Landing Kevin Shattenkirk just got easier, thanks to Jimmy Vesey

Photo Credit: Steven Ryan

The Rangers landed Jimmy Vesey on Friday, which bolsters their forward depth at a bare minimum cost. Vesey isn’t a savior and likely isn’t even going to crack 40 points this season, but he certainly opens up some options for the Rangers. Vesey likely slides into a third line role with Kevin Hayes and possibly Pavel Buchnevich. That pushes Michael Grabner and Jesper Fast to permanent spots on the fourth line.

This, of course, is if no other moves are made. The blue line has gone suspiciously unaddressed this offseason, and a change there is needed. Moving Dan Girardi and/or Marc Staal likely isn’t happening, but there are still other ways to upgrade the blue line if Jeff Gorton goes that route. The forward position is a major strength for the Rangers. They have arguably ten forwards that could feasibly play a top-nine role on this team, plus another three that slot in well on the fourth line.

It makes sense to deal from this position to address a weakness on the blue line. But with the expansion draft looming, the front office is likely going to make moves to ensure the players they want next year aren’t exposed. That’s where Vesey’s signing comes into play, as he is exempt from the expansion draft, giving the Rangers an additional young forward they know will be here next year.

As it stands today, only one of Rick Nash, Jesper Fast, or Oscar Lindberg can be protected (Buchnevich is exempt as well). It wouldn’t surprise me to see the Rangers package one of these guys for an upgrade on the blue line, instead of risking losing them for nothing. The drawback here is that if Nash is the one they trade –and he will return the most in a trade– they are instantly a worse team this year. So if the idea is to try to win now while keeping an eye on the future, it could be Lindberg or Fast looking at a new team.

Another player that stands to be exposed is Kevin Klein. Staal and Girardi are auto-protected thanks to no-movement clauses, and Ryan McDonagh is the no-brainer to protect, rounding out the three defensemen the team can protect. That leaves Klein and Nick Holden (Brady Skjei is exempt) as the players that will be exposed. I made the case for trading Klein earlier in the summer, and it may make logical sense to attempt to package him and one of the aforementioned forwards for a player who won’t need to be protected.

For a team like St. Louis, who is looking at losing Shattenkirk for nothing, a trade like this makes sense for them. They’d be able to get NHL pieces for a pending UFA that they will likely lose regardless of the expansion draft, and based on the current roster, they have the room to protect one more forward and one more defenseman. A package of Klein+Lindberg gives them cost controlled pieces for next season as well, pieces they can protect in the expansion draft.

For the Rangers, they wouldn’t need to protect Shattenkirk, as he’s a UFA. They’d simply just need to wait to re-sign him until after the expansion draft. It’s some tricky maneuvering, but assuming a Klein/Lindberg (obviously more needs to be involved here, I’m just spitballing what makes sense from an expansion draft standpoint) for Shattenkirk swap, the end-state for both teams heading into the expansion draft would be something like this:

• NYR protect Stepan, Kreider, Zuccarello, Miller, Zibanejad, Hayes, Staal, Girardi, McDonagh as locks, and a choice between Fast/Nash (Skjei, Vesey, Buchnevich are exempt).
• STL protect Tarasenko, Stastny, Schwartz, Lehtera, Perron, Jaskin, Lindberg, Bouwmeester, Pietrangelo, Klein (Parayko and Fabbri are exempt)

It’s one of those odd scenarios that works out for both teams, as the Rangers avoid losing Lindberg or Klein for nothing while still improving the blue line for this season with Shattenkirk. The Blues get two roster players for at least two years, and don’t have to worry about losing Shattenkirk for nothing.

Considering the plan for the Rangers is to win now with Henrik Lundqvist in net, this seems like a win for them. But the wrench in this process is that each team will only lose one player to the expansion draft, so it’s not like the team would be gutted in June. The Vesey signing does give the Rangers the ability to trade one of their bottom six forwards though. Sometimes, flexibility is all you need.