After a busy first day of free agency yesterday, that saw Chris Drury sign a second line center, two NHL experienced netminders and a trade that freed up some Cap room by moving Patrik Nemeth‘s remainig two years at $2.5M to Arizona, he turned his attention to adding a little more depth, by adding a forward and a defenseman.
In Andy Welinski, he added some experience to the Hartford Wolf Pack blueline, as well as a potential emergency call-up should the Rangers find themselves in injury trouble during the season. The 29 year old has 46 games of NHL experience, all with the Anaheim Ducks, who drafted him in the 3rd round of the 2011 Entry Draft. He has just 1 goal and 5 assists, along with 8 penalty minutes over that stretch, and last played in the NHL in 2020-21.
This will be his fourth NHL organization, with one year stints also with Philadelphia, as well as last year with Calgary. A right handed 6-1 203lb native of Minnesota, he’ll be looked to provide some support to a Wolf Pack team last year that showed some positive signs, but then crashed in the latter parts of the season.
Perhaps a little more intriguing is the addition of Ryan Carpenter, who split time between Chicago and Calgary last year. The 30 year old played with Barclay Goodrow in San Jose when he first started out his NHL career, and then with Gerard Gallant and Ryan Reaves in Vegas after the Golden Knights claimed him off of waivers.
The 6-0 200lb Florida born Carpenter has a good shot at taking over the vacant fourth line center spot that was vacated with the departure of Kevin Rooney. Carpenter is solid defensively and plays the penalty kill, averaging around 2 minutes of short handed time a game over the past three seasons.
Averaging around 12 points a season, he’s not going to be a huge generator of offense, but he did have a career high 9 goals in his first year with Gallant, and then a career high of 18 points the following year with him.
Carpenter also got some limited power play time with the Blackhawks in the last two seasons, but chances are he’ll not see much man advantage time with the Rangers.
Carpenter can play all three forward positions, and will likely compete with Dryden Hunt, Will Cuylle, Jonny Brodzinski and Julien Gauthier for the last position or two on the roster.