the 2013 offseason for a 9th round pick. This too, was terrible value, considering that Schneider was one of the best young goalies in the league and coming off a scorching season where he had a .937 save percentage. This ordeal took place less than two years after Luongo had taken the team to its first Final since 1994. Granted, Luongo’s contract was considered a bit of an albatross, but it very publicly cemented the value of goaltenders on the trade market as minimal.

Looking forward to the present day, and the last two goaltenders have been traded for rather uninspiring returns. Arizona’s Smith only fetched a 3rd rounder, and Ben Bishop only netted a 4th from Dallas. GM George McPhee could end up hosting a goaltender buffet, with few paying customers. He would be wise to gauge the interest of other teams before deciding on their selections in net. They obviously want to draft a solid starter and a few young goaltenders as future cornerstones. They need to draft 3, and it’s difficult to envision them drafting less than 4 with the enticing names available out there. But if they decide to go into 5 or 6 goaltender territory, McPhee could manufacture a logjam that could be difficult to sort out. After all, only the WInnipeg Jets are truly desperate for a starting goaltender, and that’s assuming they don’t want one of Brian Elliott, Mike Condon, or another UFA to be their partner for Connor Hellebuyck. Philadelphia could be interested in a younger asset, and there are always teams who will desperately seek a starter mid-season when a keeper inevitably goes down to injury. That said, the market simply doesn’t favor the strategy of going all-in in net.

Metropolitan Division Offers Vegas Multiple Goalies, Project Players

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The Metropolitan Division was undoubtedly the most competitive last season, with 3 of the league’s top 5 points finishers within it, including the eventual Stanley Cup Champion Penguins. Some teams in the Metro have prepared poorly, while others look to take a minor hit and move on from expansion relatively unscathed. No major surprises exist outside of Brooklyn, where the Islanders took the crown for the most unorthodox and confounding strategy.

The Penguins seem to have known for quite some time that Marc-Andre Fleury was Vegas bound. GM Jim Rutherford balked at trade offers last off-season despite the goalie’s no-movement clause potentially complicating matters further down the line. The organization finally asked him to waive his clause in February, and both parties seem willing to move on. Rutherford did seem to be leaning toward the 7-3-1 model originally, but eventually opted to go with the 4-4 route to protect both Olli Maatta and Justin Schultz. If for whatever reason Fleury is not chosen, playoff performer Bryan Rust is almost certainly the claim. Columbus’ list is about what we expected, but it still seems strange to see Josh Anderson and Jack Johnson are left exposed. If there is a deal in place for a 1st round pick, as reported earlier by the Columbus Dispatch, Johnson is the likely selection. He’s still got a lot of talent, and with all his international experience, he could be a great leader for younger players in Vegas.

The Philadelphia Flyers made one of the smarter (if unexpected) decisions of the day and opted to protect Scott Laughton over assistant captain Pierre-Edouard Bellemare and the streaky Michael Raffl. Jordan Weal is still left exposed, and theoretically any of the three could be headed to Vegas. The Washington Capitals are absolutely going to lose a solid player, and it’s destined to be either the very promising defenseman Nate Schmidt or standout goalie Philipp Grubauer. The Capitals knew this was coming for a long time, but it can’t hurt any less to lose assets in this fashion. A possible scenario to watch out for is whether Vegas will pursue T.J. Oshie as a free agent in the short-term. They have first dibs on negotiations if they want to open that conversation, and he’s considered by many to be the top available UFA. The team doesn’t really need another goaltender, and their defense would survive without Schmidt, even with his incredible talent.

The New Jersey Devils arguably have the weakest roster on paper at the moment, and it shows with the potential selections Vegas need to consider. Mike Cammalleri is unproductive and overpaid, Beau Bennett has all but busted when he isn’t injured, Jacob Josefson scored one goal last season, and Devante Smith-Pelly is with his third club in as many years. The New York Rangers couldn’t move Antti Raanta and now it seems probable that Vegas will take advantage. Other options would include Jesper Fast and the very productive (27 goals) Michael Grabner, neither of whom is good enough to justify passing on the solid Raanta. No surprises here, but management certainly waited until the final hour to buyout Dan Girardi – which allowed them to utilize that 7-3-1 strategy effectively. Carolina will offer up one of the worst prizes to the Golden Knights, and Lee Stempniak is the only name that truly jumps out. Long-time goalie Cam Ward finds himself on the outs, as does Eddie Lack, but when the team moved for Scott Darling this fate was very foreseeable. Perhaps management will try to entice Vegas to claim one of the keepers and help their logjam along.

