New York Rangers should target defenseman Thomas Hickey
It is no secret that the New York Rangers had one of the worst defensive units in the league last year. The team will need to turn to free agency to fill out the roster.
The Rangers are in dire need of a facelift on the blue line. The team has featured far too many one dimensional players in recent years. In today’s modern NHL, a defenseman that cannot contribute in one zone is a liability. Every time Marc Staal touches the puck in the offensive zone, the other team knows he will pass. If Tony DeAngelo has the puck in his own zone, the other team will pressure him into a mistake.
As of the moment, the Rangers have three defenseman with more than one year of NHL experience. It is expected that Marc Staal, Brady Skjei and Kevin Shattenkirk will all be back with New York for next season. After those three, it is very much up in the air. Will DeAngelo find some semblance of a clue in the defensive zone? Did the monstars from Space Jam return Brendan Smith’s hockey ability? Can John Gilmour crack the NHL roster?
With so much unknown, the Rangers would benefit from bringing in an outside veteran defenseman. Being that the team has nearly $30 million in cap space, the front office can find a talented blue liner. In addition to needing to be balanced, it would be preferable for said defenseman to be able to play in the top four.
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New York Islanders defenseman Thomas Hickey will be an unrestricted free agent this summer and checks off both of those boxes.
Hicks and the puck
For some reason, the code name for bad in the offensive zone is a defensive defenseman. The modern NHL relies too much on speed and transition for defenseman to not be able to pass well. The Rangers have had their fair share of players that cannot execute a successful zone exit. As a two way defenseman, Hickey is a model for the skills expected from the role.
At minimum the modern defenseman must be quick enough to skate away from pressure, a strong enough passer to transition to offense quickly and create chances in the offensive zone. On an absolutely dreadful Islanders team, Hickey managed to keep his head above water. Most impressive of Hickey’s underlying numbers is his .95 assists per 60 minutes of ice time. That figure is better than every single defenseman on the Rangers last season.
In addition to his strong chance creating ability, Hickey posted a solid Corsi For Percentage on a tire fire of a team. As a collective, the Islanders had a 47.49 CF% meaning that the team only generated 47.49% of the shots during a game. The defenseman’s most common partner last season was Ryan Pulock, who posted a 49.6 CF%. As a tandem, the two provided a reprieve from the storm when deployed.
The market
The free agent this market as a whole is amongst the weakest in recent memory. Outside of Hickey’s teammate John Tavares, who may not even reach free agency, there is no elite talent. The best defenseman that will be available on July 1 is Washington Capital John Carlson. Now, Carlson is a totally different beast and one the Rangers would be better served avoiding.
Being that the team realistically needs one, if not two defenseman for next season, Hickey checks off several things. First, he in no shape or form will break the bank. Hickey’s last contract was for three years at $2.2 million per season. Coming off of a nice season and reaching unrestricted free agency for the first time, he will likely get a raise. Determining the length of the contract may be the issue in a union between the Rangers and the defenseman.
At age 28, this will probably be Hickey’s sole opportunity at a big contract. As a depth player, he will not break the bank like Carlson, but could command a higher than expected price. With the free agent market the way that it is, Hickey could probably scrape out somewhere between $3 and $4 million from a desperate team. Some team could throw an obnoxious contract like five years and $4.5 million per season at Hickey in this market
The fit
Were the Rangers to sign Hickey, the team would have a variety of different possibilities. First, assuming that the team does not trade for a true top defenseman, it’d be Skjei’s job to lose. In addition to Skjei, pencil Shattenkirk in as his defensive partner. Pairing the former Minnesota Golden Gopher and a healthy Shattenkirk should suffice. The two compliment each other’s respective games well and played together last season.
After those two, the depth chart is up for interpretation. The Rangers could choose to go for an offensively oriented third pair and link Hickey up with DeAgenlo. Or, the team could look for a balanced pair by using Hickey with either Smith, Staal or Pionk. Bringing Hickey into the fold creates an odd man out environment like the team had last season.
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Of course, under Alain Vigneault, this environment lasted a total of one game before Nick Holden was back in the lineup. However, the Rangers would not bring Hickey in to sit in the press box. The organization needs a defense for today’s league. The Rangers could bite the bullet, buy out Marc Staal and role with a defense of Skjei/Shattenkirk, Hicky/Pionk, DeAngelo/Smith. That unit would be far from the best in the league, but it would be a vast improvement on last year’s team.