Rangers options for the Seattle expansion draft
Vincent Z. Mercogliano of LoHud: The Seattle Kraken expansion draft will be coming after next season. Teams can protect seven forwards, three defense and one goalie, or eight skaters and one goalie. First- and second-year players are exempt and players with no-movement clauses must be protected.
Believe the New York Rangers will protect seven forwards and three defensemen.
Forwards: Chris Kreider (NMC), Artemi Panarin (NMC) Mika Zibanejad (NMC), and then four of Pavel Buchnevich, Filip Chytil, Julien Gauthier, Brett Howden, Brendan Lemieux and Ryan Strome.
Defense – Jacob Trouba (NMC) and then two of Anthony Bitetto, Brandon Crawley, Tony DeAngelo, Libor Hájek, Ryan Lindgren and Darren Raddysh. DeAngelo and Lindgren seem the most likely at this point.
Goalie – Igor Shesterkin is not eligible to be selected so they will protect Alexandar Georgiev and expose Keith Kinkaid.
Rangers will likely be sellers again at the deadline
Rick Carpiniello of The Athletic: The New York Rangers likely won’t be in a position to be buyers at the NHL trade deadline this year, and will likely be sellers once again.
Recently signed Ryan Strome could be a trade candidate for a team looking for a right-handed center. The acquiring team will need to have a bit of salary cap space as he has a year left after this season. He’ll more likely be a trade chip after this season.
Defenseman Brendan Smith could draw some interest as a rental. He can play forward in a pinch and provides a bit of snarl to the lineup.
Jack Johnson and Phil Di Giuseppe will be pending UFAs and could be rentals.
The Rangers could look see if they could package Anthony DeAngelo for a No. 2 center or a top-pairing left-handed defenseman.
Pavel Buchnevich will be a restricted free agent after the season and may move to the bottom-six if Alexis Lafreniere and Kaap Kakko take over top-six roles.
Mika Zibanejad is entering the final year of his deal and could be looking at $9 to $10 million on his next contract. Trading for Jack Eichel would be ideal, but it would likely start with Vitali Kravtsov or Kaako or Filip Chytil and potentially not being able to fit in Zibanjad.
Moving Jacob Trouba and keeping DeAngelo could be an option, though a bit risky.