Rebuilding Rangers continue hectic offseason

[devo22]

In an attempt to bolster the roster and improve the on-ice performance, the Rangers have been busy so far this offseason. The focus being on RFA-aged talent that can help the team now AND tomorrow, and so we have struck a number of deals these past few days.

To EDM: G Phil Grubauer
To NYR: G Mike Condon, D Andrew Peeke, 2019 3rd
Happened a while ago, but included for the sake of completeness. We like Grubauer a lot, but felt we benefited from bringing in a promising D prospect and another draft pick. Hopefully Condon can rebound after a brutal season for the whole Sens team.

To ANA: 2018 1st (27th)
To NYR: F Yanni Gourde
Starving for forward talent, the Rangers decided to take a flyer on a late-bloomer that burst onto the NHL scene with 25 goals and 64 points for the Lightning. We hope that Gourde can build on a very promising rookie season and give us a much-needed offensive spark.

To EDM: two 2019 2nds, 2019 3rd, 2019 5th
To NYR: D Marco Scandella
Another deal with the Oilers sees us re-united with one of my former Leafs player. Having quite a few draft picks at hand, we decided to move a few for an RFA-aged defenseman who put together a solid NHL campaign after being traded to Buffalo, logging over 23 minutes of ice-time per game.

To PHI: D Jacob Larsson, two 2018 2nds (30th and 56th), 2019 2nd
To NYR: D Hampus Lindholm, 2018 3rd (73rd)
Our biggest trade of the offseason to date gives us a young top-pairing defenseman and therefore a massive upgrade on the blueline. Moving on from a quality prospect in Larsson and a couple of nice picks was tough, but it should improve our defensive stability massively.

------------------------------------------------------

Feel there's been a slight overpayment here or there on my part, but overall I'm pretty happy with the influx of talent so far. In general I have to say that I'm really enjoying all the trade talks, it's been a lot of fun and I realize how much I missed that last season.

Thanks a lot to savardandjokinen, I wanna be like Miikka and JonDuke for the deals! Hopefully more to come from the Rangers soon.

[devo22]

Update.

To NJ: 2019 2nd
To NYR: C Carl Söderberg

Desperately needed some help at center. Söderberg had a solid bounce back season and is on a decent contract, so we felt he'd be a solid option in the middle-six. Had him back in Toronto and he was good there, hoping for the same here.

To PHX: D Andrew Peeke, 2019 2nd
To NYR: C Adam Henrique

Another centerman. Henrique immediately becomes our top option down the middle, which tells you everything you need to know about our depth at the position. Henrique, Little and Söderberg give us some options, though.

To DET: D Andy Greene, 2019 3rd
To NYR: C Markus Granlund, C Rasmus Asplund

The acquisitions of Hampus Lindholm and Marco Scandella made Greene expendable, so we decided to take a flyer on Granlund and hope that he can rebound. Also happy to add Asplund, who I really wanted to draft a couple of years ago but missed him by a couple of spots.

To BUF: G Scott Darling, C Tyler Steenbergen, 2019 1st
To NYR: G Jonathan Quick

Never had a franchise goalie in Toronto, so when this opportunity presented itself I had to bite. Quick is on an incredible contract and gives us a huge upgrade in net. Giving up a 1st and a solid prospect for a guy like him was a no-brainer.

To DAL: D Fredrik Claesson
To NYR: RW Sven Andrighetto

After claiming the much cheaper Kevin Connauton on waivers, Claesson was expendable. Was happy to move him for a similar forward in Andrighetto, who improves our RW depth and can help on the third line.

To FLA: LW Ivan Barbashev, 2019 3rd
To NYR: LW Loui Eriksson

Not sure whether Floridas deals are still for review. In terms of our pathetic scoring depth on the wing, this just made sense for us. Eriksson has been struggling a bit in Vancouver, but is still solid enough to help us out offensively and his contract isn't a huge problem either.

Thanks to 3thirty, flambers, Flickered Flame, SportsJunky, TurdFerguson and SuperMatt18 for the talks and deals!

-----

In terms of contracts, I had to bite a bullet and use a buyout on Lee Stempniak. With a 62 ov rating, he was more than expendable ... and the horrible $6.66m one-way contract made him unmovable of course. I basically had two options here: keep Stempniak as an extra forward with a $6.66m cap hit, or use the buyout and take the $5.33m penalty. I took option two, also because in Jooris and Erne I have two guys with the same rating making only 750k if I need them. It's not pretty, but I didn't see an alternative here.

Also probably not done with the buyouts. Playing the waiting game right now when it comes to Jiri Hudler ... I'd be extremely happy if he just announced his retirement. Otherwise I'll buy him out and create another $600k in cap space. Ryan White is another one-way contract I'll probably get rid of at some point, but given the relatively small cap gain I'll probably only do so when I really need the roster spot.

-----

As it stands, this is the lineup:

Yanni Gourde (76) - Adam Henrique (73) - Loui Eriksson (70)
Gustav Nyquist (68) - Bryan Little (72) - Bobby Ryan (70)
Brett Connolly (66) - Carl Soderberg (72) - Sven Andrighetto (67)
Oscar Lindberg (64) - Markus Granlund (66) - Logan Shaw (66)
Joakim Nordstrom (64) - Josh Jooris (62) - Adam Erne (62)

Hampus Lindholm (74) - Marco Scandella (74)
Travis Hamonic (71) - Dennis Seidenberg (68)
Kevin Bieksa (68) - Kevin Connauton (68)
Brandon Davidson (67) - Mike Reilly (67)

Jonathan Quick (87) - Mike Condon (76)

I like that A LOT better than the mess I inherited. Still, a ton of room for improvement. Ideally would like to upgrade on the wings and bottom-pairings defensively.

[Jiri Hrdina]

That's some really really good work in part to take advantage of where there are cap crunches.