New York Rangers: Looking at Ryan Strome’s future

At this present time, Ryan Strome is still a member of the New York Rangers. Last month, he was one of the most talked about names in the rumor mill. Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet even predicted that he would end up on either the Ottawa Senators, Seattle Kraken or Vegas Golden Knights. However, since then, things have cooled down. As we are inching closer to September, it seems more possible that he will remain on the Rangers this upcoming season.

If this turns out to be the case, it certainly is not a bad thing for the Rangers. Strome has become a very solid second-line center for them. After stealing him from the Edmonton Oilers for Ryan Spooner during the 2018-19 season, he immediately meshed well with the team. In 63 games, he scored 18 goals and had 33 points. He then took his offense to a noticeably better level the following season. He scored 18 goals yet again, but had 59 points in 70 games.

This past season was his best one to date, though. In 56 games, he had 14 goals, 35 assists and 49 points. He was pretty close to being a point-per-game player, which is certainly impressive. In fact, that is the type of offensive production you want from your second-line center.

Over the last two seasons, he has taken that next step as a player, and the Rangers were the fortunate team to have him during it. There is no coincidence that playing with a star like Artemi Panarin has been a big reason behind this. The two have fantastic chemistry together and that could be enough for the Rangers to keep him around. In fact, it certainly is a strong argument point for him to stay.

So, why would the Rangers consider shopping him? Although he is a very good player, he also is set to become an unrestricted free agent next off-season. The idea of losing him for nothing is rough. This was a big reason why the Rangers traded Pavel Buchnevich earlier this summer to the St. Louis Blues. However, the return was disappointing to fans. Although Sammy Blais should be a good addition to the team’s bottom-six, he does not score like Buchnevich.

Should he stay or should he go?

At this juncture of the off-season, the better call would be to keep him around. In fact, one could even put the argument that this was the case at the beginning of the off-season, too. When looking at the centers who were available on the free agent market, none honestly would have been worth trading Strome over.

Phillip Danault was the most notable center on the market. Although his defensive play is quite impressive, he only recorded 24 points in 53 games with the Montreal Canadiens this season. Thus, in terms of offense, he would have provided less, while also being more expensive. David Krejci would have been a nice short-term option, but the 35-year-old opted to play back in the Czech Republic. Furthermore, had he stayed in the NHL, it would have been with the Bruins. Other former options like Mikael Granlund or Alexander Wennberg also wouldn’t have been enough to replace Strome.

With the Rangers also striving to become a playoff team again, it would not make sense to trade Strome right now. He was third in scoring on the team last season and like previously stated, they already traded Buchnevich, who was in fourth.

Furthermore, Larry Brooks also tweeted earlier this month that the Rangers “have never been seriously interested” in Jack Eichel. He’s the type of player who would easily make Strome expendable. However, if the lack of interest is actually true, is there an actual point in trading him? It also has now been confirmed that he will miss the start of the season, according to David Pagnotta.

With all of this, the Rangers simply would not have a center to replace him who produces at the same level. Losing him without finding a proper player to take on his role would surely hurt the team’s playoff chances. Furthermore, it is hard to determine if a new center would be able to mesh as well with Panarin as Strome does.

The dilemma with a possible Strome extension

Although keeping Strome in New York would make sense, there is a bit of an issue when it comes to a potential extension. Mika Zibanejad also has an expiring contract and is simply a bigger priority. He is their first-line center and is capable of producing more offense. This was made abundantly clear when he scored 41 goals and recorded 75 points in 57 games. He also ended this past season with 21 goals in the team’s final 29 games. Therefore, out of the two, Zibanejad will get an extension first if he truly wants one.

Adam Fox also will be due for a new contract at season’s end. The 23-year-old just won the Norris Trophy as the league’s top defenseman, so yes, he will be receiving a big payday. One also has to keep in mind that defensemen this off-season have been given very large contracts, such as Seth Jones, Zach Werenski and Cale Makar. Fox should end up getting an Average Annual Value (AAV) of at least $9 million, too. In fact, it would not be shocking to see it be even higher.

These are two key players who need an extension as soon as possible. With the past two years Strome has had, he will be expecting a raise from his $4.5 million cap hit. If he’s willing to take a hometown discount, they could be able to make something work. However, the Rangers also have a bunch of younger players who will inevitably have larger cap hits in the future as well. Some of these include Alexis Lafrenière, K’Andre Miller and Kaapo Kakko.

We will have to see what occurs with Strome’s future with the Blueshirts. There are a ton of possibilities, but at the end of the day, there is no true harm keeping him around for this upcoming season.