
John Cavanagh-
Ryan McDonagh – Kevin Shattenkirk
Brady Skjei – Brendan Smith
Nick Holden – Ryan Graves
For the Rangers to be successful next season, they need to fix their biggest weakness. It’s no secret the Rangers defense was a catastrophic flaw that sealed their fate in the playoffs. General manager Jeff Gorton knows this, and will make the defense younger and faster.
Additionally, this means the team will look to get rid of Dan Girardi and Marc Staal as soon as possible, while also likely trading Kevin Klein.
This gives the Rangers enough cap space to re-sign Brendan Smith, and even land the coveted free agent Kevin Shattenkirk. The only other new addition will be Ryan Graves from Hartford.