We’ve known for months that there were no slam-dunk difference-makers on the market and we’ve learned over the last 48-to-72 hours that Chris Drury was not blinded by the baubles on sale or panicked by what was going on around him.
The general manager did no harm to the Rangers’ Cup chances in 2025, 2026 or 2027 by keeping every one of the organization’s blue-chip prospects and future first-round picks in the wake of idle chatter that Kaapo Kakko or Brennan Othmann or Will Cuylle or multiple first-rounders would be sacrificed to the altar of rental properties such as Adam Henrique or Jake Guentzel.
More to the point, even as I wish Drury had focused on adding more physicality to the mix, the Rangers emerged from the deadline with an incrementally better team than they had before acquiring Alex Wennberg on Wednesday and both Jack Roslovic and Chad Ruhwedel on Friday.
They did no harm to their shot at winning the 2024 Cup, either.
They’re deeper and have some more versatility to them. Roslovic may not be Frank Vatrano … but hey, why can’t the 27-year-old pending free agent do a reprise of what No. 77 did for and with Mika Zibanejad and Chris Kreider down the stretch and in the playoffs after being acquired at the 2022 deadline?
Roslovic is an excellent skater, deceptively explosive, he sees the ice well and though he may fancy himself as a natural center, the right-hand shooter is more productive on the wing. It is foolish to expect Roslovic to “unlock” Zibanejad for that is No. 93’s responsibility. But Roslovic should complement the BFFs.
And he came at the cost of a conditional fourth-rounder in 2026 that would become a third-rounder if the Blueshirts reach the Cup final and Roslovic plays in at least half of their playoff games. Not whatever it would have taken to pry Vatrano out of Anaheim. Not whatever it would have taken to get Guentzel from Pittsburgh. And not whatever riches it would have taken to get Pavel Buchnevich out of St. Louis.
The general managers of those clubs essentially demanded that Drury make them offers that could not be refused. Drury decided not to go all Jack Woltz. Now that I think of it, going Jack Woltz would have been the ultimate all-in. Not this time … no firsts-plus-Anthony Duclair-for-Keith Yandle kind of deals.
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Carolina may have gotten better by acquiring Guentzel for a package that seems kind of light after the hours of hype preceding Thursday’s deal, but they may not have helped themselves at all by picking up Evgeny Kuznetsov. If we are talking risk-reward, No. 92 represents plenty of both. The Panthers improved, too, by getting Vlad Tarasenko to flush out a formidable top nine.
But I don’t think anyone in the East got the 1980 Butch Goring, the 1991 Ron Francis or the 2000 Alex Mogilny. Defending Cup champion Vegas may have added another $50 million to the cap, give or take, but the Rangers wouldn’t have to deal with that until the final.
If Roslovic does take that right wing spot, the top six will be set. That will leave head coach Peter Laviolette 20 games to conduct auditions to design the bottom six starting with Saturday’s match at the Garden against the Blues.
Kaapo Kakko presumably will move to the third line with Wennberg and Cuylle while Jimmy Vesey and Barclay Goodrow would skate on the fourth line with either Jonny Brodzinski or Matt Rempe joining them after Adam Edstrom’s assignment to the AHL Wolf Pack on Friday.
The thing here, though, is that Laviolette has relied on Vesey and Goodrow when utilizing a checking unit, as the Blueshirts did on Monday against Florida. Cuylle was on the left in that one. But I’d think the Blueshirts would want Wennberg in the middle of a matchup line. So Goodrow-Wennberg-Vesey with Kakko and Cuylle on the fourth line? I don’t know about that. But this is what the next five weeks are about.
I don’t quite get why the Rangers never got into the mix on Noah Hanifin or Jakob Chychrun. Once it became apparent that prices for imperfect pieces up front had been set unreasonably, I’m surprised Drury didn’t focus on buttressing the blue line. And that was before the news that Jacob Trouba will be sidelined for up to three weeks with a lower-body injury he apparently sustained Monday against Florida.
But Trouba will be back for the playoffs, and with a few weeks of rest. The Rangers will need the captain at his best. They also will need Zibanejad at his best, they will need Artemi Panarin to get to the inside, they will need their best and brightest — including Adam Fox — to elevate in the playoffs and of course they need franchise goaltender Igor Shesterkin to be at his best.
Wennberg will help, Roslovic fills in a spot and Ruhwedel adds depth to the right side of the defense. But the Rangers’ playoff fate will be determined by the guys on the marquee. It’s their team. No harm was done on Friday.
