More than ever, success in the NHL these days is a question of depth.
In a salary-capped league in which every dollar counts – especially with that cap barely rising for several seasons due to the COVID-19 pandemic – teams need to find undervalued, cost-efficient players to fill out their roster if they want to compete for the Stanley Cup.
It’s why the New York Rangers’ offseason free-agent signings, ones done fast and on the cheap, might prove to be the biggest variable in their 2023-24 fate – while doubling as their greatest roster mystery. With training camp not that far off, the club should soon start to get at least some idea of what they have on their hands.
It’s certain that at least some of the performances of Nick Bonino, Erik Gustafsson, Tyler Pitlick, Blake Wheeler, Jonathan Quick, Riley Nash, Connor Mackey and Alex Belzile will have some level of impact on the Blueshirts’ fate next season. Having gone into the offseason with little salary-cap space, general manager Chris Drury struck quickly in signing those eight players for under $1 million apiece, hoping to mine distressed assets to fill out the bottom of his forward and defense corps, which were bound to be populated by just these sorts of skaters.
Finding low-cost options who provide an outsized return for their salaries to man the bottom six forward spots and the third defense pair is something every team wants to do, as paying big money for role players is a recipe for trouble in today’s NHL. For the Rangers, so top-heavy with a roster loaded with highly-paid stars, their ability to hit big on some or all of Drury’s bargain-bin purchases will be essential to at least getting back to where they were in 2022, when they reached the Eastern Conference Final.
Wheeler Was Rangers’ Highest-Profile Pickup
Perhaps no Rangers offseason addition will garner more scrutiny than Wheeler, he of the 812 career points compiled mostly with the Winnipeg Jets franchise. Set to play next season at age 37, the 6-foot-5, 225-pound forward has been around long enough to have played 23 games in 2010-11 with the Atlanta Thrashers, who became the reformed Jets the following season.
Bought out by Winnipeg this offseason with 1,118 games on his resume, Wheeler has plenty of tread on his tires. Yet after signing on for one year at $800,000, the 15-year veteran will be counted on to possibly fill a top-six role on Broadway. At the very least, the Rangers will be needing solid production from him.
“You look at the roster and there’s world-class players up and down the lineup, especially at the forward position,” Wheeler said. “I see myself as being able to complement some of those elite guys that this roster has. I hope I earn that opportunity. If I do, I believe that I can make the guys around me better and I know those guys are going to make me better.”
Wheeler’s outlook aligns with what the Rangers hope to get out of the right wing. How much can they actually expect? Wheeler was still effective and durable last season, recording 16 goals and 39 assists in 72 games. Is it realistic to count on him matching or exceeding that?
While Wheeler’s track record – and possible chip on his shoulder after being bought out of the final year of his deal – suggests he’ll contribute, some of his fellow signees are complete wild cards. Of the rest of the group, Bonino is perhaps the most accomplished, recording 353 points in 823 games over 14 seasons.
The Rangers are expecting Bonino, who kills penalties and has a reputation for defending well, to grab the fourth-line center job. But he’s 35 and was a combined minus-30 the past two seasons, albeit for bad San Jose Sharks teams (he also played three games for the Pittsburgh Penguins last season and was plus-1).
That, however, is what drew Drury to Bonino: The GM is counting on it being the veteran’s recent surroundings, not a decline, as the reason why Bonino might end up being a pleasant surprise. Bonino was a plus-48 with the Nashville Predators from 2017-20 – all that coming under new Rangers coach Peter Laviolette.
Gustafsson, Pitlick, Quick Are Wild Cards
Gustafsson will face competition for the third-pair left-side spot on defense, but like Bonino, Gustafsson’s familiarity with Laviolette – he recorded 38 points and a plus-9 mark under the Blueshirts coach with the Washington Capitals last season – makes him seem like less of an unknown. Can he stabilize that spot, which the Rangers have struggled to fill on a consistent basis over the past two seasons? Possibly – if he even makes the roster. The 30-year-old was available for one year at $825,000, a partial function of the flat cap, but it’s also due to his status as a career journeyman. Gustafsson has played for six teams in his seven NHL seasons and at least two clubs in three of his last four.
Pitlick has size (6-2, 200 pounds), skates well, kills penalties, plays a hard-nosed game (103 hits in 61 games last season) and can score a little. He had seven goals and nine assists playing on the St. Louis Blues’ fourth line in 2022-23. There’s a lot to like about this signing, one that could help bring identity to the Rangers’ bottom forward unit.
Pitlick is also a journeyman, playing for seven teams in nine seasons. That suggests he’s a quality player who’s sought around the league to fill a specific role, but one who might not move the needle enough to have a big impact – or find even a semi-consistent home. For the Rangers, that might not be adequate if they’re looking for more out of the bottom six than they got in 2022-23.
While Wheeler is the acquisition that many Rangers fans are excited about, it’s possible that no addition to the roster will be more pivotal than that of Quick – for better or worse. Adding the future Hall of Famer and three-time Stanley Cup champion – along with 2014 Stanley Cup Final nemesis – has been a nice story since he inked a one-year, $925,000 deal July 1 to back up star goaltender Igor Shesterkin. The Milford, Conn., native is ostensibly set to close out his stellar career with the team he grew up rooting for.
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None of those good vibes will last if Quick can’t reverse what looked like the beginning of a decline last season, one split between the Los Angeles Kings and Vegas Golden Knights, the latter of whom delivered his third championship – even though he didn’t play in the postseason. Quick went 5-2-2 with a 3.13 GAA in 10 games after being traded to Vegas, but he finished the season with a 3.41 GAA and .882 save percentage – the lowest full-season save percentage of the 37-year-old’s 16-year career.
The signing of Quick was at least somewhat puzzling in both personnel and timing. Drury’s expeditious approach to free-agent shopping last month may prove smart in the long run, but the rush to sign a veteran backup goalie – especially in this depressed market – seemed unnecessary. Moreover, the Rangers had the role locked down last season in the form of Jaroslav Halak, who remains unsigned.
Halak, after a rough start to 2022-23, did exactly what a backup goalie is supposed to do – give his team confidence that he could step in for an extended period should the No. 1 go down. Halak finished with a 2.72 GAA and .903 save percentage, suggesting that even at age 38, he’s still capable of performing at a high level.
Drury’s Free-Agent Signings Have Potential to Determine Club’s Fate
Will the Rangers be able to count on Quick the same way? Perhaps some work with the club’s elite goaltending coach Benoit Allaire will help Quick regain enough of his All-Star form, but that’s an unknown. The Blueshirts have up-and-coming prospect Dylan Garand and veteran Louis Domingue in the minors as other options, but it’s Quick who was brought in to create a comfort level behind Shesterkin – just as Halak did in 2022-23.
Belzile, Mackey and Nash were signed as depth players and seem ticketed for Hartford of the American Hockey League – or they could end up playing significant roles for the Rangers. Drury has rolled the dice with his attempt to fill roster spots with contracts that fit the team’s tight budget, an approach that could make him look awfully shrewd or awfully bad.
How many of these players can deliver average or above-average performances in 2023-24? Is it likely any of them will? Has Drury unearthed one or more hidden gems from the cost-effective group that will result in a solid bottom of the roster, or will the Rangers again find themselves scrambling for depth all season, taking down their hopes of making a run at the Cup?
In the end, Drury had little choice but to go with this course of action, with cap problems continuing to loom this season as well as for the next few years. Time will tell whether he selected the right items from the low-cost aisle – and just how critical those additions will end up being for a team with championship aspirations.
