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Published June 15, 2024 at 3:35 am ET
As the Stanley Cup Final nears its end, the Rangers have already dispersed for the summer with an offseason full of questions ahead.
The Blueshirts’ Stanley Cup drought will extend to 31 years next season, and the team as constructed over the past five years has failed to overcome that hurdle in the conference finals.
President and general manager Chris Drury and the rest of the Rangers front office will look to rectify that over the next three months and set this team up for maximum success next season.
These are the five main questions the organization must ask itself if it hopes to achieve this:
Can this core do it?
The track record says no, but the team says yes.
You can’t put a price on a core that has been united, grown together and proven to be successful together.
However, it becomes less valuable when the measure of that success no longer meets expectations.
Under the direction of first-year head coach Peter Laviolette, this core and team thrived.
The next test will be to see how receptive they are to your methods in year 2.
That’s not so much the problem the Rangers face; It will always come down to how they compare to the other contending teams.
Rangers president and general manager Chris Drury has a lot of big decisions to make this offseason. Charles Wenzelberg / New York Post
There are many overarching themes in the team’s recent postseason runs that call into question whether they are ready to go the distance.
It’s a personnel issue, and it’s something the Rangers will have to consider going forward.
Is a big move necessary?
Completely destroying a core that has not only reached the conference finals in two of the last three years but is also coming off winning the Presidents’ Trophy seems drastic.
However, some major changes could affect how the club overcomes the final hurdle to reach the Cup final.
There are ways to alter the look of a lineup with one or two big changes, whether it’s cutting someone and replacing them with someone else or rearranging line/defensive pairing combinations that have been staples for years.
These are possibilities the Rangers will have to consider if they believe the makeup of this team needs to be adjusted to take the next step.
Players like Chris Kreider, Mika Zibanejad, Barclay Goodrow and Jacob Trouba have been a huge part of what the Rangers have done in recent years, but it hasn’t been enough for the Stanley Cup.
What’s too much for Shesty?
Igor Shesterkin’s extension is surely near the top of Drury’s agenda, for obvious reasons (the star Russian goalkeeper is their best player and all), but the perspective has to remain on the bigger picture and Cup aspirations .
The Henrik Lundqvist era should serve as a warning to the Rangers, who failed to reach hockey’s Mount Everest while the Hall of Fame goaltender accounted for between 12.3 and 10.4 percent of the league’s salary cap. organization from 2014-15 to 2019-20. .
Igor Shesterkin speaks to the media as part of the Rangers’ end-of-season interviews. Robert Sabo / New York Post
That being said, Shesterkin is the backbone of the Rangers and has earned his keep.
The floor for negotiations appears to be $10.5 million, while the starting point appears to be $12 million.
The balancing act of ensuring the 28-year-old is satisfied and the franchise isn’t financially handcuffed while bolstering the roster around him will be a tightrope walk.
What’s in Kakko’s future?
The Rangers signed Kaapo Kakko to a one-year contract on Thursday at the qualifying offer price of $2.4 million, giving Drury some cost certainty as he navigates the offseason.
Signing Kakko on such a profitable deal helps if he remains at the club or as a reasonable contract that could attract a business partner, if what Drury decides to do is part ways with the Finn.
Of course, it would have to be the right deal, with a regular, impactful skater as part of the return to fill the void left by Kakko.
Could the Rangers try to do that with their 2019 second overall pick?
Alexis Lafreniere is coming off his great season; Who’s to say Kakko wouldn’t have his next one?
On the other hand, Kakko may be open to a fresh start, especially if his role continues to include limited power-play time and being in the bottom six.
How will the defense be affected?
Two key members of the blue line, Braden Schneider and Ryan Lindgren, are impending restricted free agents, but only the latter has arbitration rights.
The expectation is that both defensemen will be priority signings this offseason, especially since the two have been staples in the Rangers’ backcourt for three and five seasons, respectively.
Of course, Adam Fox still has five years left on his seven-year deal, while K’Andre Miller is set to enter the final season of his two-year deal. Jacob Trouba is coming off an up-and-down season capped by a disappointing postseason.
And as his modified no-trade clause takes effect in the penultimate season of his seven-year contract, the captain is saddled with an $8 million salary cap charge that could be tempting to release.
Erik Gustafsson was good, but not great, in the one-year, $825,000 contract he signed with the Rangers last July.
There’s also Zac Jones, who is still waiting in the wings and is about to begin the second half of his two-year, $812,500 contract.
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