Drury Can't Afford To Wait For Chytil

Normally, I'm not one to overreact to a bad loss - and let's just call what happened Tuesday night at the Garden a bad loss - but the New York Rangers have a problem; one that President and General Manager Chris Drury would do well to address before this incredible season begins to unravel.

Just to be clear, the Blueshirts are still in first place in the Metropolitan Division. Their 25 wins lead the NHL. Nor are they the only team to have gone through a slump. For instance, since getting off to an 11-0-1 start, the Vegas Golden Knights, last season's Stanley Cup winners, have gone 11-11-4. The Atlantic Division leading Boston Bruins have had losing streaks of three in a row and four in a row this season. Both teams, so far as anyone knows, are still considered contenders, as are the Rangers.

But unlike those two teams, the Rangers problem is primarily one of personnel, or a lack thereof. At the risk of beating a dead horse, the loss of Filip Chytil to a concussion and Kaapo Kakko to a leg injury has put a strain on a lineup that wasn't exactly bursting with depth to begin with.

When the season started, the Rangers forward lines were:

Chris Kreider - Mika Zibanejad - Kaapo Kakko

Artemi Panarin - Filip Chytil - Alexis Lafreniere

Will Cuylle - Vincent Trocheck - Blake Wheeler

Barclay Goodrow - Nick Bonino - Jimmy Vesey

Not quite the 1985 Edmonton Oilers but more than respectable. Since Chytil and Kakko went down, the Rangers forward lines have looked like this:

Kreider - Zibanejad - Wheeler

Panarin - Trocheck - Lafreniere

Cuylle - Bonino - Jonnny Brodzinski

Vesey - Goodrow - Tyler Pitlick

Pitlick was supposed to be the 13th forward on this team; Brodziński is a 30 year old career AHLer who on an average team would have a hard time cracking the lineup. Neither has any business getting the amount of minutes they're getting. As for Bonino, Drury signed him to be a checking center. He belongs on a third line the way Nick Fotiu would belong on a line with Jacques Lemaire and Steve Shutt. 

Drury is undoubtedly aware of this. He knows he's pushing the envelope having Pitlick and Brodzinski on this roster. And he isn't blind. Every shift Bonino takes at 3C is as excruciating to watch as it is a lesson in futility. That the Rangers are currently in first place is a testament to Peter Laviolette's coaching ability and Panarin having a career year. Absent that, this team would likely be struggling to stay in the playoff hunt.

So now that we know what the problem is, how will Drury address it? With Kakko not expected back until February and Chytil returning to his native Czechia in what the team is calling a "reset," they need help now. Some of that help is on its way, via Hartford. The Rangers have recalled Brennan Othmann to replace Pitlick, who is listed as week-to-week with a lower body injury. Where he plays will be up to Laviolette. I'm sure Drury would've preferred to have Othmann spend an entire season in the AHL, however circumstances forced his hand.

But the real need is at center. If Chytil is indeed lost for the season, Drury will have to look outside the organization for a replacement. But who, that's the question.

Going into the season, the Rangers had $675k in cap space. With Chytil and Kakko both on LTIR, they have around $7.1 million available to go shopping and still be cap compliant. I doubt Drury will use the whole wad, because if he does, Kakko can't return until the playoffs. So let's say for the sake of argument the number is $5 million. That should be more than enough.

Below is a list of possible candidates along with their cap hits and stat lines.

Elias Lindholm (Calgary) $4.85m / 37GP / 8G / 16A / 55.1% FO. Lindholm is a legit star who scored 42 goals in the 2021-22 season. With the Flames looking to sell, he won't come cheap. Figure multiple draft picks and a couple of prospects.

Boone Jenner (Columbus) $3.75m / 29GP / 13G / 5A / 55.9% FO. Jenner is out with broken jaw for the next six weeks, so Drury might be reluctant to pursue him. However, if the long-term prognosis on Chytil is as bleak as some have hinted, Jenner would be an ideal replacement. He's signed thru the 2025-26 season with a very manageable cap hit. Like Lindholm, he'll cost a pretty penny.

Kevin Hayes (St. Louis) $7.142m (50% retained by Philadelphia) 36GP / 9G / 10A / 56.4% FO. Would Drury bring Hayes back to Broadway? At $3.571m, he fits nicely. Plus, if Chytil does return by the playoffs, Hayes can switch to RW where Alain Vigneault often used him when he coached here.

