The Rangers settled with one restricted free agent, signing Zak Jones to a two-year deal. Jones will still be an RFA with no arb rights and $866K qualifying offer when the deal expires. Inking him takes care of one bit of easy business with the harder pieces - Alexis Lafreniere and K'Andre Miller - remaining to be signed or maybe dealt.
The #NYR re-signed pending RFA Zach Jones to 2 year $812.5K Cap Hit Deal
— PuckPedia (@PuckPedia) June 16, 2023
Year 1 800K
Year 2 825K
On Expiry, will be RFA w/ $866K Qualifying Offer.
2P in 16 NHL GP
Rep'd by Shawn Hunwick @KOSportsInc https://t.co/Bh9PxDkWtW
Jones opened the season in the Rangers' lineup, but did not play in the NHL after November 30. He ended up dressing/playing 16 games with the parent club before finishing the rest of the season at Hartford. An undersized defenseman, Jones has a shot to slot in as the left-handed, third-pair blueliner. He will have a new head coach in Peter Laviolette and defensemen coach, still to be named, to convince that he warrants the spot.
Jones was one of the best puck movers in the AHL and his defensive game improved, as seen by the below. As of now, Jones will battle Ben Harpur, Matthew Robertson, possibly, again, Libor Hajek, and whoever else the Rangers either sign as the set sixth d-man, add in as depth or bring to camp on a tryout. A new coaching staff could give Jones a fresh look. But if the league looks to move to the Vegas model, where the blueline is based on size, given who else New York has under contract, that left-handed, third pair d-man might need to be one with a lot more physical attributes than Jones possesses.
The #NYR signed RFA Zac Jones to a 2 x $812K AAV contract.
— Jacob Stoller (@JLStoller) June 16, 2023
Jones, 22, was one of the best puck-moving LHD in the #AHL this season.
He excels at breaking pucks out of the D-zone, thanks to his vision & passing ability.
Could see him carve out a role on the Rangers PP2 unit. pic.twitter.com/rwSqh5G7qe
The fifth Hockey Buzz mock draft driven by the readers and a few special guests is underway. Zach Jarom did not go off the board with the Blackhawks pick, selecting Connor Bedard first overall, while Ryan Armstrong, climbdenali12, selected Adam Fantilli with Anaheim's pick, Zak McMillian, HB Blue Jackets blogger, went with Leo Carlsson's with Columbus' selection. Ken Peterson, Hockeygm. is up for San Jose with Karine Hains on deck for Montreal. Below is the voting poll, please weigh in with your view.
First, some logistical information just for this blog: Thanks to all who have agreed to participate. All teams are spoken for, meaning we have a full complement of General Managers. As a reminder, when you have your pick, rationale for the selection, who else you considered and if you weighed a trade, please send that to me via email to jan.levine@gmail.com. As said previously, for those who agree to participate, please make sure I have your real name to go with your Hockey Buzz ID.
In terms of trades, I am happy to have them proposed, but for ease of purpose of the draft, I would prefer not to slow down the making of picks and the voting by waiting for a vote on if the deal is fair. Due to the late start for the draft, my view for this year's iteration is no trades.
The draft is June 28 and we are starting the draft Thursday, June 15 in the morning. That will give us 13 days or so to complete the draft, even factoring in the Sabbath. For weekdays and Sunday, I will post a pick in the morning, then a second in the evening with voting in between, for at least the first half or so of the draft. The second half or so, we can run three per day if needed so we get all 32 picks by or on the morning of June 28.
As a reminder, for each pick, included should be: a) Selection and reasoning/scouting report, and b) Alternatives considered(both players and trades). Please provide me via email your pick with the aforementioned information following the posting of the prior pick on the site. If I become aware of a pick or a few picks in a row, I will email you to help facilitate moving the mock draft along. I will post the blog with the pick and the voting poll within each blog.
