The offseason is in full swing for the Rangers., They’ve already cleaned house from top to bottom and have begun with their hires. Gerard Gallant looks like he’s going to be the next head coach, and Mike Grier has been hired in hockey operations. As for the roster, the next big event is the expansion draft. While generally straight forward, the Rangers do have an interesting question. They have three protection spots for defensemen, but only two worth protecting. So what do the Rangers do with the final defense protection spot for the expansion draft?
Protect…someone?
The Rangers are going to protect Jacob Trouba and Ryan Lindgren. That we know. K’Andre Miller, Adam Fox, Zac Jones, and any newly signed prospect are all exempt. If the Rangers protect someone, it would be a decision between Libor Hajek, Anthony Bitetto, Yegor Rykov, or Tony DeAngelo.
Given the Rangers are going to buyout DeAngelo, protecting him doesn’t make sense. They signed Bitetto just to ensure they expose him. Hajek played enough games to meet some of the criteria for exposed players, so he makes sense to expose. He’s also not good.
Rykov doesn’t really meet any expansion draft criteria and might be useful as a throw-in for a trade. The Rangers gain nothing by exposing him, and lose something tangible if he’s selected. If the Rangers go this route, they might actually protect Rykov, even if he likely doesn’t have a future with the Rangers. Using this protection spot on someone on the roster for the expansion draft is the most likely route for the Rangers.
Edit: Rykov is exempt.
Trade for a defenseman
The Rangers want to add some level of grit to the team. However it’s really not needed on the blue line with both Trouba and Lindgren. That said, they likely want to have some level of leadership and veteran presence there if Brendan Smith doesn’t return.
The Rangers could, in theory, take on a defenseman with a decent sized cap hit for a year to bridge the gap for some of the kids. Given the flat cap, it might not even be that expensive either.
Or they could try to trade for a game breaking defenseman, but they might already have one in Adam Fox.
Sell the spot
I covered this earlier this year, but there might be a chance for the Rangers to “sell” the spot. There are teams out there that have more than three defensemen worth protecting, especially contending teams. There’s an opportunity for the Rangers to “trade for” one of these defensemen, then trade him back for a lesser return.
For example, using Minnesota as an example, the Wild have three defensemen with no-move clauses, plus Matt Dumba. The Rangers could acquire Dumba for a 5th round pick, protect him, then trade him back to Minnesota for a 2nd round pick.
It’s blatant circumvention, but it’s no worse than what Tampa did this season with Nikita Kucherov.
Do nothing?
I honestly don’t know if this makes sense, but it seems the Rangers could also protect just two defensemen and forego the third spot. Unlikely to happen, but always a possibility.
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