The New York Ranger have a shopping list. One need is a top six center though if Mika Zibanejad gets a new contract that need is less crucial. The Rangers also have Ryan Strome under contract for one more year before he becomes a free agent.
Perhaps a more important need is a bottom six center who is “hard to play against” and can win faceoffs. Another factor that hasn’t been mentioned much is that the current Rangers team has only one player, Chris Kreider, who has gotten as far as the Stanley Cup Final. The only members of the entire organization who have Stanley Cup rings are Drury and fringe contributors like Doug Risebrough, Adam Graves and Brad Richards. The team could use some playoff-hardened players with a winning pedigree to serve as role models for the young Rangers.
The free agent marketplace has some players who fit the bill. We’ll start with candidates for a top six role.
Top six centers
If the Rangers look to acquire a top six center, with their push for immediate contention, age is not that important a factor if they can sign someone for reasonable term. That said, there are not a lot of names on the UFA list that would be of interest.
Ryan Nugent-Hopkins looks to be the class of the UFA centers. He is just 28 years old and has been a solid 20 goal scorer who will usually end up with about 60 points as he had for eight NHL seasons. He’s defensively responsible and is not great on faceoffs with a 44.4% lifetime winning percentage. He is coming off a seven-year, $42 million contract with an Average Annual Value (AAV) of $6 million.
He compares to Ryan Strome with very similar stats to the numbers that Strome has put up in his three years in New York. Nugent-Hopkins has similar possession figures to Strome, he has just been doing it more consistently for longer than the Ranger center.
The Rangers will be watching where Nugent-Hopkins ends up as it could set a bar for Strome when his contract expires after next season.
David Krejci is no youngster at age 35, but he still makes the grade as a top six center. He’s not the scorer that he was when he was younger, but he is an excellent two-way center and is very strong on faceoffs.
An important fact is that he has a winning pedigree with the Bruins where he has played his entire 15 year career. Whether he even wants to leave Boston is a big question and a lot hinges on the salary cap and what the Bruins do with Taylor Hall.
Krejci is coming off a six-year, $43.5 million contract with an AAV of $7.25 million so he won’t come cheap.
Paul Stastny is another senior citizen, turning 36 in December, but he was an important player for the Winnipeg Jets. He is one of the best faceoff men in the NHL with a lifetime winning percentage of 54% and he can still score, with 13 goals and 29 points in 56 games for the Jets.
He has always been a very solid possession player and an added bonus is he played for Gerard Gallant in Vegas. That’s where he signed his last contract, three years for $19.5 million at an AAV of $6.5 million. Despite his age he is durable, not missing a game the last two seasons.
That’s it for top six candidates. The Rangers my be better served checking out the bottom six UFA centers.