The NHL trade deadline is three weeks away, now, and 52 games into the season, Rangers general manager Chris Drury should have a pretty good read on what his team is, at this point, and what it may need, as it tries to fortify the roster for the home stretch and playoffs.
Rangers fans have thrown out many names on social media of players they would love for Drury to acquire. One of those names is an old favorite, J.T. Miller, who was at the Garden on Sunday night when his Vancouver Canucks took on the Rangers.
Miller, the former Ranger who was traded at the 2018 trade deadline at the start of the rebuild, was leading the Canucks in scoring with 57 points entering Sunday, including a team-high 20 goals. But his name has come up in speculation because the Canucks’ position in the Western Conference playoff race is perilous, and some think Vancouver may decide to sell assets at the deadline. Entering Sunday, the Canucks were five points out of a wild-card spot with 29 games remaining, starting with Sunday’s game against the Rangers.
Miller, 28, might not be the type of player Drury is looking to acquire at the deadline, however. The Rangers have plenty of room under the salary cap – according to CapFriendly, they have nearly $32 million of deadline space available – so they can add salary for this season. But with long-term contract extensions for Mika Zibanejad and Adam Fox set to take effect next season, they won’t have much salary cap space next year, suggesting Drury might be more inclined to pursue players with expiring contracts, such as San Jose’s Tomas Hertl or Las Vegas’ Reilly Smith.
The other side of the trade speculation is what assets the Rangers have that they might be willing to give up. Former first-round picks Vitali Kravtsov and Nils Lundkvist could be players that could be sent down to bring in reinforcements for the stretch run, and they have their first-round pick, two second-round picks and two fourth-round picks that could be released in any deal.
As for NHL-ready prospects that the Rangers might be willing to part with, center Filip Chytil is one name that has also been mentioned.
Chytil, 22, is in his fourth season with the Rangers, but has never been able to elevate himself from a third-line role with the team. This season he has not been able to produce consistently. He has five goals and seven assists in 41 games.
Coach Gerard Gallant left Chytil out of the lineup for Thursday’s game against Washington and Saturday’s game at Pittsburgh. On Thursday, Gallant said Chytil was “under the weather,” even though he had practiced fully on Tuesday and Wednesday.
On Saturday, the coach said Chytil was fine, but opted to keep the same lineup that had beaten Washington on Thursday.
On Sunday, Chytil was left out of the lineup for the third consecutive game.
“We’ve played two really good games,” Gallant said before the game. “The last two games, the guys played very well, and I don’t want to change the lineup. Even though we lost (Saturday) 1-0, they played very well.”
If Chytil were to be included in any trade package, his $2 million salary would come off the books, opening up even more salary cap space for the Rangers to bring in another top-6 or top-9 forward.
The Rangers have gotten most of their offensive production from their top two forward lines, driven by Mika Zibanejad and Chris Kreider, and Artemi Panarin and Ryan Strome. Finding the perfect right wing for those two lines has been a challenge. Kaapo Kakko is on injured reserve with an upper-body injury and is not close to returning; Alexis Lafreniere has looked good recently switching from left wing to right wing to play with Zibanejad and Kreider.
The third line, driven by Chytil, has had stretches where it has generated energy and produced scoring chances, but overall has not produced many goals.
Georgiev in goal. Alexandar Georgiev started in goal for the first time since January 27. Igor Shesterkin had started the previous eight games.
With Anthony Rieber
Colin Stephenson covers the Rangers for Newsday. He has been covering the NHL and almost every sports team in the New York metropolitan area for more than two decades.
Reference-www.newsday.com