The Rangers went into this offseason on record saying they weren’t done retooling the roster. The draft came and went, and while the Rangers had many balls in the air, the only one that landed was a simple trade to move up in the draft to take K’Andre Miller. Outside of that, it’s been a quiet offseason.

There are many players on the current roster that would fetch a decent amount of assets. Ryan Spooner, Kevin Hayes, and Vlad Namestnikov –who was recently re-signed– are at the front of that list. However names like Kevin Shattenkirk –whose NMC recently changes to a NTC– and Jimmy Vesey could also fetch good returns.

But the Rangers didn’t make any moves. There is some chatter, albeit not much, that the Rangers have had a bad offseason because of it. However there is something to remember.

The Rangers don’t need to make trades right now, and sometimes the best trade is the one you didn’t make.

Let’s assume for a second that the Rangers aren’t messing with us and are all-in on the rebuild. For some, that means trading every asset on the team and then starting from scratch. That is one way to do it, and it has varying results. For every Penguins there’s an Oilers.

Instead the Rangers focused on getting elite potential talent at the draft with Filip Chytil, Vitali Kravtsov, and K’Andre Miller. That adds to their potential elite talent in Pavel Buchnevich. The Rangers also drafted solid, but not potentially elite (based on reports), players in Lias Andersson and Nils Lundqvist. Seems like a solid foundation to build upon, without making panic trades to liquidate assets.

The Rangers are going with a controlled approach, and while they certainly explored all trade possibilities, there was nothing worth biting. So now the Rangers wait until something worth it comes along. They don’t need to make a trade, which is perhaps the best spot to be in. It may seem odd, since there are no expectations for this season, but panicking isn’t the option. Something the Rangers’ brass has shown so far.

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