The New York Islanders seem to have botched their efforts today, but there may be machinations behind the scenes which could justify such a bizarre strategy. GM Garth Snow opted to protect only 3 forwards and 5 defensemen – the only team to do so. Even worse, one of the defenseman left unprotected was Calvin de Haan. Assuming there is no deal to take a blueliner in the works, Vegas could choose de Haan or their favorite from a large selection of intriguing forwards. Josh Bailey, Brock Nelson, and Ryan Strome are all available, and each provides a different skillset. McPhee could even take one of the league’s toughest bottom sixers in Casey Cizikas or a crafty, veteran Nikolai Kulemin. He has loads of options, and none of them are any good for an Islanders team who survive off their depth. Why Adam Pelech, with his 12 career points and 46.6% Corsi For in 2016-17, was worth protection over any of those names will surely be one of the draft’s greatest quandaries.

Vegas will get an opportunity to draft their starting two goaltenders from the Metro, and will have a wide assortment of options elsewhere. The Washington situation should be fun to speculate on, and trying to find a worthwhile pick in New Jersey could be an adventure for the Knights. Snow’s Islanders are just an incredible anomaly, and that list may draw some serious criticism.

Expansion Primer: New York Rangers

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We’re continuing to break down each team’s situation as it pertains to the 2017 NHL Expansion Draft, coming up next week: which players are eligible, and which will likely warrant protection or may be on the block. Each team is required to submit their protection lists by 4pm CDT on June 17th. The full rules on eligibility can be found here, and CapFriendly has provided a handy expansion tool to make your own lists.

Until today, the Expansion Draft plan for GM Jeff Gorton and the New York Rangers remained unclear. The time had come and gone to ask overpaid blueliners Marc Staal and Dan Girardi or the underachieving Rick Nash to waive their No-Movement clauses and the team declined. They were also cutting it close should they choose to extend one of their impending free agent forwards and make their expansion decisions easier, with protection lists due on Saturday. New York has one of the deepest groups of forwards in the NHL, even with rookies Jimmy Vesey and Pavel Buchnevich draft-exempt, yet the team had not taken any steps to protect their core. At least not until this morning…

The Rangers announced two moves earlier today, the first being an extension for impending restricted free agent forward Matt Puempel. With term now on his contract, Puempel meets all the criteria to be one of two mandatory forwards exposed in the Expansion Draft, saving them from otherwise having to expose a core forward. The second announcement was the long-awaited end to the Girardi era, as the stated their plans to buy out the veteran tomorrow, opening up a slot on the blue line for them to protect the underrated Nick Holden.

Eligible Players (Non-UFA)

Forwards
Rick Nash (NMC), Derek Stepan, Chris Kreider, Mats Zuccarello, J.T. Miller, Kevin Hayes, Michael Grabner, Mika Zibanejad, Jesper Fast, Daniel Catenacci, Matt Puempel, Oscar Lindberg, Nicklas Jensen, Brandon Pirri

Defense
Marc Staal (NMC), Ryan McDonagh, Kevin Klein, Nick Holden, Steven Kampfer, Michael Paliotta, Adam Clendening

Goaltender
Henrik Lundqvist, Antti Raanta, Mackenzie Skapski

Notable Exemptions

Jimmy Vesey, Brady Skjei, Pavel Buchnevich, Cristoval Nieves

Key Decisions

With Rick Nash holding on to his No-Movement clause, the Rangers have just six spots left to protect a large group of impact forwards: Mats Zuccarello, Derek Stepan, J.T. Miller, Chris Kreider, Kevin Hayes, Michael Grabner, and restricted free agent Mika Zibanejad. Despite a unexpected outburst of 40 points in his first season in New York, Grabner is the easy target to point at as not like the rest of the Rangers’ young and mostly homegrown talents. Many Ranger fans wouldn’t have minded holding on to Grabner, at $1.65MM next year, over Nash, who will make $7.8MM again in 2017-18 after recording less than 40 points in three of the past four seasons.

