New York Rangers: Thoughts on Brooks’ pre-draft report

Larry Brooks of the New York Post delivered another bombshell report Saturday night about the New York Rangers with lots of talking points.

• Larry Brooks was at it again on Saturday night, writing an article with a lot of important New York Rangers information to unpack.

Kevin Hayes

• Brooks reported that Hayes is a hot commodity on the trade market right now and if the Rangers were to make a major move, he’d likely be involved.
• It makes sense when you think about it. While Hayes is a great middle-six center, the team has young-ins Lias Andersson, Filip Chytil and Brett Howden waiting in the wings at center with Mika Zibanejad locked up for a few more seasons. Eventually, he won’t fit on the roster anymore.
• Obviously, the Rangers won’t trade him for a bag of pucks, as they will need to –and likely get — really good value for the 26-year-old. Nothing appears to be imminent, however.
• Brooks suggests that Hayes’ next contract could be “a five-year deal in the neighborhood of $4.75 million per.” That would be a very fair price for both parties. I wouldn’t be surprised if the money went up to $5 million a year.
• According to the report, Hayes won’t be included in a deal for a trade up in the first round. If he’s moved, Brooks suggested it might be for a young defenseman like Jacob Trouba of Winnipeg or Adam Fox of Calgary.
• Both Fox and Trouba have been linked to the Rangers before. For Trouba, you give up Hayes 100 percent of the time. I don’t know if the Rangers should trade Hayes for Fox, however. He has remains unsigned by the Flames and has one more year until he can become an unrestricted free agent. Is it worth giving up a premium asset for a guy who you could get for free next summer? If they have a guarantee that Fox will sign, then maybe.

Trading up

• Brooks said that the team has talked to Carolina about trading up to two. This isn’t the first time that Carolina and their pick have been in trade rumors, so it is easy to believe there were discussions here. But as Brooks noted, just because their are discussions doesn’t mean something is gonna come from them.
• It sounds like unless this deal gets done, the Rangers won’t move up and will stay at nine. Brooks suggests that either Oliver Wahlstrom or Evan Bouchard could be the Rangers’ guy. I love Wahlstrom; I think he has the best shot in the draft. Bouchard would also be a very good pick, but I feel like Ty Smith fits what the Rangers have been looking for in young players; mobility and leadership ability. That’s just a guess, though.
• In my opinion, it makes very little sense to move up unless it’s to the top three. Picks 4-11 are all the same tier of players, in my opinion. The Rangers can’t go wrong with any of them.

The other RFAs

• Brooks still believes that the Rangers won’t start the season with all four of their RFA forwards (Hayes, Spooner, Namestnikov and Vesey).
• He said he expects the team to make one or two trades this week which could include one of them.
• Brooks suggested that one of Vesey or Namestnikov could be packaged with one of the team’s late first round picks in a trade because neither have tremendous value on their own.
• I’d love to move both Vesey and Namestnikov. Neither of them really do anything for me. My gut says that the front office wants to see what Quinn could do with Vesey, the former Hobey Baker Award winner.

Mats Zuccarello

• It appears that everyone’s favorite Norwegian will remain clothed in the Rangers’ red, white and blue. Zuccarello likely won’t be traded at the draft and the team will re-evaluate his situation at the trade deadline.
• This is great news. While Zuccarello might be able to bring some value back on the trade market, his leadership is important to a locker room that is getting younger and younger. Teams that trade all of their veterans and only play kids end up like the Sabres and Coyotes; perennial bottom dwellers.

Other odds and ends

• Gorton has reportedly talked to Edmonton’s Peter Chiarelli about taking on Milan Lucic’s ridiculous contract.
• If he were to take that massive contract on, he wants Leon Draisaitl coming back as well. Brady Skjei, according to Brooks, could be dangled in a DraisaitI conversation. I would say that’s never gonna happen, but who the hell knows with Chiarelli…
• Rangers are expected to keep Brendan Smith, who is working with a fitness trainer in New York. They have nothing to lose by giving him another chance. Buying him out — likely the only other option — wouldn’t make much sense, especially given their current defensive outlook.
• Don’t expect Ilya Kovalchuk to come to Broadway other than as a visiting player this year.
• Lindy Ruff’s role with the team isn’t decided on yet but he will remain with the team for next season unless something unforeseen happens.
• Joe Sacco, who David Quinn coached under in Colorado, could join his staff. I don’t really know much about Sacco, but having familiarity with a first time NHL head coach wouldn’t be a bad thing, which is why I don’t hate that Ruff is coming back. As long as Ruff isn’t the defensive coach, I don’t care.
• Brooks suggested that while the team doesn’t want to use their cap space to just take on another team’s bad contract, they could be enticed if Pittsburgh offered them a premium asset for taking Carl Hagelin or Tampa Bay did the same for Ryan Callahan.

Next: Rangers shouldn't even consider bringing Mike Hoffman aboard via trade

• The Rangers should absolutely use their cap space as an asset. With that said, you better get a damn good pick/prospect to help out the Penguins with their cap situation…