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.
If you’re not familiar with team, why write article? Miller played wing but might move to center. Mika Zibinejad is top center on team, you didn’t even mention him. If you think Staal is top 4 ahead of Skjei, you’re in exclusive company. Keep your day job
Zibinejad is mentioned, he’s an rfa, which means he’s not under contract. Miller is a natural center, playing out of position at wing.
I wrote other post immediately. Far should’ve said rfa. Autocorrect. He’s not under contract but there’s no way he won’t be at beginning of season. And yes. Miller is center. That’s obviously what I meant. Staal is not a top 4 dman
You should definitely tear into other people’s writing skills more often.
Ok. Just read article again and apologize. You did mention Zibinejad. Sure he’s far but he’ll definitely be resigned
Keep your day job.
Surprised they didn’t offer Dominic Moore like 1.1 M to center their 4th line. That would’ve been a good move for a lot of teams.