Even though it’s the middle of summer, the New York Rangers’ fan base is still eager for the team to fix its forward core, which has struggled in recent seasons. During the summer, instead of doing nothing but having fun, why not speculate on potential players that Chris Drury, as general manager of the New York Rangers, could trade for with the assets at his disposal?
Though he’s hardly a realistic trade target for the Rangers, Minnesota Wild forward Kirill Kaprizov’s name may start making the rounds in the next few months. Though you would think, “You’re insane if you’d ever think the Wild would move him,” you would be partially correct in that assessment. Kaprizov is a superstar, but his contract is up next season, so the Wild will need to either give him a huge payoff or find a way to move him if they don’t want to lose their premier player.
Looking at Artemi Panarin should have been enough to convince the Wild that Russian wingers like him often sign with New York in free agency. More capital from other markets was left behind by the Breadman when he departed Columbus for the Concrete Jungle. Despite Minnesota’s natural beauty, some players choose the glitter of Broadway to the Land of a Thousand Lakes. One of them might be Kaprizov.
Because of all the upheaval, Minnesota isn’t going for much more than a wild card position in the upcoming season. Despite the fact that players enjoy winning, Minnesota has failed to achieve that goal during Kaprizov’s time as head coach. Thus, there is a setting where the player may long to cross over to a different pasture in the hopes of finding better conditions. It appears like a perfect fit for New York, who is in dire need of a scoring striker to round out the top six.
The issue is that the Rangers can’t afford to sign a player with $9 million in cap space until they trade Jacob Trouba. If a transaction does come up, the Rangers will need to figure out a way to accommodate Trouba’s contract, since he is free to exercise his trade protection. In hockey, nothing is ever certain, even though it’s quite unlikely.
Among the league’s most exciting forward cores would be a group that started with Alexis Lafreniere, Mika Zibanejad, and Chris Kreider and continued with Kirill Kaprizov, Vincent Trocheck, and Artemi Panarin. Just the concept would be lovely, but putting it into action would cost the farm and maybe even some of lower Manhattan. In order to entice the Wild, it is necessary to include picks in addition to Othmann, Perreault, Schneider, and Emery. The Blueshirts would have a good time, but it’s not worth it.
