Why Rangers ‘desperate to shake up their team,’ add another star
In the wake of their failed bid to acquire Quinn Hughes last week, the New York Rangers likely aren’t done hunting for a big-time star player.
NHL Insider Chris Johnston of the Athletic reported Monday that the Rangers’ appetite to acquire an elite talent is real, which is why they were one of several teams to make an offer on Hughes before the Vancouver Canucks traded him to the Minnesota Wild this past Friday.
“The Rangers are desperate to shake up their team in the sense of trying to bring in a game-breaker,” Johnston said Monday on his podcast.
You’d think their focus is on adding a top-six forward to produce more offense. The Rangers are 29th in the League, averaging 2.64 goals scored per game. They’ve been shut out six times in 33 games.
But Hughes appealed to them as a driver of offense, too, even though he’s a defenseman. Though the Rangers already have an elite offensive defenseman in Adam Fox, they couldn’t pass on trying to load up offensively from their back end by making a run at Hughes. The 2023-24 Norris Trophy winner is 26 and right there with Cale Makar of the Colorado Avalanche as the top offensive defenseman in the NHL.
Perhaps if that 2026 elite class of free agent forwards hadn’t dried up, the Rangers wouldn’t have gotten involved in the Hughes sweepstakes. But Connor McDavid (Edmonton Oilers), Jack Eichel (Vegas Golden Knights), Kirill Kaprizov (Wild), Adrian Kempe (Los Angeles Kings), Kyle Connor (Winnipeg Jets), and Martin Necas (Avalanche) each signed contract extensions with their current teams and won’t hit the open market next summer.
“They (the Rangers) were sort of poised to be one of the teams that if we went to the summer of 2026 with lots of free agency, I think they could’ve been the major player there because they have cap space and lots to sell in terms of the organization, where they play, all those types of things,” Johnston explained. “And then all those players signed. And now it’s harder for them to make the trade because they just don’t have all the pieces you’d want, or they want to keep those guys.”
Ironically, one of the top remaining UFA forwards next offseason is Rangers wing Artemi Panarin, who once again leads them in scoring with 33 points (11 goals, 22 assists) in 33 games. Alex Tuch of the Buffalo Sabres also remains unsigned and is an intriguing option.
Rangers have little to trade away for ‘game-breaker’
But as Johnston pointed out, the Rangers may need to make a trade in order to quench their desire to land a “game-breaker.” That won’t be easy, as the Hughes trade proved. The Rangers prospect pool is thin. And there’s little reason to believe New York wishes to move its one true high-end forward prospect, Gabe Perreault, who’s only 20 and in his rookie pro season with Hartford of the American Hockey League.
In fact, NHL Network host E.J. Hradek recently told Forever Blueshirts that it might be time to give Perreault another look at the NHL level. Perreault leads Hartford with 10 goals and 17 points in 20 games.
“It’s interesting to see what’s going on with Gabe Perreault, because he’s playing real well in the American [Hockey] League,” Hradek said on the Rink Rap podcast. ‘I am someone who believes in letting guys ripen at the lesser levels, and so that’s probably a good thing that he’s getting that experience there. But that said, they need help at the NHL level, which is a problem. Maybe that injection of, as they say, that youthful enthusiasm and youthful talent to your mix up front would give them a little bit of a jump.”
Outside of Perreault, New York’s most intriguing trade commodities are the two first-round draft picks they have in 2026. There’s varying level of interest around the League in current Rangers like Alexis Lafreniere and Braden Schneider.
It all would’ve been easier if Rangers simply needed money to land the superstar they want. The Rangers project to have $30 million in salary cap space this upcoming offseason, per PuckPedia.
