What do the New York Rangers need to fix their defense?

What happens from here?

Now, we know what the New York Rangers should do with their current defensive group; get rid of four of them and keep three of them. Next, we can analyze how many defensemen they need to become a contender, and what kind of players those defensemen should be.

The Rangers are basically looking for partners for Neal Pionk, Brady Skjei, and Tony DeAngelo, and one more pair. Pionk and DeAngelo are right-handed, while Skjei is left-handed.  All three are also considered offensive D-men so shutdown defense partners would be optimal.

The team would potentially be losing Adam McQuaid, Kevin Shattenkirk, Brendan Smith, Fredrik Claesson, and Marc Staal. This is a group made up of three left-handed defensemen (Claesson, Staal, and Smith) and two right-handed defensemen (Shattenkirk and McQuaid).

This means that the Rangers would most likely have to replace three left-handed and two right-handed blue-liners. First, we took a look at the Rangers’ AHL affiliate, the Hartford Wolf Pack.

Some of the defensemen who could be ready to make the jump to the AHL in the next few years include John Gilmour (left-handed), Ryan Lindgren (left-handed), Sean Day (left-handed), and Libor Hajek (left-handed).

Outside of the AHL, the Rangers have some defense prospects who could find their way to Broadway.  In 2018, the Rangers drafted defenseman K’Andre Miller who a left-handed shot.

Miller is currently a freshman playing for the University of Wisconsin with 17 points (four goals and 13 assists) in 18 games. Unless he leaves school, he won’t be an NHL candidate for three more years.

Yegor Rykov is a 21 year old left-handed shot who is in his last contract year with Sochi of the KHL.  Acquired from the Devils in the Michael Grabner deal, he may be ready to make the jump to North America next season.

Finally, 2018 first rounder Nils Lundkvist is a Swedish defenseman who is one of those elusive right-handers.  He played in the WJC and is a regular as an 18-year old  in the SHL.

From there, the Rangers need to trade and draft more elite defensemen. Clearly, they have an abundance of left-handed shots in their system, but they most likely can only use three or four of them.

They will make up for the lack of right-handed shots through drafting and trading. If they’re able to restructure their defensive pairs by doing these things over the next few years, the Rangers will most likely be able to compete soon.

In short, the New York Rangers will need much more than just one defenseman. They’ll need to draft well, make a few trades, and continue to develop the defensemen in their minor league teams.