Don’t expect the Rangers to be big free agent players this offseason
Vincent Mercogliano of Lohud: (mailbag) After the big contracts handed out to Artemi Panarin, Jacob Trouba and Chris Kreider this past year, can’t see the New York Rangers being players in free agency this year.
With the projected salary cap at between $84 and $88.2 million, the Rangers could have between $17 and $22 million in cap space. Defenseman Anthony DeAngelo will likely be looking for something in the $5 million range. Ryan Strome, Brendan Lemieux and Alexandar Georgiev are RFAs, with Jesper Fast a UFA. They would take up a good chunk of the Rangers cap space.
They could move any of their pending free agents to create more cap space, but the free agent market isn’t loaded with talent that would fit the Rangers plans. All the big named forwards are wingers, and the Rangers biggest need is down the middle.
The Rangers do have an opening on the left side of their blue line after trading Brady Skjei. They could look at Torey Krug, but they may not be interested in making that big of a commitment.
They will likely look to trade Georgiev, and re-sign their free agents.
The Rangers have two first-round picks this year. It’s possible that they package the two and look to move up in the draft. Trading one of the firsts for an NHL-ready player is also an option.
Larry Brooks of the New York Post: Alexandar Georgiev and Igor Shesterkin (when not injured) have pushed Henrik Lundqvist to third on the goalie depth chart. It’s a move that has been about a playoff push this season and not about next season.
Had Shesterkin not been injured in a car accident, Lundqvist may have not seen any game action until they were officially eliminated from the playoffs, or clinched a spot.
Larry Brooks of the New York Post: Organizationally the New York Rangers are a little thin at forward. The Rangers have drafted four forwards in the first round of the draft the past three years though – Lias Andersson and Filip Chytil (2017), Vitali Kravtsov (2018) and Kaapo Kakko (2019).