The future of the New York Rangers is becoming brighter — and clearer — by the day.
The Blueshirts added seven new prospects on Day 2 of the NHL Draft, maneuvering with two trades aimed at targets they view as long-term fits. They came out of the draft with a total of nine additions to their system, most notably No. 1 overall pick Alexis Lafrenière.
They also said goodbye to a player who turned out to be a bad fit, sending former first-round pick Lias Andersson to the Los Angeles Kings to move back into Wednesday’s second round.
But as for the present, particularly the team that will take the ice when the new season is scheduled to begin on Jan. 1, many questions remain.
One of those questions centers around their second-line center.
The Rangers waited until close to the 5 p.m. deadline to extend a qualifying offer to restricted free agent Ryan Strome. Allowing him to become an unrestricted free agent was never an option, but general manager Jeff Gorton took his time exploring the trade market for last season’s 59-point scorer.
“Ryan’s due a significant raise and we had some things we were talking to some teams about,” Gorton said candidly. “I wanted to keep the options open until the very last second.”
The right deal never came — but that doesn’t mean it won’t.
Gorton can still trade Strome in the coming days or weeks, but he’s clearly not going to give him away. And the fact remains the Rangers don’t have a replacement at the moment, unless they want to roll with the unproven trio of Filip Chytil, Brett Howden and Morgan Barron as three of their four centers.
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Inevitable Lias Andersson conclusion
In order to trade Strome, Gorton was seeking a second-round pick — and probably more.
He was able to fetch that in exchange for Andersson, landing one at the very end of the round, No. 60 overall. With it, the Rangers selected tough-minded winger William Cuylle.
The value falls well short of the No. 7 overall slot where Andersson was drafted in 2017, but this conclusion was inevitable. Once Andersson left for Sweden and requested the trade, the Rangers had their backs against the wall.
“Obviously, you take a guy that high, you hope that he has an impact sooner than later,” Gorton said. “At this point in his career, it’s hard to say. Maybe we brought him over too soon. I don’t know. It’s just a lot of things didn’t go the way we wanted it to. He’s still a young guy. I think he needed a fresh start, so we just made a decision to move and start over.”
If Andersson goes to L.A. and succeeds, the Rangers will deserve some criticism for mishandling him. The bigger criticism is simply making the wrong pick. (Although, to be fair, none of the players selected immediately behind Andersson are looking like stars.)
But considering Andersson turned down the Rangers invitation to join the team for the summer restart, and was clearly not coming back to New York anytime soon, this deal could have been worse.
Waiting, rather than forcing a trade back in the winter, was the right move. Allowing Andersson to play in the Swedish Hockey League — where he’s posted 16 points in 19 games — boosted his trade value and made getting a second-round pick possible.
“I think it’s helped him to go back and play,” Gorton said. “From speaking to him and his agents, he was more comfortable there. He just felt more and more confident playing over there each day, so I think teams were able to see him. For sure, there’s been some teams that have called me and checked in.”
Grit-themed draft class
Cuylle described himself as a player who models his game after Washington Capitals bruiser Tom Wilson.
He joins No. 19 overall pick Braden Schneider, as well as some of the Rangers’ later picks, as players who are known for toughness and aggressive play. Clearly, that was a strategy for the Rangers in this draft.
“We definitely want to be harder to play against and had identified some players that we saw had some grit to their game, some size, but also some skill, too,” Gorton said. “A lot of those bigger players, we feel like have some upside, too. … That’s definitely a need we identified and think we’ve addressed.”
The Rangers waited until the third round to address their top need at center, drafting Swedish center Oliver Tärnström at No. 92. They also wisely used two of their seventh-round picks to acquire a fifth-round choice (No. 127 overall) from the San Jose Sharks, where they tabbed Evan Vierling. They added two other forwards on Day 2, drafting 5-foot-9 winger Brett Berard at No. 134 and 6-foot-8 center Matt Rempe at No. 165.
All of those players are known for having high motors, which continues the grit theme.
The Rangers have loaded up on skill in recent years, both in the draft — think Chytil, Kaapo Kakko and Vitali Kravtsov — and with the addition of Artemi Panarin. Now they’re working on balancing the roster.
“We addressed a lot of needs,” Gorton said. “Some emphasis on size. We had a lot of Canadians which, lately it seemed to have just worked out that we had a lot of Europeans. It’s one of those years where it worked out that we ended up with some players from North America.”
They also drafted two goalies — Dylan Garand at No. 103 and Hugo Ollas at No. 197.
Tony DeAngelo to the left side?
It came down to the wire, but the Rangers ultimately qualified all five of their NHL RFAs — Strome, Tony DeAngelo, Brendan Lemieux, Phil Di Giuseppe and Alexandar Georgiev.
All five are arbitration eligible if they can’t come to terms with the Rangers on their own. Any of them could still be traded, or signed to an offer sheet by another team. But the Rangers have the right to match any offer sheet.
They also extended qualifying offers to AHL RFAs Gabriel Fontaine, Brandon Crawley and Darren Raddysh, while declining to extend Ryan Gropp and Dawson Leedahl.
Gorton added that he expects their top UFA, veteran forward Jesper Fast, to “at least see what’s out there” once free agency opens on Friday.
Interestingly, Gorton discussed a possible position shift for DeAngelo.
The Rangers are top heavy with right-handed defensemen, with DeAngelo, Adam Fox and Jacob Trouba representing a formidable NHL trio. They also have Nils Lundkvist playing in the SHL as their top defenseman prospect, plus this week’s addition of Schneider.
And while they have a deep group of prospects on the left side, none are proven in the NHL. Beyond Ryan Lindgren, there are only questions marks.
With that in mind, Gorton acknowledged the possibility of trying one of their righties out of the left side.
“We’ve talked about our right side and who is the best person to move other there,” Gorton said. “I don’t think it’ll be Troubs. We’ve talked about Foxy and Tony. Those are ongoing conversations (about) trying to get them more ice time. Listen, we have a very talented right side that can move the puck, and we do think we have two guys that are very capable. Actually, our organization thinks we have a young player in Sweden (Lundkvist) that can do it, too, and play the offside. So, we’re pretty comfortable that they can do it.”
If the Rangers can come to terms with DeAngelo, it’s very possible that their top-two pairs would consist of their four-best defensemen — DeAngelo, Fox, Trouba and Lindgren.
Vincent Z. Mercogliano is the New York Rangers beat reporter for the USA TODAY Network. Read more of his work at lohud.com/sports/rangers/ and follow him on Twitter @vzmercogliano.
