Three Free Agents the Rangers Should be Trying to Sign PTO’s

When we look at the free agent crop for this summer, most of the herd has already thinned out. Your New York Rangers have landed the likes of Jonathan Quick, Blake Wheeler, and Erik Gustafsson. It means there is not a lot left available on the market in the dog days of August, but that does not mean that perhaps the value the team would want for their depth additions is not present.

With many players still out on the market, there is still a chance to find some value in the players left. Depending on what a team is after, there is likely still someone on the market that could address the holes in a roster. According to CapFriendly, there are 106 players on the free agent market. This does not include players that remain free agents from other leagues, and this does not include restricted free agents.

With everything being so late in the summer, we’re looking at the final few chances for some players to get deals that will let them play in the NHL. Now, players like Patrick Kane and Tomas Tatar will likely end up in the NHL somewhere because of their ability to score when needed. There’s an entirely different class of players remaining that may or may not get an NHL deal, and those are the kinds of players the Rangers should be after.

Those on the older side and those on the brink of departing for Europe are primed candidates for professional tryouts. This is how the Rangers got Ben Harpur to join the organization last season, so it is not uncommon for these to become somebody who can provide stable and consistent depth performances. Whether or not the players you offer these become something of note for your organization will depend on your scouting.

Jesse Puljujarvi

Is there a better example of a player on the brink of returning to Europe than former Carolina Hurricane and Edmonton Oiler forward Jesse Puljujarvi? As a player that has struggled to find his way in the NHL to this point, Puljujarvi is the definition of a player that should be looking for a professional tryout to try and keep himself in North America.

After an up-and-down time in Edmonton, Puljujarvi has already had a season back in his native league as the Finnish forward has had troubles during his time in Alberta. With the Oilers and Puljujarvi disagreeing over contract terms, there was a year when the forward returned to Oulu Karpat in the Finnish Liiga. With his NHL future uncertain for a long time, a tryout to see if anything is left with this player is not a bad idea.

Puljujarvi was drafted 4th overall in 2016 despite being the clear-cut favorite to go third overall. Columbus’ pick of Pierre-Luc Dubois seems to have worked out, but Puljujarvi found himself going to play on the wing of Connor McDavid. At the world juniors, Puljujarvi had flourished with Sebastian Aho (the Hurricanes one) and Patrik Laine, so surely the best player in the world could help him out?

In 317 games as an Oiler, Puljujarvi recorded 51 goals and 61 assists for 112 points. It’s not a bad total, but it was not what the Oilers expected for a player picked so high. He was flipped to the Carolina Hurricanes at the trade deadline, where he recorded just two more assists in his 17 games for that organization. He’s had double hip surgery after leaving the Hurricanes and has yet to find a new home.

As a defensive specialist, Puljujarvi has something to offer to the bottom six if he can play the way he was before his surgeries. Bringing him in on a professional tryout to see what is left before offering him a league minimum contract could have its benefits. This player could offer a lot to the bottom six and might be someone the Rangers could use on the penalty kill if the current bottom six cannot.

Eric Staal

Familiar faces tend to reappear in hockey, which could be the case with Eric Staal. Fresh off of a Stanley Cup Finals appearance with the Florida Panthers, Staal is enjoying his twilight years in the NHL. At 39, the top point producer from the historic 2003 NHL draft may enter his last season among the world’s best if he finds a new home. Given his age, he is a perfect professional tryout target.

He was no passenger during the Florida Panthers’ deep run in the Stanley Cup Playoffs. Pitching in with 14 goals and 15 assists for 29 points in 74 regular season games, he continues to show that he can put the puck in the net. As a Stanley Cup winner many years ago with the Carolina Hurricanes and an Olympic gold medalist in 2010, Staal is a proven winner, and he could bring that to a young team in New York.

If you’re worried about Staal in the postseason, he had two goals and three assists for five points during the 23 games the Panthers played in the postseason, but that is not bad for a fourth-line guy. To provide some competition lower down the lineup, this move could make any team stronger that doesn’t have some of the firepower that the rest of the league does.

Some will be quick to note how his time as a Ranger occurred last time, and while that is a good point and a forgivable fear, he was being used in a much more prominent role as a 33-year-old. Six years later, we know Staal isn’t what he used to be. Giving him one more ride to try and capture the Stanley Cup after two different Stanley Cup Finals defeats in the final years of his career could persuade him to come back to the Big Apple.