Did you ever wonder how good the team of current ex-New York Rangers would be?
There are currently 43 players in the NHL who once wore the New York Rangers jersey. There’ s an additional seven who were Rangers properties, but never made the big club.
In reality, this is a pretty silly exercise, but it’s always fun to look at what the Rangers have given up to get to where they are now. Keep in mind when looking at these players that 11 players on the current active roster came to the Rangers in exchange for the players on this ex-Ranger team.
Of the 25 players on the ex-Ranger active roster, 18 were traded by the Blueshirts, two were bought out and five left via free agency.
With all of that established, it’s time to speculate on what that ex-Rangers team would look like and how good it would be. Take a look and see if you think how this squad compares to the current Rangers team. We’ll start with the backbone of any team, the goaltenders and of course, there is a very familiar face in that group.
Goalies
This is an easy category with three bona fide starting NHL goaltenders who are Rangers alumni. The starter would be Antti Raanta who has established himself as a top goalie with the Arizona Coyotes, though he has been prone to injury. Although Darcy Kuemper looks like he has won the starting job, there are a few NHL teams that would see Raanta as a number on goalie on their teams.
The role as backup will be a fight between Henrik Lundqvist and Cam Talbot. Talbot won the starting role in the postseason for Calgary and was signed as a free agent by the Wild to be their top goalie. We all know the Henrik Lundqvist story as he prepares to take on life as a Washington Capital. Because of who he is, we’ll give the back up job to Lundqvist.