It’s hard to make a case for any of the other six being offered up instead of Grabner. Zuccarello is the oldest of the group, but he’s still only 29 and has led the team in scoring in three of the past four seasons. Zucarello is almost certainly safe. At just 23 years old, Miller has taken a bigger and bigger role for the Blueshirts with each year and is perhaps the franchise’s best building block. He too is a near guarantee. While both Stepan and Kreider have heard whispers of trade rumors in each of the past two seasons, with Stepan’s growing louder in recent days, both are far too good to give up for free and will likely be protected. After trading away Derick Brassard last off-season to acquire Zibanejad, it seems highly unlikely that the team would risk losing him already, even if his first season in New York was marred by injury. Finally, Hayes, who has done nothing but excel in any role the Rangers have given him since signing with the Rangers out of college three years ago, and it would be a major surprise to see them choose Grabner over him.

Thus, it seems Grabner will likely join Puempel as the Rangers’ unprotected forwards and with the decisions in net and on the blue line pretty clear-cut, the Rangers have gone from a confusing expansion scenario about 24 hours ago to one of the easiest teams to project.

Projected Protection List

Scheme: 7F/3D/1G

Forwards

Rick Nash (NMC)
Mats Zuccarello
J.T. Miller
Derek Stepan
Chris Kreider
Mika Zibanejad
Kevin Hayes

Defensemen

Marc Staal (NMC)
Ryan McDonagh
Nick Holden

Goalie

Henrik Lundqvist

The Rangers barely have any decisions to make in regards to their protection on defense and in net. All-world keeper Henrik Lundqvist is obviously safe, leaving skilled backup Antti Raanta as an intriguing target for the Golden Knights. Vegas GM George McPhee has stated that the team could select many promising goalies in the Expansion Draft and guage who to keep and who to trade away after the fact. Raanta could indeed be one of those picks.

On the blue line, the buy out of Dan Girardi will leave one more spot open to join go to the team’s best defender and captain, Ryan McDonagh, and Marc Staal, who was not asked to waive his No-Movement clause. The only real candidate to fill that spot is Nick Holden. Kevin Klein, who is reportedly mulling retirement, meets the 40/70 criteria to fill the one-defenseman exposure quota, but is not a viable target for Vegas. The only other defenseman under contract for the Rangers is journeyman Steven Kampfer, another player who would be a strange selection for the Golden Knights. Restricted free agent Adam Clendening, despite showing signs of upside in 2016-17, has already been informed that he will not receiving a qualifying offer and will become an unrestricted free agent, like several other Rangers blue liners, and again it is unlikely that the Knights will waste picks on UFA’s.  For all intents and purposes, the Girardi buyout ensures that no further changes will be coming to the New York defense in the coming week.

If Vegas passes on Raanta, they will likely instead turn to offense and, more likely than not, Michael Grabner. After his best season since he nearly won the Calder Trophy in 2010-11, Grabner appears to be back at the top of his game and could be hard to pass up for a Vegas team that will have a hard time finding scoring in the Expansion Draft and this summer’s free agency class. The loss of Grabner would be far greater than that of Jesper Fast or Oscar Lindberg or any other possible player, though don’t rule out the possibility that the Knights simply take youth and upside over established skill.

The situation in New York has gained great clarity today and now they face one of the more predictable expansion situations in the NHL. However, that doesn’t mean that they will escape the draft unscathed. A deep, talented team like the Rangers seems destined to take a hit next week.

