New York Rangers: Looking at the Wolf Pack’s most recent signings
Just like the New York Rangers, the Hartford Wolf Pack are looking to rebuild, too. They will attempt to make the playoffs for the first time in four years.
The New York Rangers have done next to nothing in free agency. They aren’t bringing back a single one of their UFAs and only brought in one other UFA; Fredrik Claesson. Other than that, they’ve re-signed RFA Vladislav Namestnikov, tendered all their RFAs except for Adam Tambellini and have been involved in trade talks with the Senators.
The Hartford Wolf Pack, on the other hand, have been busy. After missing the playoffs for a third straight season because of a dreadful start, the Pack are trying to make a big comeback with a revamped group in 2018-19.
Recently, they have been active on the free agent market, bringing in a few different players to surround their young core with. And finally after all these years, they signed a full-time goalie coach. They were the only team without one prior to the signing.
Let’s take a look at some of the newest Wolf Pack players and what to expect for them going forward.
Bobby Butler
Butler is a 31-year-old right wing who just came off a strong season with the Milwaukee Admirals, the Nashville Predators’ AHL affiliate. The Marlborough, Massachusetts native last played in the NHL in 2013-14, skating in two games with the Florida Panthers.
In 67 games last season, Butler tallied 24 goals and 21 assists which ranked second on the team in points.
He’s a perfect player to have on your AHL team. He has always been a good point producer at that level and is a good player to have around developing offensive talent like Lias Andersson, Ty Ronning and Brett Howden.
He has a pretty good wrister and knows where to be on the ice at all times. The reason he hasn’t been able to make it at the NHL level is due to his lack of speed and consistency.
He won’t challenge for an NHL roster spot — technically, he’s not a member of the New York Rangers, he’s just a member of the Wolf Pack — and will be a good veteran guide for the younger players.
Drew Melanson
Unlike Butler who is just a top-six guy for an AHL team and nothing else, Melanson is kind of an interesting prospect. The Wolf Pack scooped him up out of college last season and gave him an amateur tryout.
Melanson, a left wing from Paramus, New Jersey, played his first three years of college hockey with R.P.I. before transferring to David Quinn-coached Boston University for his senior season.
Melanson notched six goals and 13 assists in 40 games with the Terriers in 2017-18 before graduating and joining the Pack. The 23-year-old, like Butler, is technically not property of the Rangers but if the team likes him enough in training camp, they could buy him out of his AHL contract and sign him to a two-way contract with different salaries for the NHL and AHL.
That scenario is extremely unlikely, though.
Melanson will fight to stay on the Wolf Pack and not be sent down to the Maine Mariners at the start of Hartford’s camp. The Rangers will closely monitor him throughout the season.
Jason Salvaggio
Salvaggio and Melanson had very similar paths to getting their first pro hockey contract.
Salvaggio played his entire four-year college career with the University of New Hampshire. He was on top of his game during his junior season.
He won the NCAA (New England) Most Improved Player of the Year Award after scoring 36 points in 40 games. He has this in common with Rangers forward Jimmy Vesey who won the same award in 2014-15.
Salvaggio’s senior season was a bit rough, though. In 36 games, the Hanson, Massachusetts native only totaled 16 points.
Salvaggio is a left-handed center who has a lot of skill to his game. He will attempt to make the Wolf Pack out of camp just like Melanson, but Salvaggio is the better player.
After he graduated, the Pack brought him in to play four games where he was held scoreless. It’ll be interesting to see if the 23-year old will rediscover his scoring touch in either the AHL or ECHL this season.
Steven Fogarty
Fogarty was one of the restricted free agents that the Rangers decided to tender a contract offer to. Fogarty’s new contract is a one-way deal, meaning he earns the same salary whether he’s in New York or in Hartford.
This is good because he has a very real chance at making the big club out of camp.
Fogarty, the team’s third round pick in the 2011 NHL Entry Draft, played in his first NHL game on April 7 against the Flyers this past season. He had 12:16 of ice time in the game as he and his team went scoreless in a 5-0 defeat.
In his second full season with Hartford, the Chambersburg, Pennsylvania native totaled a modest 20 points (nine goals and 11 assists). He projects to be, at best, a bottom line winger at the NHL level.
He’s always played a very strong defensive game but the offense has never developed the way the team had hoped it would.
At the end of the day though, if a third round pick makes the NHL, it is a success story. That’s what Fogarty did last year and he will try to make it back there out of camp. He will have every opportunity to compete with a guy like Boo Nieves for the big club’s fourth line pivot role.