There are no fewer than six former New York Rangers on the Carolina Hurricanes roster, with all of them except goalie Antti Raanta getting into at least 20 games. We can expect to see as many as five of them in the lineup for Friday’s game with the Rangers. How is the North Carolina chapter of the Rangers alumni association doing?
We have to start by looking at the defense. Tony DeAngelo and Brady Skjei are key members of their blueline corps. Jaccob Slavin returned from the COVID protocol, but Brendan Smith still got the start with Ethan Bear a healthy scratch against the Bruins Tuesday.
Up front, Jesper Fast is a fixture on the third line while Derek Stepan is playing regularly on the fourth line. Here’s a look at the stat lines.
Tony DeAngelo
This will be Tony DeAngelo’s first appearance against his former team since he was suspended six games into the 2020-21 season after his altercation with Alexandar Georgiev. Bought out in the off season, he signed for $1 million and one season with the Hurricanes and that deal has worked out very well for Carolina.
He has picked up offensively from where he left off in the 2019-20 season when he developed into an offensive force for the Rangers. In 29 games he has six goals and 28 points. He is leading all Carolina blueliners in scoring and is their power play quarterback. He hasn’t scored on the PP yet, but he leads the team with 11 PP assists and he is a big reason the Canes’ power play is ranked sixth in the NHL.
He’s been hot with a goal and five assists in his last six games. Look for him to play on the top pair with Jaccob Slavin.
He’s behaved himself, with his only punishment a $2,000 fine for embellishment in a November game against Arizona. He missed some time on the COVID protocol, but has been averaging 19 minutes TOI per game.
He is an arbitration eligible restricted free agent after this season and he appears to have rehabbed his reputation and could be looking for a big payday. If he plays well against New York, it will be even more bitter knowing that the Rangers are paying him $383,334 this year and $883,334 next season due to the buyout.
Brady Skjei
Brady Skjei was dumped at the trade deadline in 2020 in exchange for a first round draft pick. That pick was flipped to Calgary so the Rangers could move up in the draft and select Braden Schneider. So, it will be an interesting match up of former Ranger Skjei vs Schneider, the draft pick he was traded for.
Skjei is playing on the second pair with Brett Pesce and has been a mainstay, not missing a game. He has five goals and 14 points in 36 games, averaging 20:28 TOI per game. He has picked up his offense, with four goals and three assists in his last six games.
Skjei was a straight salary cap dump as the Rangers couldn’t afford his $5.25 million annual cap hit. He has one more year on the deal he signed with the Rangers in 2018.
For Ranger fans, his most significant play as a Hurricane was his big hit on Jesper Fast in the first minutes of the Stanley Cup Qualifier in 2020. It knocked Fast out of the series and set the tone for the Canes’ three game sweep.
Brendan Smith
Brendan Smith was a free agent pick up by the Hurricanes, signed for one year for the bargain basement rate of $800,000. Not expected to play much, Smith has appeared in 21 games and has been a valuable member of the Canes’ blueline. He hasn’t played much at forward, but he’s averaging just under15 minutes TOI per game.
In 21 games Smith has two goals and one assist, but he is a plus player and has been as useful to coach Rod Brind’Amour as he was to the Rangers last season.
He has to get credit for taking on Tom Wilson last season and was always known as a good teammate. He’s making $100,000 less than Jarred Tinordi is with the Blueshirts.
Jesper Fast
When Jesper Fast walked as a free agent after the 2019-20 season, he signed with Carolina for three years at $2 million a year. It’s a sad state of affairs when a great teammate and effective player like Fast is priced out of the Rangers’ payroll by that salary.
Fast is currently playing right wing with center Jordan Staal and winger Steven Lorentz and he is doing what Jesper Fast always does. He’s a good teammate, defensively responsible and versatile. He is averaging the third most minutes on the penalty kill among forwards. The Hurricanes penalty kill is the best in the NHL, with a 90.1% success rate.
Fast has played in all 36 games for Carolina and has scored eight goals and 13 points, headed for a career high in goals. This will be his first game against the Rangers since he departed.
Derek Stepan
At age 31, Derek Stepan is far removed from the rookie who notched a hat trick in his first NHL game for the Rangers in 2010. The first piece to move as part of the rebuild, he played three solid years for a bad Arizona team before ending up in Ottawa last season. The Hurricanes signed him as a free agent for one year at $1.35 million.
For a while, with the Canes loaded at center after the Jesperi Kotkaniemi offer sheet, it looked like Stepan would be nothing more than a depth forward, but he has played 28 games as a fourth line winger, averaging 11:27 TOI per game and chipping in with five goals and 10 points. He has been solid on the faceoff dots, winning 53% of his draws and his 11 years of NHL experience has helped the Canes.
Stepan is the Hurricanes’ version of an older, experienced player who can play as much as they need him, as a top six forward or on the fourth line. Defensively responsible and good on faceoffs, he’s the kind of player that Cup contenders need.
He’ll be a free agent after this season.
Antti Raanta
The Hurricanes signed Raanta to be their back up goalie and he’s filled that role perfectly. He has started nine of the Canes’ 36 games with a 5-2-1 record, a .908 save percentage and 2.35 goals against average.
Raanta was an injury prone goalie for the Arizona Coyotes who, when healthy, was a top goalie. He ended up with Carolina on a two-year, $4 million contract that has another season to go.
Frederik Andersen has been outstanding as the Hurricanes’ number one goalie, but Raanta is ready to step in. It appears that Andersen will be getting the start against the Rangers.
Joey Keane
We won’t see him in this game, but he is still on the Hurricanes’ radar. The final member of the alumni assocation is defense prospect Joey Keane was who was traded to Carolina in February 2020 for Julien Gauthier. He has gotten into one game this season and last and is currently playing regularly for the Chicago Wolves in the AHL, the Hurricanes top farm team.
Connections
There are connections between some of these players worth noting. Derek Stepan and Antti Raanta were traded to Arizona for a first round pick and Tony DeAngelo. Now, all three are teammates in Carolina. After being teammates for five years in the New York, Brady Skjei ended Jesper Fast’s career as a Ranger with a big hit in the Qualifier and now they are back together again with the Hurricanes.
Julien Gauthier wants to prove that the Hurricanes made a mistake in giving up on him. Braden Schneider will want to show that no one should regret the trading of Brady Skjei for the pick that turned in the Ranger rookie blueliner. Greg McKegg was a Hurricane in 2018-19 and played 14 playoff games for them before signing with the Rangers as a free agent.
The fact that this is a meeting between the top two teams in the Metropolitan Division is reason enough to be excited about the game. The addition of the various storylines makes it even better. All of these former Rangers will have an extra incentive in this game, but the current Rangers have their own incentive, to beat a team that is getting a lot more respect as a contender than the Blueshirts.