Équipe: 2025-26 Rangers de New York

Date de création initiale: 3 juin 2024

Publié: 3 juin 2024

Mode - plafond salarial: Basique

Disclaimer:
I am a Devils fan, but I am approaching this as a hockey fan first, as unbiased as I can be.

I used Evolving Hockey’s contract projection model for the contracts that are expiring for the 2024 offseason, and just guessing for theb2025 offseason contracts.

I did not include a return for Ottawa, because frankly I don’t know what they even want or where that front office sees that team moving forward. It could be future heavy, or they could want vets. I’m just not sure!

Last disclaimer: I didn’t touch the lines to do anything other than have someone on all 4 lines and 3 pairs. I’m not a coach, nor do I know how the team lines up every night well enough to do that.

Brady Tkachuk to the NYR is not a good idea in the long term. If anything it’s a just a lateral move, but it will make for a mess long term, now that we know what Shesterkin’s camp is looking at long term.

The contract situation the Rangers put themselves in for the future was supposed to be topped off with a shiny ring, and although this is a 2025-26 build I don’t know if New York can meaningfully upgrade in the 2024-25 season when they only have 11 million to fill 10 roster spots. For contracts like Panarin’s massive deal, it’s fine that they’re hanging out here, since there are good players attached, but there are some big clunker contracts as well with the Trouba commitment and Goodrow, that might take some wiggling to get out from under. That doesn’t even mention the aging curves that might negatively impact a players’ performance to their cap hit. Notable players like Chris Kreider, and Vinny Trochek play heavy games, and might start to show their age at any time now, or Panarin who might not play a heavy game but it’s hard to rule out the possibility of a drop off once a player is in their 30s. And obviously there are contracts like Trouba’s and Goodrow’s, who are pretty much in the negative value range by most accounts, and will cost to offload (although Goodrow scoring goals this past playoffs could certainly prove me wrong there, despite his abysmal underlyings at 5v5)

With all of that said, if no one is moved for Tkachuk, and key pieces are all resigned (a combination of things that won’t happen), the Rangers are in a hole of almost 19 million dollars, which means a combination of at least 3 contracts could not make it through to the 25-26 season, and at that point you need to ask what that cost then will look like to bring in a Tkachuk, sign the best goalie of the era, and get yourself compliant and able to ice an upgraded roster that can seal the deal in June.

For me, I don’t think it really is possible. The cost to bring in Brady alone will be significant. The team would be losing key players that can deal the deal now, or key futures. There’s no way around that, and I don’t know if that price would come with a net positive on the ice for all 60 minutes. Sure Brady would kill it, but the team may be losing a key ELC player, and/or a key middle six contributor when Brady is inevitably shut down by opposition with everything going their way, or not feeling it like we all don’t feel it sometimes. More than likely a Brady move means losing both of those kinds of value while needing to absolutely nail the minimum contract signings made to fill out the NHL roster in return for what’s being lost. The Brad move also will mean losing valuable draft capital that can turn into one of the already mentioned valuable ELCs, as the higher picks to be moved for Bradyobviously have a better chance of hitting than the later round picks. This would leave the rangers with not only a need to nail tricky depth signings at low dollars, but also with a need to draft very well with a hand tied behind their back. Can they do that? Yes. The chances of doing that are just very very slim.

The wild card here is that I (obviously) do not work in any NHL Front Office. I don’t know the actual perceived value of these players, and there very may well be a GM that wants to give up a crazy package for Trouba! But for the sake of my own thoughts on him, I’m going to assume that is a player who it will costs assets to offload. Offloading a contract like that is both not easy, and not usually a deal you win. Most likely the team loses a valuable pick of prospect, or in the case they can maybe lose a less valuable pick or prospect they’re probably retaining or bringing back a contract that slightly less terrible. Either way it’s not great for a cup contender that needs to count Pennies with the cap situation the way it is.

Ithink at best a move for Brady Tkachuk would be a lateral move for a team that needs an upgrade, but not because of the player himself.m, because of what the rangers would need to give up and the kind of gutting the roster would take without leaving much left over to build longevity with. The best thing to do for the rangers, would be to do what they can this offseason to upgrade, hope it’s enough, then let the window close (likely after the 24-25 season), and rebuild properly once it’s shut