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Three players that could be moved if the Rangers are sellers

By Conor Power

NEW YORK, NY - NOVEMBER 13: Mika Zibanejad #93 of the New York Rangers and teammates Braden Schneider #4 and Chris Kreider #20 during the game against the Arizona Coyotes on November 13, 2022 at Madison Square Garden in New York, New York. (Photo by Rich Graessle/Getty Images)
NEW YORK, NY - NOVEMBER 13: Mika Zibanejad #93 of the New York Rangers and teammates Braden Schneider #4 and Chris Kreider #20 during the game against the Arizona Coyotes on November 13, 2022 at Madison Square Garden in New York, New York. (Photo by Rich Graessle/Getty Images) /
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Halak making a blocker save for the New York Rangers
NEW YORK, NEW YORK – OCTOBER 23: Jaroslav Halak #41 of the New York Rangers makes the second-period save against the Columbus Blue Jackets at Madison Square Garden on October 23, 2022, in New York City. (Photo by Bruce Bennett/Getty Images) /

Jaroslav Halak

First and foremost, the Rangers would need to be able to move their backup netminder Jaroslav Halak. Halak has not been awful, but he hasn’t single-handedly changed the fate of the Rangers season. Recently grabbing his first win, Halak has not had the best of times in the Big Apple, but he’s started to look more and more like a competent netminder. This isn’t to take a shot at the Slovakian netminder, but he had a rough start.

Goaltending is always a hot commodity and with only 64 spots in the NHL for netminders, there are almost always going to be interested parties in a netminder. If the Rangers are completely beyond the bounds of contending, it would serve them well to move on from Jaroslav Halak. Depending on the return, it would make a lot more sense and give one of the kids in Hartford a shot at the backup role.

With his current 1-5-1 record and .897 save percentage, it might be difficult to get someone to take him, but if the Rangers were to eat 50% of his salary, his cap hit would only be $750,000 against the cap. His contract also contained $250,000 as a signing bonus so, by the time the Rangers approach the deadline, Halak will be owed very little in terms of real money. This makes him ideal for penny-pinching teams.

If the Rangers could net something like a 3rd round pick for Halak, that would be a good move. It would require a bidding war I feel like because nobody is going to pay that for a goalie with his stats right now, so it is in the Rangers’ best interests that he figures out a way to pick up his game a little bit and start to put a string of good games together to help turn the tides on the Rangers season so far.

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