Overall Rules and Process
As mentioned previously, there is a little kicker. After the pick or trade is made, a poll will be posted to rate the selection or deal. If the majority of people like the pick or trade, that selection stands and it moves on to the next team’s picks. If not, the majority rules and that’s what happens with that team and pick. I have the last right of refusal to keep everything on the up and up and avoid ballot box stuffing. My request to you is that you take this seriously and not make a mockery of the mock draft, because that would be an insult to the others who are participating and makes the whole process a sham. But by playing this out, we get to have healthy debate and conversation to remain engaged up and possibly beyond the draft. If teams make deals and they occur before a team’s selection is due, that deal will play a part as to when each person’s selection occurs.Here how this will work: each evening (for now, one pick per day, but we will go to two when we get to second half of the mock draft and possibly even before that, so that we complete on time) the team’s selector will email me at jan.levine@gmail.com their pick and their rationale for that selection. If making a trade, the same applies, and all the selectors have been listed below along with their screen name if from this site or their twitter handle if external to help facilitate making trades. I will post that pick and rationale on the site and create a voting poll. For now, I was thinking solely just a yes or no vote for the poll, but if people want me to list other options for the selection at that pick number in cases of a no vote, I am happy to do so, to help make it more robust.
With the third overall draft selection in the 2023 NHL Entry Draft, the Columbus Blue Jackets represented by Zak McMillan are honored to select from Orebro HK of the SHL, C Leo Carlsson
Carlsson is the size, speed, and finesse for the Blue Jackets with the results of the Vegas win and direction of top forwards in the league.
Carlsson is already playing with men, putting up 25 points in 44 games (10 goals, 15 assists).
His highlights from the WJC and WHC had him stand out with elite goals. This is a superstar in the making. Could be a steal like Leon Drasatil. He can easily make the lineup right away, similar to Cole Sillinger from a few years ago. Only difference is he will strive and be the best top center developed since Dubois and Johansen.
At 6’ 3… tall, he has the size for the faceoff dot and to crash the net. More muscle will help him stand out. Also, him between Gaudreau and Laine would be the pipe dream.
Were draft deals considered? Montreal is calling… stick with the pick.
Other draft considerations - Will Smith, Matvei Mitchkov
Stars are from Elite Prospects
2023 NHL DRAFT ORDER 1 Chicago - Zach Jarom, HB Blackhawks blogger, Connor Bedard, C, Regina (WHL) 2 Anaheim - Ryan Armstrong - climbdenali12, Adam Fantilli, C, Univ. of Michigan 3 Columbus - Zak McMillian, HB Blue Jackets blogger, Leo Carlsson, C, Orebro HK, (SHL) 4 San Jose - Ken Peterson, Hockeygm, Friday, June 16 pm 5 Montreal - Karine Hains, HB Canadiens blogger, Saturday, June 17, pm 6 Arizona - slimtj, TJ Reilly, Sunday, June 18, am 7 Philadelphia - Bill Meltzer, HB Flyers blogger, Sunday, June 18, pm 8 Washington - optimus-reim, Monday, June 19, am 9 Detroit - Feds91Stammer, Monday, June 19, pm 10 St. Louis - aecliptic, Tuesday, June 20, am
11 Vancouver - David Wong, OrcaBlue, Tuesday, June 20, pm 12 Arizona via OTT - slimtj, TJ Reilly, Wednesday, June 21, am 13 Buffalo - Paul Schott, lonsabres, Wednesday, June 21, pm 14 Pittsburgh - mkrisnosky, Matt Krisnosky 15 Nashville - eichiefs9 16 Calgary - Trevor Neufeld, HB Flames blogger 17 Detroit via NYI - Feds91stammer 18 Winnipeg - Jacob Billingham, HB Jets blogger 19 Chicago via TB - Zach Jarom, HB Blackhawks blogger 20 Seattle - NYRangers1124
21 Minnesota - TC88, Todd Piepho 22 Philadelphia via Columbus via LA - Bill Meltzer, HB Flyers blogger 23 NY Rangers - Jan Levine 24 Nashville via EDM - eichiefs9 25 St. Louis via TOR - aecliptic 26 San Jose via NJ - Russ Cohen 27 Colorado - John Ryan, jryan88 28 Toronto via BOS - Michael Augello, HB Maple Leafs blogger 29 St. Louis via DAL - aecliptic 30 Carolina - BINGO!, Chris Cole
31 Montreal via FLA - Karine Hains, HB Canadiens blogger 32 Vegas- Brendan Smith, tbsmith
Looking forward to running this again. We had a ton of fun the last few seasons. That should be the same again this year with New York having the 23rd pick in the first round.