Tim Haggerty
Jesper Fast-Brendan Smith’s Negotiating Rights-Bribe Vegas to Take Kevin Klein-Oscar Lindberg-Antti Raanta-Michael Grabner
It’s hard to imagine a situation where the Rangers are happy the expansion draft exists.
Bribing Las Vegas to take Klein would be ideal, but with the chance of him retiring, it doesn’t seem worth it to trade away an asset to insure it.
Smith’s negotiating rights would hurt, but wouldn’t be the worst thing. He is a very replaceable defenseman and the Rangers would be better off keeping everyone else.
It’s a similar situation for Jesper Fast. It’s great to have him, but he doesn’t offer much that the Rangers couldn’t find in the free agent market.
Lindberg is a good forward that I just find more appealing than Jesper Fast. He does a lot more for the team on both ends that Fast doesn’t.
Grabner and Raanta are worst case scenarios. Grabner has incredible value given his production in relativity to his contract. Raanta could haul a big return on the trade market, so losing him for nothing wouldn’t help the Rangers at all.