On the New York Rangers ...
Craig Custance of The Athletic: The Rangers have three first-round picks in the 2018 NHL draft – their own, the Boston Bruins and Tampa Bay Lightning – two second-round picks and two third-round picks.
GM Jeff Gorton says there are opening to moving one of their first-round picks.
“At the point we’re at, we’re looking to get as many good players as we can,” Gorton said. “We’re trying to rebuild. It’s hard to say no to anything. We have to keep our options open and I think we’ll do that.”
If they moved a pick, they’d like to acquire a good young player who is more NHL ready.
“They can’t all be 18 (years old),” Gorton said. “You need different age groups to build your team.”
Chris Nichols of FanRag Sports: Pierre LeBrun was on TSN 1200 and they were discussion Craig Custance’s article that the New York Rangers could be open to the idea of trading one of their 2018 first-round draft picks – GM Jeff Gorton said they would listen to offers. The rebuilding Rangers don’t have to have all their players the same age, so adding someone a few years older is what they could be looking at.
“But they have their own pick, they have Boston’s pick from the Rick Nash deal, and of course they have the Tampa pick from the Ryan McDonagh deal. So one pick is obviously worth a lot more than the other two, and I suspect it’s the lower ones that they would look at moving. But I think the Rangers, who were the busiest team by far around the deadline, are far from done. They want to rebuild, but I think they want to rebuild aggressively similar to what Boston did; which is not rebuild forever, but try to get going within a couple of years here.”
