Updates that have impact on Rangers:
Buffalo traded their 21st overall pick to Ottawa for Robin Lehner and were forced to take on David Legwand's contract. (with their three firsts, Buffalo will end up with Eichel, Kane and Lehner. While Lehner is signed for two more years at $2.25 per and then an RFA, his injury history (concussion) and inability to grab a hold of the top spot in Ottawa has to raise some red flags. Kudos to Ottawa who were able to get a first and find a place to offload Legwand's deal. Rumors are that they may be in on Ryan O'Reilly).
University of Minnesota defenseman Mike Reilly, who the Rangers had interest in, signed with the Wild. He is to get a two-year deal at $1.85 mil per. (New York had interest, but were ruled out earlier this week. Reilly signing in Minny is not a huge surprise as his father is an investor in the Wild and it keeps him away from Chicago, Pitt and LA).
Larry Brooks tweeted that Martin St. Louis is not ready to retire but will not return to the Rangers. The Devils and Pittsburgh could be in the mix. (ugh, thought NJ would be involved and we had heard rumors of Pitt, but we know if he goes there, St. Louis will have a rebound year and burn the Rangers. I wanted MSL back at a cost-effective deal, but that looks not to be an option).
Per Darren Dreger, the Rangers have received an offer of a first rounder for Cam Talbot. Whether that's this year or next year or part of a package deal is unclear. Brooks adds that one complication is that a contract, like what Ottawa did, could be part of it, which likely would preclude any deal. (If Lehner and the requirement to take on Legwand's deal netted a first, why not Talbot? Granted, Lehner is signed for two more years and under control for 1-2 more as well as four years younger, but Talbot showed what he could do last year and may be willing to sign where he goes. Dreger added that the offer is not from Edmonton (16) or Calgary (15) but Dallas (11), San Jose (9) and Florida (12) are all still involved. On the Brooks tweet, in line with others, that could be, thinking aloud, Joe Thornton, but run, run far away).
Chris Kuc tweeted that Chris Kuc …"Hearing Penguins and Canadiens are teams in hottest pursuit of #Blackhawks' Patrick Sharp. Rangers have also made contact." (want no part of Sharp. At $5.9 mil per the next two seasons, where are you fitting him? Plus, don't think he is worth close to $6mil per).
Bruins acquire 2015 1st round pick (#15) & two 2015 2nd round picks (#45 #52) from CGY for Dougie Hamilton. (that pretty much ends any interest Calgary had in Talbot. Hamilton should get a huge deal from the Flames, who will now look to move Wideman, as they also have Giordano, Brodie and Russell. Boston may take this pick and their #1 along with the two 2s from Calgary and try and trade up to get Noah Hanifin, the local boy, at #3).
Original Blog:
The Rangers, as has seemingly become their pattern and will be the same next year, do not have a first round pick. This year's pick, like last year's, went to Tampa with Ryan Callahan for Martin St. Louis, though with Callahan re-signing with Tampa last offseason, New York received the Lightning's second round pick, 60th overall. The Rangers sent that pick to Arizona in the Keith Yandle trade but do still have their second round pick, 59th overall. In addition, the Rangers only have five selections, listed below, so the pressure with be on Gord Clark and his team to once again spin straw into gold, like he did two years when he drafted Duclair, Buchnevich and Tambellini in the third round and MacKenzie Skapski in the sixth. In addition, Clark worked his magic last season taking Brandon Halverson (second), Keegan Iverson (third) and Igor Shesterkin (fourth round).
In addition to the first round pick, New York dealt their fifth round pick to Vancouver at the trade deadline in 2014 for Raphael Diaz and seventh to Tampa as part of the Callahan deal, though they got that pick from the Lightning in exchange for Daniel Walcott, leaving them with five picks. Those picks are the 59th (second round), 89th (third), 119th (fourth), 179th (sixth) and 209th (seventh) in what is believed to be a very deep draft. Like two years ago,, Clark has to focus on players with talent who have slipped for one reason or another, dropping that individual down substantively below when many thought or projected they would be taken. In addition, given the depth of the draft, players slipping below where they might have expected to go wouldn't be shocking because player selections may depend on team preferences. Therefore a player that ranks higher and usually would be selected higher may slip due to team needs or tweaks on their big board.
