Coming off their most disappointing season in over a decade, the New York Rangers are looking to recompose themselves and once again contend for the Stanley Cup next season. They have already taken the first step by hiring Mike Sullivan, the two-time Stanley Cup champion coach who was also the bench boss at the 4 Nations Faceoff this past February. With their head coach in place, President and General Chris Drury can now focus on his roster and who should stay and who should go following the embarrassment that was the 2024-25 season.
Generally speaking, Drury does not have a ton flexibility in regards to the Rangers’ larger contracts. Artemi Panarin, Adam Fox, J.T. Miller, and Igor Shesterkin aren’t going anywhere for now. Mika Zibanejad has a full no-movement clause that I doubt he waves. Vincent Trocheck, Alexis Lafrenière , and Will Borgen all have too much term and/or money to move and are relatively recent signings. That leaves Drury with very little room to maneuver. However, that has not stopped him before and something has to change. With those parameters in place, here are three reasonable players from last year’s roster that Chris Drury should move on from this offseason (and no Chris Kreider is not one of them).
Carson Soucy
The trade for Soucy last season never made sense to me. Giving up a third-round pick for a middling defenseman who does not provide much offense while clearly not being a playoff team felt like asset mismanagement by Drury. Soucy was not terrible after arriving on Broadway but certainly did not move the needle. At the end of the day, the motivating factor behind moving Soucy should be cap space. Will Cuylle and K’Andre Miller need new contracts (yes Rangers fans, K’Andre Miller should come back) and the Rangers are strapped for cash at the moment. Trading Soucy and his $3.25m cap hit would give Drury some much needed breathing room to ensure that Cuylle and Miller are both brought back but does leave a hole on the blueline. Perhaps re-signing Zac Jones and then signing a cheaper veteran FA (Mike Reilly?) could suffice.
Matt Rempe
I know this sounds like heresy, but given the Rangers bottom-six options, Rempe is one of the odd men out. The Rangers’ bottom-six outlook for next season is a bit of a logjam right now. As far as I am concerned, Zibanejad, Cuylle, Sam Carrick, and Adam Edstrom should be locks for the opening night lineup and Brett Berard and Brennan Othmann should have priority for the remaining two slots. That would leave Matt Rempe, Juuso Pärssinen, Jonny Brodzinski, and Arthur Kaliyev watching from the press box. Ultimately, I think Rempe is the fourth best option of the healthy scratches. He has not yet shown that he is able to average more than 8:30 per game and has a history of taking bad penalties. Brodzinski and Pärssinen are already under contract and I would rather re-sign Kaliyev who I still believe has more upside. If Drury can squeeze Rempe under the cap I have no issue with him returning to the AHL, but he should not be on the roster to start next season.
Jonny Brodzinski
The final step of getting Othmann and Berard regular playing time next year is removing Brodzinski from the equation. Brodzinski is only making $787.5K and is not necessarily a bad player, but at the end of the day his ceiling is extremely limited. He will be 32 when the season starts and at this point the Rangers need to give his playing time to the younger crop of players. He does not offer much physically, has too many games where he is invisible, and wins under 50% of his faceoffs. I am dubious that he will be able to repeat his scoring output from last season, as he scored 12 goals (double his previous career high) on 16.4% shooting (he is at 8.4% for his career). Like I said with Rempe, I do not mind if Brodzinski is still with the organization in the minors and is a call up option. That said, he should not be starting the season on the NHL roster.