Team: 2022-23 New York Rangers

Initial Creation Date: Jun. 21, 2022

Published: Jun. 21, 2022

Salary Cap Mode: Basic

I think this is probably the most conservative offseason path for the Rangers. You push the kid line up to the second line and Panarin goes up to play with Mika and Kreider. You try to pick up a solid veteran guy in Paul Stastny on a short term deal for relatively cheap, that could also play up on the 2nd line should Chytil not be ready yet to hold down the 2c. It puts alot of pressure on the kids to take a step forward, but their underlying numbers/60 are pretty solid not just during the playoffs, but throughout their careers. Giving them increased TOI at both evens and on the powerplay should at least in theory lead to higher production point production and an extra year of experience under their belts should help as well. The 3rd line features 2 pretty inexperienced forwards with a lot of highend skill and upside and would hopefully be pushed along by a solid vet in Stastny. 4th line stays the same as throughout the playoffs, but subbing in Blais for Reaves gives some more speed and scoring chance.

Nemeth goes wherever. I just don't want to give up much to get rid of him. Yes he's absolutely terrible, but some people suggesting we need to give up a 2nd or a 1st to dump him are insane. The dude has only 2 years left and only 2.5 aav. Sure he might be one of if not the worst defenseman in the league but we aren't trying to get rid of a guy owed 5 million dollars for 4 more years here. Also, there was a lot of speculation about personal issues off the ice he had this year and I'll leave that as speculation but assuming some of those issues have resolved he might just be a little bit better than he was this year. At least thats what I would say if I was Drury talking to another GM. I think throwing in Gauthier back to Francis in Seattle and some other scraps (i.e Hajek) could get it done. If not I'd give a 4th at the highest. Otherwise he can sit in Hartford and we'll take 1 million off his cap hit and then we can trade him next year when he's only got 1 year left, we can give up less and we'd actually need the cap space.

Jones takes over for Nemeth and mans the 2nd powerplay which may lead to some increased scoring out of the 2nd unit. Having Trouba out there just wasn't effective (pretty sure we had less than 5 goals from the 2nd pp all year).

Stastny's played for Gallant previously and is on the older side, which is why I think theres a possibility we could get him on the cheap. Maybe need to give him a little more but I think 2 years for less than 3.5 could get it done and would be a solid stopgap for us.

This should allow us to resign all of our guys the following year. Year after that Troubas contract becomes a 15 team no trade and is movable should we want to add someone else. And we can only hope that revenues are up to 6,7,8 billion dollars, escrow is paid off and the cap finally goes up like it was supposed to pre-covid. At least we can hope. But this should at least provide some flexibility with what looks like a stagnant cap and future guys coming off ELC in the near future.

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