What if the Rangers buy at the 2025 trade deadline?

As mentioned on Live From the Blue Seats, this is the first trade deadline in a while where we truly don’t know what the Rangers will do. It’s maddening as a fan, but it can be fun to review all possibilities. Given where the Rangers stand right now, there’s a solid chance the Rangers buy at the 2025 trade deadline. But there are different flavors of buying, and the Rangers may look at both approaches

Rangers buy at the 2025 trade deadline – the traditional way

If the Rangers buy at the 2025 trade deadline, we generally default to the traditional buying approach. That means sacrificing futures for short term players, usually veterans, to plug holes and go for a Stanley Cup run. If that approach makes you cringe, you’re certainly not alone. There has been very little from the players that shows they deserve to be trusted to “flip the switch” come playoff time. But the East is wide open, and Igor Shesterkin is capable of carrying the Rangers, as we’ve seen.

So if the Rangers buy at the 2025 trade deadline, in the traditional sense, they’d be targeting a 3C and a top-four LD, at the bare minimum, with at most one additional season remaining. Trent Frederic in Boston has been mentioned a few times, but his injury probably makes things complicated. Scott Laughton has been brought up a few times too, but the fit is questionable as John Tortorella runs far less complicated schemes than Peter Laviolette.

There are other potential targets like Ryan Donato (Chicago), Christian Dvorak (Montreal), Jake Evans (Montreal), Radek Faksa (Dallas), Matt Grzelcyk (Pittsburgh), and Brian Dumoulin (Anaheim), but none of these names really jump off the page. Jake Walman (SJ) is an interesting target with two playoff runs attached to him, but he may be cost restrictive.

If the Rangers buy at the 2025 trade deadline, there are slim picking of pending UFAs. It appears to be a barren wasteland.

What about younger players and buying in a non-traditional sense?

Given the lack of actual rental talent, if the Rangers buy at the 2025 trade deadline, they will probably take a different approach. In this scenario, the Rangers may look to sacrifice a high ceiling future, a kid like Brennan Othmann or Adam Sykora, for a player with more term.

With the news that the Rangers were scouting the Buffalo/Carolina game last night, one name popped out at me, and that was Ryan McLeod. The 25 year old center is a pending RFA and is a name that Vince Mercogliano has mentioned a few times. He’d certainly fit a need at 3C and is the type of player Drury has been targeting in trades.

This is where it might make sense to dangle a wing prospect like Othmann to fill a true need in the organization. The Rangers have a glut of wing prospects–Othmann, Sykora, Gabe Perreault, Brett Berard, Jaro Chmelar–to go with the young NHL talent–Will Cuylle, Alexis Lafreniere, Adam Edstrom, Arthur Kaliyev, Matt Rempe–and their current veterans like Chris Kreider, Artemi Panarin, Mika Zibanejad, and Reilly Smith.

Bowen Byram’s name has been brought up as well, as it appears his injury history is behind him with two straight seasons of 70+ games.

Other names like Quinton Byfield (LA), Brandt Clarke (LA), Ryan O’Reilly (Nashville), Trevor Zegras (Anaheim), and Dylan Cozens (Buffalo) have hit the rumor mill, though how reliable those rumors are remain to be seen.

If the Rangers buy at the 2025 trade deadline, this is the likely approach. There is a need to shake things up, and Drury’s message and approach has been clear. He wants a more north-south team with a bit more bite to their game. But very few of the names mentioned address the issues at the top of the lineup, that the top-six simply aren’t scoring or producing.

If the Rangers buy at the 2025 trade deadline, the approach is going to determine the reaction. It’s tough to imagine fans being happy with another attempt at going all in when the top-six simply isn’t producing. It seems the Rangers can’t have nice things, as last year’s team would love to have this year’s bottom-six, and vice versa.

Such is life in New York sports.