What I wrote a year ago, still applies. I said then, "The Rangers have a fairly good young core, with several key members of the team 27 and under. In the minors, the pipeline is of useful, likely not elite or top-end talent, but a grouping that can step in and contribute." Last season, the Hockey News slotted the Rangers last in the league in their Future Watch publication due to a lack of elite talent. This season, THN ranked the Rangers 24th, however, that ranking was impacted by the team having Duclair in the system, which now is obviously not the case. As such, if ranked now, New York would likely slide down 3-4 slots. The elite talent the team does have is Buchnevich and maybe Brady Skjei. In addition, Halverson and Shesterkin could be rated as top tier if they each have another good season this year. While the team lacks a raft of elite talent, as we saw last year when J.T. Miller and Jesper Fast got promoted and played key roles, the same could happen this season with Oscar Lindberg and Skjei either making the team out of camp or getting called up. Dylan McIlrath, Conor Allen and Ryan Haggerty also could get looks while another name for the future is Ryan Graves, a big and young stay at-home defenseman, who made solid progress this past season.
Heading into draft day, the big news clearly is where will Cam Talbot be dealt. As of now, it's a goalie sellers market with Edmonton, Buffalo, Calgary, San Jose, Dallas and Florida all interested in one to varying degrees. Reports are that Craig Anderson is heading to Edmonton, though we don't know for what. But if the Oilers refused to part with the 16th overall pick for Talbot, I would be surprised if they did so for Anderson.
Other goalies available, besides Talbot, are Eddie Lack (trade) and Antti Niemi (free agent). Devan Dubnyk could re-sign with Minnesota but of not, he becomes the top free agent available. Once the Anderson deal becomes official, it will be interesting to see what happens to the marker. Either one goalie comes off the market strengthens it for sellers, because with one gone and teams looking and three right now available, there could be a scramble. This is what Glen Sather hopes for as he sifts through the four offers he got. The expectation is that Sather will not get the first he wants, but he could get a second and a prospect or maybe two 2s and a third piece after turning down two seconds from a team, likely Calgary, as I wrote the other day. The organization has to be replenished, so turning Talbot into two second rounders would seem to make a ton of sense, but Sather is playing the gambling game, expecting to get more.
If by some chance New York gets in the first round, either in San Jose's pick at nine (not happening) Calgary's pick at 15 (doubtful) or Buffalo's pick at 21 (possibly), they should be able to get a difference maker. A few names that could be available in that range are Timo Meier, a scoring right winger from Halifax (QMJHL), Paul Bittner, a scoring left winger from Portland (WHL), Daniel Sprong, a risk-reward type scoring winger of Charlottetown (QMJHL). Meier is rated 12th by THN, 13th by McKeens and 14th by Future Considerations, while Bittner is 17, 32 and 29 while and Sprong is 25, 44 and 18. The player that intrigues me in this range is Evgeni Svechnikov, who has size and skill as a scoring right winger from Cape Breton (QMJHL) and is ranked 16 by THN, 23 by McKeen's and 16 by Future Considerations.
It's possible Bittner and/or Sprong could slide into the early second, which could be where NY selects if Edmonton or Buffalo trade their second round pick for Talbot. If NY keeps their pick and don't acquire another in the round, the player I really want is Zach Senyshyn, a scoring winger from Sault Ste. Marie (OHL) ranked 47 by THN, 52 by McKeens and 42 by Future Considerations. I also could see NY looking at Anthony Beauvillier, an undersized center from Shawinigan (QMJHL) ranked 48, 35 and 31. New York, like they did with Anthony Duclair, Adam Tambellini and Pavel Buchnevich and as mentioned above, need talent that slipped or those whose talent is unrefined yet the substantial upside exists. In those cases, they likely will pick someone they project to develop into or has the skills to possibly be a top-end talent, even though his current rating may be low. They could target a center or power forward and maybe a project defenseman or two to replenish the system if/when Skjei is promoted. A few longshot forward names could be Jordan Greenway, Alexander Dergachev, A.J. Greer or a favorite of many, Dmytro Timashov.
I will supplement this blog with any additional info on possible draft picks as well as news on the Rangers RFAs/UFAs, which includes Carl Hagelin as the most prominent RFA that could be traded. In addition, if a Talbot deal does go down before the draft, the blog will be updated to include that news. To make matters more interesting, teams were able to start talking to free agents today, so rumors from that end could start filtering out as well. If nothing transpires before the draft or 8pm tonight, my next update, which will be a blog, will be posted Sunday morning.