New York Rangers: Ranking the Offseason Moves Thus Far

6. The Derek Stepan/Antti Raanta Trade

We start our countdown with this trade, as there are so many questions that this trade presents and we don’t quite have all the answers yet.

On June 23rd, the Rangers announced they had traded center Derek Stepan and backup goaltender Antti Raanta to the Arizona Coyotes for Anthony DeAngelo and the seventh overall pick in the 2017 Entry Draft.

The Rangers picked Lias Andersson, an 18-year-old Swedish center, a safe pick at number seven. Though he likely won’t play in the NHL this year, he will likely be able to step up to fill a position on the roster in 18-19.

More notably they picked up a solid young defenseman in Anthony DeAngelo who will not fit Alain Vigneault’s coaching style alongside a history with attitude issues on the ice. By making this trade, there is a huge hole on their top line as they no longer have a number one center.

The Rangers main focus this offseason had to be upgrading the defense. While moving Stepan and Raanta gave them much-needed cap space, it seems clear that the Rangers gave up much more in the short term.