Sean Monahan (Montreal) $1.985m / 9G / 13A / 57.5% FO. The thing that makes Monahan so attractive is his cap hit. In the event Chytil is cleared to return before the playoffs, Drury could move out Pitlick's contract and still fit him in under the cap, provided he can get the Canadiens to retain some salary. Don't be surprised if this is the move that gets made.

With Monahan, the Rangers forward lines would look like this, assuming Chytil is gone for the season:

Kreider - Zibanejad - Wheeler

Panarin - Trocheck - Lafreniere

Cuylle - Monahan - Othmann / Kakko

Goodrow - Bonino - Vesey

You can live with Wheeler on the first line. Going into the Carolina game, he had 9 points in his last 9 games; the second line speaks for itself; Monahan gives the Rangers a legitimate third line; and, best of all, Bonino returns to the fourth line where he belongs.

As far as a Patrick Kane reunion is concerned, it's highly unlikely that Drury would go down that road again. One look at how well the Detroit Red Wings have played since his arrival should be all you need to know. Despite his hall of fame credentials, he's not worth the disruption he brings to a locker room. Plus, he's a winger, not a center.

Seriously, Rangers fans, it's time to bring down the curtain on Showtime.

Rangers Fill Their Shopping Cart

Going into this offseason, Chris Drury had three things on his to-do list: 1. Hire a coaching staff; 2. Fill out a roster that as of June 30 had only 14 players signed for the 2023-24 season; and 3. Do it in a way that left him enough cap space to re-sign his two most valuable RFAs: Alexis Lafreniere and K'Andre Miller.

Mission accomplished on all three.

I've already written at length about the Laviolette signing so I won't bore you any further with it. That leaves us with items two and three.

Let's face it: with only $11.7 million to work with, Patrick Kane and Vladimir Tarasenko were never more than pipe dreams for the Twitterverse. There was no way Drury was going to be able to keep either player. The mathematics just wasn't there. And since Drury had made up his mind that he wasn't going to trade or buyout Barclay Goodrow, that meant that the players he was looking at were, shall we say, the bargain basement variety. 

But that doesn't mean he bought crap. Indeed, Drury deserves high marks for his cap creativity. Not one player came in over $825k. And every one filled a need that was sorely lacking. Blake Wheeler ($800k) gives new head coach Peter Laviolette a scoring right wing he can slot anywhere in the top nine; Nick Bonino ($800k) is a legit center that will anchor the fourth line and can also kill penalties; Tyler Pitlick ($787.5k), Riley Nash ($775k) and Alex Belzille ($775) are gritty wingers who will compete for a spot on the fourth line with Will Cuylle; Erik Gustafsson, who played for Laviolette in Washington last season, is a solid left-handed defenseman with some offensive upside, that will play on the third pairing with Braden Schneider; and Jonathan Quick ($825k) was a two-time Stanley Cup winning goaltender with the LA Kings and will now backup Igor Shesterkin.

After the ink dries, Drury will still have $6.9 million left in the kitty to re-sign Lafreniere and Miller, which barring an offer sheet on one or both, should be more than enough.

Were there better options out there? Of course there were, but none that fit within the budget. And in a league that for some godforsaken reason saw fit to raise the salary cap a measly $1 million, the budget Drury had work with was as tight as a drum. Consider this: the Rangers were one of the few teams in the NHL that wasn't forced to giveaway or buyout a single player under contract; nor did they overpay for the players they signed. Betsy Ross couldn't have threaded this needle any better than Drury.

That being said, there are some concerns. Wheeler will be 37 by the start of the season; Bonino is 35; and Quick is nowhere near the goalie he was when the Kings were winning their Cups. A pessimist would say that Drury is taking a big risk here. But it was a risk Drury had to take. Anybody who thinks they could've done better needs to step forward now or forever shut the fuck up. And that goes for a certain individual whose named after a rodent at Disney World.

Now for the sixty-four thousand dollar question. Is this a better team than the one that took the ice at the start of last season? Yes, it is. But as Rangers fans know all too well, it isn't how you start the season that counts; it's how you end it.

Or as a cook might say: the proof is in the pudding.