Versteeg please (Photo: James Guillory-USA TODAY)

Versteeg please (Photo: James Guillory-USA TODAY)

During yesterday’s media scrum, coach Alain Vigneault gave a hint at the Rangers’ plans for the deadline. Vigneault stated that the Rangers won’t be making any moves until the deadline to conserve cap space, as they will look to add at the deadline. Since cap space is accrued daily, this makes sense. The Rangers need every cent they can get on the cap.

Now it’s that second part that may scare some people, especially since Elliotte Friedman confirmed that the Rangers are “all-in” again this year. I think it’s been clear from the start that the Rangers will add at the deadline. They need another forward, preferably a top-six right-handed guy that looks to shoot. They may look to add a fourth line player as well, probably someone that can kill penalties, since both have been an issue this year.

The Rangers don’t have the pieces, cap space,roster space, or draft picks,to make a huge splash at the deadline. Any deal where you think the Rangers might get Eric Staal –he of nine goals this year– is baseless speculation. The Rangers will look to add cheaper talent.

With that comes guys like Kris Versteeg, who I think covers a lot of what the Rangers need. He’s a righty. He’s a top-six guy. He’s a shoot-first guy. He can play on the powerplay. He rounds out secondary scoring. He’s also cheap ($2.2 million). Asset cost might be prohibitive though.

Brad Boyes is a name tossed around a lot, but I think he’s more of a tweener in terms of what the Rangers need. I doubt he gets top-six minutes or powerplay time with the Rangers. That significantly limits his usefulness on this team. The fact that he doesn’t fit what AV looks for in a fourth liner only compounds this.

It’s safe to assume the Rangers will also target a fourth line guy who can kill penalties. There are a bunch of guys that fit that mold, and it’s tough to really pick one guy here or there that would fit. But for the Rangers, they’d be targeting someone under the radar who won’t cost as much, just from prior history.

It’s going to be an interesting deadline for the Rangers, and will give us a lot of insight into what is on Jeff Gorton’s mind. They are clearly all-in, which is fine since Henrik Lundqvist isn’t getting younger. What scares me is their definition of all-in. Luckily, at least for my optimistic mind, they don’t have the pieces to pull off another big splash. But then again, I am an optimist.

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