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Chris Drury Needs to Be All Over Recently Terminated Filip Zadina

By Conor Power

NEW YORK, NEW YORK - APRIL 16: Filip Zadina #11 of the Detroit Red Wings chases the puck against Ryan Strome #16 of the New York Rangers during the third period at Madison Square Garden on April 16, 2022 in New York City. The Rangers won 4-0. (Photo by Sarah Stier/Getty Images)
NEW YORK, NEW YORK - APRIL 16: Filip Zadina #11 of the Detroit Red Wings chases the puck against Ryan Strome #16 of the New York Rangers during the third period at Madison Square Garden on April 16, 2022 in New York City. The Rangers won 4-0. (Photo by Sarah Stier/Getty Images) /
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NEW YORK, NEW YORK – APRIL 16: Filip Zadina #11 of the Detroit Red Wings chases the puck against Ryan Strome #16 of the New York Rangers during the third period at Madison Square Garden on April 16, 2022, in New York City. The Rangers won 4-0. (Photo by Sarah Stier/Getty Images)
NEW YORK, NEW YORK – APRIL 16: Filip Zadina #11 of the Detroit Red Wings chases the puck against Ryan Strome #16 of the New York Rangers during the third period at Madison Square Garden on April 16, 2022, in New York City. The Rangers won 4-0. (Photo by Sarah Stier/Getty Images) /

When you think of players the New York Rangers have been sniffing around this off-season, they have mainly been cheap, bargain-bin deal players that have upside on cheaper deals. Well, there’s about to be a player available that the New York Ranger should be all over. As they were with Blake Wheeler, a deal to land this player could greatly improve a cap-strapped roster in a way that could significantly improve this roster.

This is with the new availability of Filip Zadina. Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet reported that the Detroit Red Wings have agreed to mutually terminate the deal of the recently waived Czech winger. A sixth overall pick in 2018, Zadina has struggled during his NHL tenure. After requesting a trade at the end of the season, Zadina was waived and all 31 other teams declined to take on that deal.

While the development hasn’t been there for the Czech-born winger, the talent is still there. He’s shown glimpses of being one of the better players to come from his draft and it feels like in the right situation, there may still be something to salvage in the case of Filip Zadina. Whether or not that is done in New York should be considered by the front office and general manager Chris Drury.

Being a Czech young winger, there is a lot of reason to believe he could find success on the line of Filip Chytil and he’d be able to connect with a friend as they were on the same junior Czechia team. This would work favorably in the event that Alexis Lafreniere or Kaapo Kakko showed more than just the 28 goals and 40 assists for 68 points he has in his 190 NHL game career. He’s got the talent to be a big-time player and perhaps the Rangers could benefit from it.

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