The Rangers have already spent a busy summer reshaping the roster, but they may not be done yet.
According to Vincent Z. Mercogliano of The Athletic, New York is still trying to bring in another forward before training camp opens in September. That would add to a summer that has already brought six new faces into the mix as the club has overhauled its forward group, its blue line and even the goaltending depth.
The biggest move up front was the trade for Pavel Dorofeyev from Vegas, followed by a seven-year, $77MM contract. The Rangers also signed winger Oliver Bjorkstrand and center Joe Veleno in free agency.
On the other side of the ledger, Vincent Trocheck was dealt to Utah, with promising center prospect Cole Beaudoin coming back in the return and likely headed to start at AHL Hartford. Adam Edstrom was moved to Nashville, while Conor Sheary and Jonny Brodzinski both left in free agency, heading to Buffalo and Washington respectively.
There is clearly room for another upgrade among the forwards. The problem is fitting one in.
Per PuckPedia, the Rangers have just $2.4MM in cap space, which does not leave much room for a meaningful addition. They also still need to re-sign defenseman Vincent Iorio, and that money would come out of the same pool if he is kept on the NHL roster next season. Once New York leaves itself a little cushion for early-season injuries and call-ups, the margin gets even tighter.
That is why a bonus-based contract makes sense as the kind of move Drury may be chasing. A deal structured that way would keep the current cap hit lower, and the Rangers could potentially offset it by moving out the cap charge of whoever loses the roster spot.
One speculative possibility is that a younger player such as Jaroslav Chmelar could be the odd man out because of his waiver exemption. Any bonuses that are earned would then hit the books in 2027-28, which would create a future issue rather than an immediate one.
The trouble is that the market for that kind of forward is thin. The bonus-eligible unrestricted free agents are limited to players who are 35 or older, or to 400-game players who spent at least 100 days on IR last season.
In that second group, Patrik Laine is the lone name. He has long been known as a dangerous scorer, and even though he played only sparingly in Montreal when healthy, he could still help a power play.
Given his injury history, a one-year deal with incentives looks like the most likely outcome.
Among the older options, Patrick Kane is the name that jumps off the page. The former Ranger would bring the most impact of that group, but his base salary still appears to be beyond what New York can comfortably fit right now, and the Rangers do not seem to be on his shortlist.
David Perron is slowing down, but he remains a reliable bet to chip in double-digit goals. Adam Henrique and Reilly Smith would fit as bottom-six depth and could come at a lower base salary.
It is not a deep pool, but it may be the one New York has to work with unless Drury finds another way to clear money first. And with deals for players in this lane often coming closer to training camp, the Rangers may have to wait a bit before they can make their next move.
In Other News...
Why Adam Fox Suddenly Feels Like The Rangers' Whole Season
The Rangers have spent the offseason trying to make the roster fit around the players who still define their ceiling, and Adam Fox sits right at the center of that plan. Even with the injuries that have interrupted his recent seasons, he remains the defenseman the team builds around, while Igor Shesterkin gives them the kind of goaltending that can cover a lot of flaws when he is healthy.
That is why the blue line got so much attention this summer, with New York adding Sean Durzi and Marcus Pettersson to give Fox more support and help stabilize the defense corps. The idea is obvious enough: if the Rangers can keep Fox on the ice and reduce the strain on him, they give themselves a much better chance to make this season look a lot less fragile than the last one did. [Read more 🡒]
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For Rangers fans, the concern is obvious because the leagues biggest names may be reaching their next contracts before they ever hit the open market. Artemi Panarin came up as a reminder of how these situations can unfold, with the real leverage often going to the team willing to make the extension part of the deal. If that keeps becoming the norm, the familiar summer chase for elite free agents could be giving way to something much less dramatic and much harder to win. [Read more 🡒]
Rangers Offseason Optimism May Be Hiding A Bigger Problem
The Rangers have spent the summer trying to look more stable than they did a year ago, and in a lot of ways the early returns under Chris Drury point in that direction. The roster is better balanced, the sense around the group is healthier than it was during the worst stretches of the previous season, and the club has moved itself out of the chaos that once defined too many conversations about the team.
Still, the bigger question is whether this is real progress or just the calm before another impatient swing at the problem. New York remains in a retooling phase, and without a true top-end forward to tilt games, the margin for error is thin. If the leadership mix does not settle cleanly and Drury starts chasing shortcuts, the Rangers could end up undoing some of the steadiness they have built. [Read more 🡒]