The Rangers are caught up in some kind of grey area at 3pm on Friday ahead of this year's trade deadline
Management is keeping these rangers able to make the playoffs this season. Especially after seeing him clutch his claws just below the second wildcard spot for the past 2¹/~1 month from the Metropolitan Division's basement.
But considering how this season is gone, it's stupid to mistake hope for faith.
The Rangers' first moves – Calvin De Hahn, Yuso Perssinen, and several draft picks from the avalanche in exchange for Ryan Lindgren, Jimmy Vessie and prospect Hank Kempf – showed their intention to get what they can do with the imminent unlimited free agent.
Of the two imminent UFAs remaining on Thursday, goalkeeper Jonathan was surely quick and forward Riley Smith-Smith should have been dealt with, and ultimately he was.
Smith has returned to Vegas in exchange for this year's NHL Draft and prospect Brendan Brisson's third round, the team announced.
The Rangers held 50% of the $3.75 million cap hit that won Smith after Pittsburgh held 25% of the $5 million cap hit this summer.
The 33-year-old forward was excluded from the previous three games due to codes for trade-related reasons.
After holding 50% of Lindgren and now 50% of Smith, the Rangers have one more holding slot left for each packpedia, with just under $17 million in cap space.
They could use this for their benefit leading up to the cutoff on Friday.
Brisson, one of Pat Brisson and Vegas' 29th pick top NHL agents in 2020, reports to Hartford after spending most of this season with Golden Knights AHL affiliates.
He has only 24 games of NHL experience this season and last.
With Adam Fox in the sanctuary where he was injured after an upper body injury, and Lindgren was shipped to Colorado, the Rangers were naturally in another defender's market.
They flipped the third round that they acquired earlier in the day from the Smith deal and sent it to Vancouver to get 6-foot-5 defensive man Carson Sussy.
The 30-year-old came to New York and remained in a year's deal after this season, with the blues shirt giving him some stability in the back end in the short term.
With a $3.25 million cap hit, the Rangers see Soucy's acquisition of a reasonable number. His performance in match-up roles over 38 playoff games promoted the Rangers.
Additionally, Soucy played for both the other two new rangers, both JT Miller (Canucks) and Will Borgen (Kraken).
This is the perfect example of the type of trading president and general manager Chris Drury hunting.
Not only is it beneficial for now, but it also trades for all kinds of futures.
Consuming young talent and future assets for rentals that may help infiltrate the playoffs doesn't seem to be in the plan.
Retool, which was not subtle this summer, has been running throughout this turbulent ranger season.
This is just a time for more foundations ahead of what comes this summer.