Pacific Notes: Foo, Tanev, Treliving

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The Union College standout Spencer Foo looks to be closing in on a decision as to where he will sign in the NHL. The right-winger netted an impressed 62 points in 38 games as a junior. An Edmonton native, he appears to be closing in on signing with the Edmonton Oilers, per Jim Matheson of the Edmonton Journal. He has also been linked to the Flyers, where he would almost certainly see a more favorable landscape when it concerns openings in the top-12 forward group. Foo, leading scorer of the Dutchmen, was announced as one of the 10 semi-finalists for the Hobey Baker award. The forward plays a gritty, greasy game and already appears to have embraced the physicality of an adult game. He has enough offensive upside to easily grow into a top-9 role.

  • Dallas is still on the hunt for a defenseman to aid newly acquired Ben Bishop, and according to Matheson have interest in Vancouver’s Chris Tanev. He only played 53 games last season, and struggled a bit alongside the rest of his Canuck teammates. Matheson ponders whether Dallas would be willing to move the #3 pick if more pieces were added, but this is difficult to imagine unless the addition is a far bigger get, probably including the Canucks’ own #5 selection. Second pairing defenseman are generally worth 2nd or 3rd rounders, whereas Dallas will have the opportunity to draft a real difference maker at their current position, conceivably standout defensive prospect Cale Makar. Dallas wants to compete now but the decision ultimately lies in Vancouver’s court.
  • Calgary has a large decision ahead of them, and it seems as though they could be the icebreaker on the goalie front. GM Brad Treliving has tough work ahead – the Flames seem intent on letting Brian Elliott go after his post-season struggles, and he’s arguably the best free agent goalie available. The team has been linked (with varying degrees of certainty) in trade talks to New York’s Antti Raanta and Pittsburgh’s Marc-Andre Fleury, and Arizona’s Mike Smith is a name that has been widely mentioned as available. Treliving will likely want to sort the situation out before July 1st when the pickings will get far slimmer. Peter Budaj and Mike Condon are options, but there will be other teams lobbying for their services.

Rangers Notes: Staal, Girardi, Smith, Raanta

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The New York Rangers have not made a request to either Marc Staal or Dan Girardi as of yesterday about waiving their No Movement Clauses, according to New York Posts’ Larry Brooks. Both veteran defenders are coming off down years and have sizable contracts, which likely would make them unattractive to the Las Vegas Golden Knights in the expansion draft. Many believe the team will ask one or both to waive that No Movement Clause with the hopes of being able to protect other defenders. Staal still has four years at $5.7MM remaining on his contract. Girardi has three years at $5.5MM remaining.

Brooks writes that it’s still possible the Rangers could ask, but says it’s unlikely because since the club must ask before Monday afternoon’s deadline, the club would likely had given them more time to think about it. That leaves several possibilities, including waiving one of them or possibly exposing veteran Nick Holden in the expansion draft and hoping the Golden Knights might take him as opposed to some of their young forwards or goaltender Antti Raanta. Holden is coming off a regular season in which he scored 11 goals and 23 assists for a 34-point season. He might make a good veteran defensive leader or a good trade piece for Las Vegas.

  • The Rangers are the top candidates to re-sign defenseman Brendan Smith. According to Brooks, Smith is willing to discuss a contract before unrestricted free agency begins and give the Rangers a window to ink him to a contract, so long as it’s a “market-price” offer. Smith, a defensive defenseman, was acquired from the Detroit Red Wings at the trade deadline for third-round pick this year and a second-round pick in 2018. The 28-year-old is a key component to their defense and played well in their playoff run.
  • The scribe also writes that several teams, including the Calgary Flames and the Winnipeg Jets have inquired about Raanta, who is the team’s backup goaltender. However, the Rangers have not committed to trading him yet and may wait until just before expansion rosters are due to make a decision. No doubt, the hope is to raise the price for the young goaltender as offers have not been overwhelming.
  • The Rangers and general manager Jeff Gorton have until Friday to lock up one of their restricted free agents to comply with the draft exposure regulations. The team must agree with either Jesper Fast, Oscar Lindberg or Matt Puempel in order to comply. All three know this and are using this as leverage to get a better deal, according to Brooks. If the Rangers are unable to sign one of them or trade for an eligible forward by Friday, they would be subject to penalties from the NHL, including possibly getting stripped of draft picks.

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