Day: July 19, 2021

Pretty much everyone has said the Rangers need more grind and grit, and that of course came to a head late in the season following a sweep by the Islanders and of course that game against the Capitals.  How that would be addressed appears to be becoming a littler clearer.

The move Saturday were the first indication that Drury is looking to remake his line-up now, by moving out Brett Howden and protecting Kevin Rooney over Colin Blackwell and Julien Gauthier, he’s looking at ways to remake his bottom six and is not as concerned about the offensive side of the equation.

When the Rangers acquired two time Cup champ Barclay Goodrow from the Tampa Bay Lightning for a seventh round pick on Saturday, you could imagine it was going to be a big contract.  Well we now have a little more detail on just how big.

It appears that the deal will indeed be in the six year range, with an Average Annual Value (AAV) of around $3.6M, quite the payday for the 28 year old soon to be UFA.

With lists due to the NHL by 5:00pm Eastern Saturday, and a trade freeze starting two hours before – and running until 1:00pm Thursday – the Rangers were about to give us the first clues as to what might happen this offseason.

The re-signing of both Julien Gauthier and Brett Howden prior to the deadline suggested that the Rangers might want some different options on the protection list, or in the case of Howden, it proved to be for the purposes of a trade.