The New York Rangers' roster appears to be set at this point with the biggest decisions left involving which players are put on waivers and/or sent to Hartford before the start of the season, but I still think it would be smart to add some extra offense to the bottom six.
To quote Danny Ocean from Ocean's Eleven... "You think we need one more? You think we need one more. All right, we'll get one more." Looking at the current roster, Taylor Raddysh, Tye Kartye, Joe Veleno, and Matt Rempe stick out to me as huge question marks. Raddysh had 19 points last season which was down from the 27 he had the year before in Washington. There's no telling if Kartye will be able to rekindle the magic he showed after joining the Rangers. Veleno's offense is virtually nonexistent, and there's not much more for me to say about Rempe.
If the Rangers decide to keep most of their young guns in Hartford (Adam Sýkora, Jaroslav Chmelař, Liam Greentree, Nathan Aspinall, Cole Beaudoin etc.) they will need one more option at their disposal. Lucky enough there are two players still sitting in free agency, both of which would be worth making a run at before the season gets underway.
I don't know why Eeli Tolvanen and Michael Bunting are still available
Tolvanen and Bunting feel like the perfect options to give a one-year contract, because the potential boom upside vastly outweighs the chance that signing blows up in a team's face.
Starting with Tolvanen, the data suggests that he's due for a better fate this year. He ended last year with a line of 12-24-36 in 78 games while skating 16:03 per night. The year prior Tolvanen had 23 goals, 12 assists, and 35 points in 81 games skating 14:19 per night.
Logic would say that him getting all that extra time on ice, and having one extra point to show for it, is a potential red flag. To me, I see Tolvanen coming off a year in which he took more shots on goal than he did the year before (141 vs 137) and he shot 8.5 percent instead of 16.8 percent.
Given that he's a career 12 percent shooter, I am willing to make a bet that he sees some positive regression and is once again a player that flirts with 20 goals and has 40 points or more. He's only 27 and has appeared in 423 games to this point, and I feel if he weren't 5'10" and 182 pounds he'd be signed already.
Bunting's availability is even stranger to me given that he's shown he can be a very effective player, he does have seasons of 63, 55, and 49-point campaigns under his belt, and he had 33 points in 74 games last season. He stands 6'0" and weighs 186 pounds, so he's slightly bigger than Tolvanen. Could it be that he's played for six teams and the most time he's spent with a single team has been two seasons?
I don't think that's something teams think about, but it just feel strange that he's still sitting out there given his efficiency while average 15:25 per game career to date.
Either would be better fit for current Rangers roster
I think the Rangers should extend one of them a PTO, and then see what happens in training camp and the preseason. I have more faith in them holding their own in the bottom six, and potentially exceeding expectations at this point. Kartye is the only interesting name to me that I feel could be a surprise, and all the other incumbents feel one dimmensional.
Maybe the Rangers will surprise us all and have more kids on the opening night roster than the experts think, but I will believe that when I see it. This very much feels like a year where they want to make the playoffs again, and that says to me that they will want veterans around who have done it before. If that's the case... it's just more of a reason to given Tolvanen or Bunting a chance to be a difference maker.
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