All the one-year deals worth $875,000 and below that Rangers president and general manager Chris Drury signed veteran free agents to last offseason were a necessity, considering the organization’s position under the cap and desire to create opportunity for upward mobility in the lineup among its young core.
It may have served its purpose a little too well, however, with the Rangers having to call up and give ice time to nine skaters (not including goalie Louis Domingue’s one-game cameo) who began the season in Hartford with the club’s AHL affiliate, the Wolf Pack.
But after the Rangers shed Barclay Goodrow’s contract by getting the Sharks to claim the veteran forward off the waiver wire on Wednesday, Drury looks to be freeing up cap space and taking a different course of action this summer.Â
Still, last offseason’s approach allowed for the Rangers to get a better understanding of what their prospect cupboard looks like.
Prospects such Matt Rempe and Adam Edstrom received lengthy opportunities, with Rempe appearing in 17 regular-season games and 11 playoff games in comparison to Edstrom’s 11 regular-season contests.
The two Bash Brother-like forwards, who respectively stand at 6-foot-8 ½ and 6-7, will surely be in the mix come training camp, but Rempe, in particular, will look to prove he can be an NHL regular and that he wasn’t just a product of the sideshow he helped create.
This all while the Rangers’ 2021 first-round pick, Brennan Othmann, attempts to better showcase himself after a nondescript first three NHL games this past season and Brett Berard, the club’s 134th-overall pick in 2020, tries to join the conversation.
Part of the Rangers’ need to utilize their depth this season was happenstance.
Blake Wheeler (one year at $875,000) suffered a season-ending injury in mid-February which, when paired with Filip Chytil’s suspected concussion 10 games into the season, left the Rangers without two top-nine skaters.
There were also significant injury stints for Adam Fox and Jacob Trouba, which created temporary holes that needed to be filled on the back end.Â
The defense in Hartford always seemed to be ailing in some way, too, which limited the Rangers’ options for blueliners to recall.
Ben Harpur missed a majority of the season after undergoing pectoral surgery and Connor Mackey was week-to-week with an upper-body injury at one point, as well.
But the pickups of veteran forwards Tyler Pitlick (one year at $787,500) and Nick Bonino (one year at $800,000) did not pan out the way the Rangers had hoped.
Amid the club’s January slump, the Rangers waived Bonino, who ultimately decided not to report to AHL Hartford after the All-Star break and motioned to mutually terminate his contract with the organization.
Bonino is a solid penalty killer, but the 36-year-old wasn’t giving the bottom-six what it needed.
The Rangers instead brought up Jake Lesyschyn, who appeared in only one game this season after playing in 12 in 2022-23.
He still has one year remaining on the three-year deal he signed with Vegas at $766,667.
Pitlick could muster only one goal and four points in 34 games before the Rangers waived him, too.
He reported to Hartford and when the Wolf Pack were eliminated in the Calder Cup playoffs, the 32-year-old joined the Rangers taxi squad for the Stanley Cup playoffs.
Now a pending unrestricted free agent, Pitlick — along with trade-deadline acquisition and fellow UFA Nic Petan — may be headed to play in Europe.
The two veterans aren’t the only members of the Wolf Pack who have their sights set on playing overseas.
Karl Henriksson, the Rangers’ 58th-overall pick in the 2019 draft, signed a three-year deal with the Swedish Hockey League’s Växjö Lakers HC.
The 23-year-old center, who posted 23 points in 64 games in his second season in Hartford, injured his shoulder in the second-to-last game of the regular season and missed the entire postseason.
Word is Henriksson won’t be ready to play again until around mid-November.
Additionally, the Rangers’ second-round selection (39th overall) in 2018, goalie Olof Lindbom, opted to sign a one-year contract with a one-year option with the Lahti Pelicans of Finland’s Liiga.
After spending a majority of the 2023-24 season with the ECHL’s Cincinnati Cyclones, for whom he posted a 10-15-3 record with a .884 save percentage and a 3.56 goals-against average, Lindbom got hurt in the Wolf Pack’s first game of the Atlantic Division semifinals against the Hershey Bears.
The only reason why Lindom was in net was because Dylan Garand was temporarily recalled to the Rangers for precautionary reasons, after Domingue, the third-stringer, was briefly banged up during the NHL playoffs.
The Swedish netminder has struggled to stay healthy for most of his professional career.
With the March addition of Hugo Ollas, the Rangers’ 197th-overall pick in 2020, to an already deep goalie pool that includes Domingue, Garand and Talyn Boyko, Lindbom likely recognized that he no longer had a path to much playing time.
