It’s a big year for New York Rangers defense prospect Libor Hajek with the expansion draft just one year away
Is Libor Hajek a prospect? It’s a good question. He came to the New York Rangers’ training camp with a job that was almost guaranteed. He had a brief, five game audition with the team in 2018-19 and showed enough for most of us to pencil him in as a blueline regular.
Ten months later, Hajek is a question mark. While he still is one of the better blueline prospects on the roster, he is no longer the crown jewel of the organization, the player the Rangers really wanted when they traded Ryan McDonagh and J.T. Miller to Tampa.
The season was not a good one for the young Czech. His possession numbers were among the worst on the team and his offensive contributions were minimal. After suffering a mid-season knee injury, he was sent to Hartford to work himself back into shape, but was never recalled, even when the team was down to only six healthy defenseman after the trade of Brady Skjei.
When with the Rangers, he spent most of his time paired with Jacob Trouba, a combination that didn’t gel. He also saw some action with Tony DeAngelo, another one that didn’t work. The confidence he displayed in his first stint in New York was missing and he was mistake prone in his own end.
Hajek has to find a defense partner he can mesh with and that means either Trouba or DeAngelo. 2020-21 is a perfect storm for Hajek. If he can revive his career and prove that he belongs in the NHL, he will make the expansion draft a major headache for the New York Rangers.
Expansion implications
We’ve gone over the details numerous times. With the NHL expanding into Seattle, the expansion draft will have the same rules as the Vegas draft in 2017. Teams will be allowed to protect one goalie, seven forwards and three defensemen. They also have the option of protecting one goalie and eight skaters, but there’s little chance the Rangers will use that one.
First and second year players are exempt and players with no movement clauses must be protected. Here is the list of players the Rangers will definitely protect:
Forwards:
- Artemi Panarin
- Mika Zibajenad
- Chris Kreider
- Filip Chytil
- Pavel Buchnevich
- Ryan Strome
- TBA
Defensemen:
- Jacob Trouba
- Tony DeAngelo
- Ryan Lindgren
Goalie:
There are some assumptions here. Ryan Strome is an arbitration-eligible Restricted Free Agent (RFA) after this season and the belief is that he will sign a multi-year contract before next season. The same goes for Tony DeAngelo.
With Henrik Lundqvist, Marc Staal and Brendan Smith all Unrestricted Free Agents (UFA) after next season, they are not in the picture. Jesper Fast will be a UFA next season and if he returns, it would have to be on a one-year deal.
Here’s who they could potentially lose:
Forwards:
Defense:
- Libor Hajek
Hajek’s challenge
Whenever the 2020-21 season begins, the Rangers will be fielding a blueline corps that will feature Adam Fox and Ryan Lindgren as the top pair, Jacob Trouba and Brendan Smith as the second pair with Marc Staal and Tony DeAngelo as the third pairing.
There’s absolutely no depth on the defense with K’Andre Miller, Yegor Rykov, Matthew Robertson and Tarmo Reunanen available to fill in on the left side. The only defenseman with any NHL experience is Hajek.
In a perfect world, Hajek regains his mojo and teams with Trouba on the second defense pairing. It allows David Quinn to relegate Smith to the utility role he filled so well this season. If that happen, that is the conundrum for the Rangers.
A solid young defenseman like Hajek would be an attractive addition to an expansion team and could be the player the Seattle team would pluck from the Rangers. While the common thinking is that Seattle would take Andersson or Lemieux (if the team protected Howden), a resurgent Hajek could be a goner.
That would mean that the Rangers would have to cut a deal with Seattle, similar to the deals George McPhee made when Vegas entered the league. Could Seattle be persuaded to not take Hajek if the Rangers threw a high draft pick their way?
The fight at forward
Just as Hajek can throw a monkey wrench into the Rangers’ expansion draft planning, there looks to be a helluva fight between Howden, Lemieux, Gauthier and Andersson to see which final forward will be protected. Based on playing time and production, the assumption is that Howden will be the guy, but Brendan Lemieux provides the sandpaper that every team needs (and the Rangers badly lack) and Gauthier and Andersson could prove to be keepers.
The issue facing the Rangers is that they will lose one of them. And that is barring any personnel moves next season.
In 2017, the Rangers were in a similar situation at forward when they exposed Jesper Fast, Michael Grabner and Oscar Lindberg. The Golden Knights took Lindberg, the best possible option for the Blueshirts. Grabner went on to score 25 goals that season and was traded at the deadline for a draft pick and Rekov. Fast has remained with the Blueshirts and has been a reliable, defensive forward. Lindberg knocked around the NHL for three seasons and is now playing in Switzerland.
Knowing how hockey teams place a premium on centers, Howden and Andersson could be seen as more vulnerable. It is fascinating how much their performance next season will determine their future in New York City.
Having a surplus of quality young players is a good problem to have. They can only lose one player and luckily, they can protect their best players and some of the best younger players are exempt. It will make 2020-21 a much more interesting regular season especially for Hajek, Howden, Andersson, Lemieux, Gauthier and Gettinger. They’ll all be playing for their future as New York Rangers.