New York Rangers

Rangers in wait mode, like most (some, part) of the NHL
June 20, 2017, 7:05 PM ET [11 Comments]
Jan Levine
New York Rangers Blogger • RSS • Archive • CONTACT
Las Vegas GM George McPhee has determined the team's expansion selections which will be revealed tomorrow night during the NHL awards ceremony. Several selected players may be on hand for the event. But, what may end up very interesting, is that McPhee may be dealing those players after the draft, create a mild bit of awkwardness.

As of earlier today, the Rangers reportedly had no side deal in place with Vegas. McPhee had said last night was the deadline, but that could be just posturing and a way to drive up the price and interest level. But presuming both prior sentences are true, what that means is who was on the unprotected list is who will end up in Vegas, at least to start. Given what has been reported, Vegas has at least six deals and maybe as many as 12 ironed out.




My poll question yesterday was who would be the main painful for the Rangers to lose to Vegas in the expansion draft? (https://poll.pollcode.com/82167481_result?v)

Here are the results based on 795 votes:

Jesper Fast 21% 163 votes
Michael Grabner 18% 144 votes
Oscar Lindberg 32% 256 votes
Antti Raanta 29% 232 votes

By a slight margin, Lindberg is the leader. As you have read before, this is my view as well, since losing young center just scratching the surface of how good he can be would remove a key component from the team. I know some believe it would be best for Grabner and Fast to go, but I don't share that same thought process. Grabner for his speed, even if he doesn't score, and Fast for his Swiss army knife usefulness. I have noted before that I would prefer a deal be made, so that all four stay a Blueshirt. But that looks unlikely, based on what we have heard to date.

In addition, my guesstimate is that Raanta goes and is then likely flipped elsewhere, due to the one year left on his deal, likely presence of Marc-Andre Fleury and probably Philipp Grubauer. The burden then will fall on GM Jeff Gorton to find an inexpensive, solid backup and goaltending coach Benoit Allaire to turn him into Cam Talbot or Raanta 2.0.

Tonight is the Adidas new jersey reveal. The leak of the Nashville jersey did little for me, in fact, the older jersey from reebok sure looked a lot clearer and popped more than the Adidas version. Not expected material changes for the Rangers one.

Sean Day and Tim Gettinger have been invited to participate in 2017 Team USA World Junior Summer Showcase. Day is not a surprise and Getting is rewarded for his fine year. If Day progresses as he did last year, it's possible he beings 2017-18 in the AHL rather than the OHL. He is looking like another third round steal by Gord Clark.