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Should Chris Drury be done shopping ahead of the NHL trade deadline?

By Conor Power

NEW YORK, NEW YORK - JANUARY 28: General Manager Chris Drury of the New York Rangers speaks during a press conference prior to the jersey retirement ceremony for Henrik Lundqvist taking place before the game between the New York Rangers and Minnesota Wild at Madison Square Garden on January 28, 2022 in New York City. Henrik Lundqvist played all 15 seasons of his NHL career with the Rangers before retiring in 2020. (Photo by Steven Ryan/Getty Images)
NEW YORK, NEW YORK - JANUARY 28: General Manager Chris Drury of the New York Rangers speaks during a press conference prior to the jersey retirement ceremony for Henrik Lundqvist taking place before the game between the New York Rangers and Minnesota Wild at Madison Square Garden on January 28, 2022 in New York City. Henrik Lundqvist played all 15 seasons of his NHL career with the Rangers before retiring in 2020. (Photo by Steven Ryan/Getty Images) /
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NEW YORK, NEW YORK – JANUARY 28: General Manager Chris Drury of the New York Rangers speaks during a press conference prior to the jersey retirement ceremony for Henrik Lundqvist taking place before the game between the New York Rangers and Minnesota Wild at Madison Square Garden on January 28, 2022, in New York City. Henrik Lundqvist played all 15 seasons of his NHL career with the Rangers before retiring in 2020. (Photo by Steven Ryan/Getty Images) /

As we approach the NHL trade deadline on March 3rd, the big move for the Rangers front office seems to have been completed. Vladimir Tarasenko is a New York Ranger and he’s hit the ground running in New York. It raises the question, what do the Rangers do now? Is their shopping completed ahead of the deadline or are there things that the Blueshirts still wish to improve throughout the lineup?

This may sound a little redundant now that Tarasenko is a member of the New York Rangers, but there may be more to come. New York has a projected $1,615,812 according to CapFriendly. That may change if the Rangers find a way to move on from Russian winger Vitali Kravtsov giving them closer to $2.5 million to spend ahead of the March 3rd trade deadline. Possibilities are endless when Drury has money to spend.

My personal favorite of the endless conspiracy theories is that $2.525 million would be the cap hit of Patrick Kane if he was double retained and there would be room to have both Kane and Tarasenko, which seems kind of ridiculous. Could you imagine that powerplay unit? But that isn’t the point. Tarasenko seems to have slotted in well to the Rangers lineup, so is the shopping done, or should we expect more from Drury?

My immediate question would be where do the Rangers need additions? The major holes were 3LD and 1RW. Drury addressed both of those issues with the St Louis deal when he picked up Niko Mikkola and Vladimir Tarasenko. He could opt to go the scorched earth tactic and pick up another top-six right winger like Kane as I mentioned. Having the other 1st round pick will help open the conversation up at least.

Outside of that, maybe more depth additions? There is a lot of faith in the two netminders it seems. It seems the Blueline picks itself right now, maybe a 7th defenseman could be on the menu but at that point, you’re really splitting hairs. So is it a depth forward the Rangers will be looking for? If that’s the case, doesn’t it make sense to go and spend big on a major piece addition instead?

Question for Blue Line Station readers: Who would you like to see the Rangers target ahead of this trade deadline?

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