Rangers searching for blueline power-play help

With blueliner Adam Fox landing on LTIR last month due to an upper-body injury late last month, the New York Rangers find themselves without their top blueliner and a key threat offensively from the back end.  While they won’t be able to add someone who can log the nearly 24 minutes per game that Fox can, finding someone who could help in the offensive zone in a more limited role could be more doable.

To that end, Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman relayed on the latest "32 Thoughts" podcast (audio link) that New York is looking to see if they can acquire someone to help quarterback the power play.  One player he suggested as a possible option is former Ranger Erik Gustafsson, who is currently playing in the minors after the Red Wings passed him through waivers unclaimed back in October.

Interestingly, offense from the defense hasn’t been an issue for the Rangers in the early going this season, with their blueliners combining for 16 tallies, good for fourth in the league.  Fox only has three of those, while newcomer Vladislav Gavrikov is leading the way with six.

However, Gavrikov, nor any of their other defenders, is a natural power play threat.  As a result, the Rangers have, at times, gone with five-forward units while Braden Schneider is second among New York defenders in power-play ice time per game; he has all of one goal in 29 outings this season.  With Gavrikov not being utilized at all with the man advantage, their existing options are limited.

The Rangers currently have a power play success rate (19.4%) that checks in just below the league average (20%), while offensively, they’re in the bottom third of the league in total goals scored.  Filtering by conference, they’re the lowest-scoring team in the East in terms of goals per game.  Suffice it to say, there is certainly a void for GM Chris Drury to try to fill here.

However, their salary cap flexibility is rather limited.  Per PuckPedia, the Rangers are more than $1M into LTIR already and while Fox being on there gives them some short-term wiggle room, they have to get back into compliance when he’s activated (or just over the $95.5M ceiling as Matt Rempe is also on there at the moment).  That means whoever they look to get needs to be someone who has a cap hit that can be cleared off the books when Fox comes back.

That’s not the case with Gustafsson.  In the final season of a two-year deal, he carries a $2M cap charge, one that’s lowered to $850K while he’s in the minors.  Gustafsson could fit the extra role they want to fill as he did a few years ago with them, but the higher cap charge means that Detroit would either need to retain or New York would need to send someone the other way to partially offset the money.  Whether they find a way to make that work or find someone else to fill that void, it appears that Drury is searching for some outside help on the back end.