New York Rangers: Five free agents that must be avoided
This off-season is a pivotal one for the New York Rangers, but there are many free agents the team needs to steer clear of.
Rangers General Manager Jeff Gorton has a lot of work to do to construct this roster into a Stanley Cup contender. While the Rangers advanced to the second round this year, it was another season of falling short.
The area of focus for Gorton will be the defense, the obvious weakness for the Rangers the past few seasons. However, there is a good chance the Rangers will lose a valuable forward in the expansion draft, opening the door to many free agent possibilities.
The window of goaltender Henrik Lundqvist is still open, but won’t be for much longer. The Rangers could be a piece or two away, but there are some pieces that won’t do much good if signed this off-season.
Justin Williams-
The Washington Capitals right winger is a known playoff performer, and a physical player with a nice scoring touch.
However, Williams is turning 36 years old, and his cap hit last season was $3.25 million. Williams is coming off a year where he scored 24 goals and had 24 assists, and could seek a raise. A one or two year deal wouldn’t hurt the New York Rangers too bad, but Williams will likely not equal that production again.
Williams would add a nice edge to the Rangers bottom six, but the Rangers need to reserve their forward spots for younger forwards that will contribute for the team long term. It wouldn’t be wise for the team to burn over $3 million for an aging forward.
Joe Thorton-
Joe Thorton has been a member of the San Jose Sharks since 2005, but is now an unrestricted free agent.
Thorton is one of the better two-way centers in the league, and recorded 50 assists this past season. But, he only found the back of the net seven times. While he’s more so known as a distributor, that’s still a very low number.
The New York Rangers already have one of the better two-way centers in the game in Derek Stepan. Thorton would provide nice experience, but at 37 coming of an ACL and MCL tear, can he keep up with the Rangers fast paced system?
Thorton is likely to take less than the $6.75 million he earned this year, but not enough for the Rangers to consider him.
Michael Stone-
Michael Stone was a right-handed defenseman that the New York Rangers could’ve acquired, but passed on at the trade deadline. Instead, Stone was traded from the Arizona Coyotes to the Calgary Flames.
Now, Stone is an unrestricted free agent who the Rangers should pass on once again. A former third round pick for the Coyotes, the 26 year old posted 30 assists and totaled 36 points in 75 games during the 2015-2016 season, but tore his ACL and MCL late that year.
This year, it looked like Stone struggled to regain form and under performed for the Flames. Was it due to the injury? That remains to be seen. In 64 games last season, Stone had just 15 total points.
Teams will over pay for a young, right-handed defenseman, but it shouldn’t be the Rangers. Stone’s puck possession saw a sharp decrease this past season, with a putrid corsi for of 43.5%. The Rangers need possession drivers, not anchors, and need more consistency from their back end.
Patrick Eaves-
A criticism of the New York Rangers has been the team lacks a willingness to go to the front of the net, and play hard on the forecheck. Patrick Eaves brings both, and can also kill penalties.
Eaves is a solid two-way player that was traded to the Anaheim Ducks from the Dallas Stars at the deadline, going to Anaheim with 21 goals and 16 assists in 59 games.
He made a career year even better, and added 11 goals and three assists in 20 games with the Ducks.
Eaves is a good skater who brings qualities the Rangers could use, but having a career year in a contract year means he is bound to get overpaid. The Rangers can’t afford to overpay anyone that isn’t a defenseman.
At 30, Eaves is also injury prone. Eaves played 79 out of 82 games this year, the most he’s ever played in a season. His next best was the 73 games he played all the way back in the 2006-2007 season.
Eaves is going to earn too much money, and isn’t consistently healthy making him too risky to invest in.
Kris Russell-
The New York Rangers are looking to fix the defense, but signing Kris Russell would be more of the same. Russell is a defenseman known for blocking shots, but having poor possession numbers.
The Rangers already have a player on the roster who is a shot blocker with poor possession numbers, and he’s likely a goner. Today’s NHL requires speed, and winning the puck possession battle.
Russell’s corsi for over the last three years is 43.6%. To put that in perspective, Dan Girardi’s corsi for last season was 44%.
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Russell is only 30, and might be a popular option to fill a back end spot on a team’s blueline. For some reason, coach Alain Vigneault seems to favor these kind of defensemen.
However, Jeff Gorton can’t even give Vigneault that option. Gorton needs to fill the defense with quick, youthful players who have good puck possession skills. Russell doesn’t fit that mold.