The Rangers may be close to settling their roster, but there’s still an argument for one more swing at offense in the bottom six.
Right now, the biggest questions seem to be which players end up on waivers and which ones get sent to Hartford before opening night. Even so, the current mix leaves some real uncertainty.
Taylor Raddysh, Tye Kartye, Joe Veleno, and Matt Rempe all stand out as players who could use help around them. Raddysh posted 19 points last season, down from 27 the year before in Washington.
Kartye has to prove he can rediscover the spark he showed after joining the Rangers. Veleno brings almost no offense.
And with Rempe, there just isn’t much more to say.
If New York chooses to keep most of its young forwards in Hartford - Adam Sýkora, Jaroslav Chmelař, Liam Greentree, Nathan Aspinall, Cole Beaudoin and others - then the team could use another experienced option in the mix. That’s where a training camp PTO for an unsigned veteran makes sense.
Two names still sitting in free agency look especially appealing: Eeli Tolvanen and Michael Bunting.
Tolvanen, at 27, looks like the kind of player who could be ready for a bounce-back. Last season he finished with 12 goals, 24 assists and 36 points in 78 games while averaging 16:03 per night.
The year before, he scored 23 goals, added 12 assists and totaled 35 points in 81 games with 14:19 of ice time per game. The extra minutes didn’t produce much more offense, but the shot profile tells a different story.
Tolvanen actually fired more pucks on goal last season, 141 compared with 137, but converted only 8.5 percent of them after shooting 16.8 percent the year before.
His career shooting rate sits at 12 percent, which is why there’s reason to believe the scoring comes back around. He has 423 games on his resume already, and a season that lands him near 20 goals and 40 points does not feel out of reach.
Bunting is just as puzzling to see unsigned. He has already put together point totals of 63, 55 and 49 in previous seasons, and he added 33 points in 74 games last year.
At 6-foot and 186 pounds, he’s a little bigger than Tolvanen, and he’s been productive while averaging 15:25 per game for his career. The only obvious wrinkle is his travel history: he has played for six teams, and his longest stay with any one club has been two seasons.
That kind of track record may be part of why he’s still available, even if his production suggests otherwise.
For the Rangers, the idea is simple: bring one of them into camp on a PTO and let the preseason sort it out. Of the current bottom-six options, Kartye is the only one who feels like a real wild card. The rest look limited, and that’s why an experienced scorer like Tolvanen or Bunting could make sense.
Maybe New York ends up leaning harder on younger players than expected. Maybe not. But if the plan is to push for the playoffs again and keep veterans around who have been through it before, then giving Tolvanen or Bunting a shot to win a job seems like a move with very little downside.
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