New York Rangers general manager Chris Drury would love to upgrade his roster this offseason, the only thing holding him back could be available cap space.
Drury is currently projected to have just over $9 million to work with this summer and with pending restricted free-agent defensemen Ryan Lindgren and Braden Schneider in need of new contracts, the Rangers aren’t going to have a lot of financial flexibility to work with.
Drury recently took care of some internal business, signing Kaapo Kakko to a one-year $2.4 million contract. With the NHL Draft and free agency looming, the work for the Rangers GM is far from over and it’s going to take some creativity to accomplish all of his offseason goals.
On today’s episode of Daily Faceoff Live, Tyler Yaremchuk and Frank Seravalli discussed what the 2024 offseason could entail for Drury and the Rangers and had this to say:
Tyler Yaremchuk: You look at the Rangers here, they only have a projected $9.2-million in cap space, but that is with 13 forwards signed, that’s with four defensemen signed, two pending restricted free-agents in Lindgren and Schneider, and that’s two goalies under contract. I know when they got eliminated I said it’s going to be a long summer for Rangers’ fans, simply because I didn’t think they would get up to a lot. It’s going to be a long summer of waiting around.
As the weeks have gone on here and we inch closer to the draft, do you still agree with that in what I’m saying there, or do you think there’s a chance Chris Drury gets itchy at some point to maybe try and overhaul a couple of areas of this roster?
Frank Seravalli: Yeah, I don’t know if overhaul is the right term. I would say supplement and I would say that just look at the posture of the Rangers previously. This year they wanted to be aggressive and just didn’t. They set their sights on Jake Guentzel and it didn’t work.
Pittsburgh determined that Carolina had the better offer. When that’s the case, I like the way that they checked down and went with Alex Wennberg, who is a really cost-effective acquisition and Jack Roslovic, who fit in really quite well for them. They made some really smart moves and think back to previous trade deadlines, they were ultra-aggressive, whether it was Vladimir Tarasenko and Patrick Kane or the year before that with Andrew Copp and the guys they brought in and spent first-round picks on.
This is a team that doesn’t sit idling and wait. They go out and try and grab it, so I wouldn’t be shocked to see them in the mix on a free agent or two if they can re-jig their roster a little bit.
For more on the Rangers offseason plans, as well as full coverage of the Stanley Cup Final ahead of Game 5, watch here for the full episode:
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