The New York Rangers may not have necessarily been buyers at the NHL Trade Deadline, but the playoffs are still at the forefront of their minds.
Rangers president and general manager Chris Drury didn’t make any major trades and that was for a reason.
The Rangers traded a few of their upcoming unrestricted free agents including Ryan Lindgren, Jimmy Vesey and Reilly Smith as the team emphasized that they weren’t in a position to let their UFAs walk without getting assets or players in return.
Drury went out and acquired a couple of players under contract going into next season that can help the Rangers out now and in the future.
New York used Lindgren and Vesey to go out and get 24-year-old forward Juuso Parssinen while trading a 2025 third-round pick they got in exchange for Reilly Smith to acquire defenseman Carson Soucy.
Strategically, Drury made it a priority to acquire players that can slot into the lineup right now because he still believes in the core and their chances to make a playoff run.
“I wanted to make some changes these last few days, this last week, to show them that the way they played, to me, is how you have to play, night in & night out,” Drury said. “I do believe in the group. I think we have enough talent to push forward.”
Fixing up the blue line has been a big priority for Drury this season. He signed Urho Vaakanainen to a two-year, $3.1 million extension, a player who’s thrived since arriving as part of the Jacob Trouba trade.
The Rangers also acquired Will Borgen in a deal that included Kaapo Kakko shortly back in December. Borgen’s high level of production playing alongside K’Andre Miller earned him a five-year, $20.5 million extension.
“We’re just looking for the best players we could,” Drury said of the state of the defensive core. “We knew we wanted to make some changes as this season got underway. Just the best pieces we could possibly find. There's certainly some size back there now, which is always nice. But you’ve got to be able to move, you’ve got to be able to move a puck, you’ve got to be able to play in a lot of different scenarios over the course of an NHL season. We think we have a lot of D back there that can do that.”
The Blueshirts were just missing a left-handed defenseman, so the addition of Soucy on Thursday was the icing on top of the cake.
When talking about Soucy, Drury made it crystal clear that the 30-year-old defenseman is in his long-term plan for the Rangers.
“We think there's a lot of possibilities with Carson, whether it's (pairing) with Schneids or Foxy or Will (Borgen), or even having him on the right side at some point. We'll see how it plays out. I'm glad we were able to get him. I was excited about the term, excited about the number. He's not a rental. He’s someone we could have in for the rest of the year and next year. I just like the overall game – the size, the skating, the sense, how he defends. We were able to do some homework on him the last couple weeks and we’re excited to get him with a piece we got in the Reilly Smith trade.”
Will the Rangers make the playoffs? It certainly is not a given and they very well may not secure a postseason spot.
However, Drury has put the Rangers in a position where they’ll have the pieces to be competitive going into the 2025-26 season with their eyes focused on making a big splash during the offseason.
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