The latest on that 1st round pick, Kravtsov, Drury and more
By Steve Paulus
Some news and notes about the New York Rangers
Ordinarily, we would be watching the New York Rangers’ top prospects competing at the Traverse City Tournament. We would be speculating about the various off-season transactions and wondering who will make it out of the first week of training camp. The NHL season would be set to start in about a month and fans of every NHL squad would have Stanley Cup dreams about their undefeated teams.
Instead, we are deep into the Stanley Cup Playoffs, still waiting to see who will make it to the Conference Finals. The NHL Draft is still over a month away and the window for free agency is even after that. This will go down as the strangest off-season in NHL history.
There is some hockey news to report and some includes the New York Rangers.
NHL Entry Draft
While the Blueshirts are guaranteed that they will have the first overall pick, they still don’t know where their second pick, acquired from Carolina, will fall. The Islanders, Stars and Canucks are still in the hunt in the Second Round and until it’s over, we won’t know when the Rangers will pick. The pick will still fall between the 21st and 24th in the first round.
The way it works is that teams that finished below Carolina in the standings that make it to the Conference Finals will pick after the Rangers (Carolina). If the Isles, Stars and Canucks lose in the Second Round, they will pick before the Rangers (Carolina) even though they got farther in the playoffs.
Confused? To make it more confusing, the NHL has not confirmed that they will be using points percentage to determine the draft order. That’s what they have been using so we will be in the situation where a Dallas Stars team that finished with 82 points in 69 games will draft ahead of the Hurricanes (Rangers) who finished with 81 points in 68 games on the basis of .002 percentage difference.
What about Kravtsov?
There was consternation in Rangerland when Traktor Chelyabinsk posted a tweet that, roughly translated, said “As part of the black and white the forward will play the entire season.”
The “entire season” phrase is what concerned Ranger fans who are looking forward to seeing Kravtsov in a Ranger uniform when training camp starts in November. The understanding was that he was on loan to the KHL and could be recalled at any time.
No worries Ranger fans. Blue Line Station has confirmed that the Rangers can recall Kravtsov at any point, according to a source close to the transaction. As previously noted, this is nothing but a positive for the Ranger prospect. He will be playing full time in the second best league in the world while the NHL still tries to figure out how to start the 2020-21 season.
Behind the bench and the front office
Jacques Martin has filled the vacant coaching position for the Rangers, replacing Lindy Ruff. David Quinn has taken great pains to take credit for the hiring, citing feedback from his good friend, Pittsburgh coach Mike Sullivan (Martin’s former boss). Any time a team hires a former NHL coach as an assistant, it fosters speculation about changes. Quinn is smart to get ahead of the conversation and make it clear that Martin was his choice.
There is still a vacancy in the coaching ranks in Hartford. They have yet to replace Assistant Coach David Cunniff who left the team mid-season to become head coach and general manager of the Worcester Railers in the ECHL.
Finally, Larry Brooks of the New York Post reported that Chris Drury has withdrawn his candidacy for the position of general manager of the Florida Panthers. It’s good news for the Rangers as they can maintain stability and Drury can continue to focus on building the team’s minor league organization as GM of the Hartford Wolf Pack.
Trading season has opened
As noted, this is a bizarre off-season. Usually, teams refrain from making any trades until the Stanley Cup Playoffs have ended. Over the last ten years, there have been a total of 22 trades made during the Playoffs, mostly involving draft picks and prospects. Last season, the Rangers made the Adam Fox deal with Carolina on April 30, one of three deals made while Playoff games were being played. The other deals were the Flyers acquiring the rights to Kevin Hayes and the Wild trading for Fedor Gordeev, a Toronto prospect.
Already this off-season we have seen two fairly major deals. The Leafs swapped forwards Kasperi Kapanen and Pontus Aberg and defenseman Jesper Lindgren to Pittsburgh for a first round pick, forwards Evan Rodrigues, Filip Hallander and defensman David Warsofsky.
The latest deal involved Montreal getting goalie Jake Allen and a 2022 seventh round pick from St. Louis for a third and seventh round pick in this year’s draft.
Both deals were to clear cap space and could be a harbinger of things to come. With the cap set at a flat $81.5 million, the Maple Leafs and Blues needed to make some room. Practically every team in the NHL is in a similar situation and general managers will be clamoring to make deals.
Teams with cap space will be in a great position and Kyle Dubas of Toronto and Doug Armstrong of St. Louis were wise to get the jump on the competition. There is no doubt that Jeff Gorton is seeing all of this and it is very likely we will see the Rangers in an active trade market before the Cup is awarded in October.
On thing that will make it more interesting for many teams as they try to plan for next season is that the buyout window traditionally opens 48 hours after the Cup is awarded. It’s even more of an incentive for teams to make deals so they will know what their options are for buyouts when that window opens.
Speaking of potential buyouts, the Post is reporting that Henrik Lundqvist has returned to New York City so his two daughters can start the new school year. It’s clear the Lundqvists consider New York City their home during the normal hockey season, though the odds of him playing here next season are slim.
Next season, more than ever, it will be about the salary cap and fortunately, the Rangers are in decent shape with all of their young players still on Entry Level Contracts.