By Jeff Nagle
After a brief stop on Long Island, GM Jeff Nagle has set up shop in the biggest hockey market in the league and trying to fill the biggest shoes of the legendary GM Pete Martin. Coming to Manhattan, Nagle had his work cut out for him. With most of the team's star talent due for new contracts, he could have gone many different ways. However, with a lack of immediate draft pick help and a dearth of young talent from which to grow from, it was obvious to Nagle that he would have to keep the window open a little bit longer. So, he set out to do just that.
After inking Victor Hedman, Leland Irving, Mark Pysyk, and Magnus Paajarvi-Svenss to 3+ year deals, Nagle got to work on the trade market. He sent off fan-fave Sergei Kostitsyn to Vegas for pending RFA Calle Jarnkork. While slightly less talented, acquiring Jarnkork gave the team a chance at extending the window while saving some much needed cap space. Kostitsyn is a point getter, however, he was on the last year of an $8m deal. By signing Jarnkork, the Rangers secured the 2nd line winger for three seasons at a much more affordable $6.2m per.
With a gaping hole on the second line centre position, GM Nagle scoured the league for a solution. That solution came via a mega-blockbuster deal with the Nashville Predators. While it was not on the team's radar to move him, the opportunity to spread the talent became much too tempting as the Rangers made the bold move to trade elite defenceman, Victor Hedman, to the Preds in exchange for stud defenceman Haydn Fleury and future star forward Seth Jarvis. This move once again saved the team cap space, filled a need on centre and gave the team a younger look on defence. While some may look at Fleury as a significant step down from Hedman, the team intends to send the talented 27-year-old to many workout camps.
Squeeze in the trade for affordable top four defenceman, Slater Koekkoek from the Washington Capitals for Winnipeg's 1st in the upcoming draft and you have a Rangers team which may be the most deep it has been in a decade.
Here's a high-level "who's in and who's out" list of assets GM Nagle has moved since taking over the Rangers:
Who's out?
Victor Hedman (86OV, 34yrs)
Sergei Kostitsyn (83OV, 36yrs)
Kody Clark (74OV, 22yrs)
Rickard Rakell (UFA rights)
WPG 2028 Rnd 1
PIT 2028 Rnd 3
$14.5 million
Who's in?
Hadyn Fleury (81OV, 27yrs)
Calle Jarnkrok (79OV, 29yrs)
Seth Jarvis (77OV, 20yrs)
Oscar Moller (77OV, 36yrs)
Robby Fabbri (76OV, 27yrs)
Carter Hart (76OV, 24yrs)
Ethan Werek (74OV, 34yrs)
Michael Forney (73OV, 30yrs)
With virtually zero cap space remaining, the Rangers are not expected to be players in free agency. And with no draft picks in the upcoming draft, the Rangers are not attending the draft. All that is ahead of the team now is workouts and endorsement signings, and of course, line making.
9/7/2022 - 489 words
