Ruben B. Hughes 
The NHL trade deadline is less than a week away and many are wondering what Chris Drury and the New York Rangers will do next. This will be Drury’s first foray into the waters of NHL trade deadlines as Rangers general manager. It will be interesting to see how it sails over the next few days. The team has a strong pipeline of prospects, young players and draft picks available as well as an abundance of cap space to use as a weapon. The big question is, should he use it?
This will be the last season in which the Rangers will have a cap on freedom of space. Per Capfriendly, the Rangers have an expected cap space of $32 million available at the deadline. This puts Rangers in a position to cause a stir with the possibility of facing several players whose contracts are expiring. However, Drury must tread carefully as from next season Rangers’ cap space is starting to tighten considerably.
The team also has many young players and prospects who have yet to have a chance to make their mark at the NHL level. Players like Vitali Kravtsov, Zac Jones and Nils Lundkvist are at the top of the Rangers prospect pool, but have all ended up outside the Rangers NHL roster. With his departure to the KHL and the success of Brennan Othmann in the OHL, Kravtsov may never wear the Rangers jersey again. Braden Schneider’s rise on the right side cemented the right side of the Rangers defense alongside Jacob Trouba and Adam Fox, leaving little room for Lundkvist.
And with a desire for a veteran presence on the third defensive pair, Jones gave way to Patrik Nemeth on the left side. As coveted as these players may have been when they were just prospects, they don’t seem to be part of the immediate plans, or perhaps the organization. As such, each or more of these players can be leveraged in the trade to make improvements to the NHL’s roster for this season’s playoffs. It’s a good problem to have the farming system full of assets, but an NHL team only has 23 players.
Ultimately, if a trade is available to improve the team now and going forward, while still staying within the cap, Drury should pull the trigger immediately. However, when considering the idea of rental players, Drury should be wary of the costs, in terms of the assets needed to acquire. Losing a best prospect for 20 regular season games and a playoff streak from a rental player would be a high cost to pay. Pragmatically, Drury should ask himself a simple question. Of the players available by this deadline to acquire, each will be enough to close the competitive gap between the New York Rangers and Carolina Hurricanes.
The road out of the Metropolitan Division and into a deep playoff run is through Raleigh, North Carolina. If Drury thinks rental player acquisitions will give the Rangers the edge they need to win four of seven against the Hurricanes, then the trade floodgates will open. However, if he doesn’t believe it, then the costs of assets in commerce are probably already too high and any major transactions would have to wait until the off-season.
This is the hopeful path that Drury will take. The thing is, the New York Rangers are a good young team that learned how to win in the regular season after three rebuilding seasons. The Rangers aren’t a one- or two-man rental team reaching the Eastern Conference Finals for the first time in seven years. It’s too early to start selling the future to earn now.
