Following a successful trade deadline day, the Rangers are back at it as we enter the final stage of the regular season to take on the New Jersey Devils. This will without a doubt be one of the more exciting games of the season as the Rangers will have some new faces likely entering the lineup. Before we preview tonight’s matchup, let’s briefly breakdown yesterday’s transactions and go over why Chris Drury made the right moves.
The Rangers made four acquisitions yesterday:
Nick Merkley from the San Jose Sharks in exchange for Anthony Bitetto
Justin Braun from the Philadelphia Flyers in exchange for the Rangers 2023 3rd round pick.
Tyler Motte from the Vancouver Canucks in exchange for the Rangers 2023 4th round pick.
Andrew Copp and a 2023 6th round pick from the Winnipeg Jets in exchange for Morgan Barron, two conditional second round picks and a 2023 5th round pick. The conditions on those two second round picks being if the Rangers win two rounds of the playoffs and Copp plays 50% of those games, one of those picks becomes a first. The other condition gives Winnipeg the choice between a 2022 or 2023 2nd round pick. (The Rangers have St. Louis’ 2022 2nd rounder)
Overall, these are all great moves for the Rangers. For as great of a story Anthony Bitetto was and for as much as he was loved in the locker room, he was buried in Hartford with all of the Rangers depth on defense. Moving him for Nick Merkley is a great move for Hartford who can certainly benefit from additional forward support, especially since Brodzinski’s recent success with the Rangers. Merkley is only 24 and was a former first round draft pick who was a point per game player in Junior. While that success hasn’t made the professional jump, it’s fair to say his ceiling is higher than Bitetto’s.
Justin Braun was an interesting pick up as we know the Rangers are heavy on defense and it’s pretty rare for rival teams to make moves with each other. The fourth move in league history between the Rangers and Flyers brings the Rangers a veteran right handed shot defenseman in Justin Braun. It’s never a bad idea for a playoff bound team to add depth, especially on the back end in veteran form. While Braden Schneider’s efforts with the Rangers have been generally impressive thus far, it’s smart to bring in another veteran defenseman to bolster the back end that is an upgrade from Jarred Tinordi. It’ll be interesting to see if they play Braun on his off hand to keep Schneider in the mix or if we’ll get an all veteran third pairing and Schneider rotates in. The consensus on Braun seems to be very well, he’s an extremely defensive defenseman and can be relied on at key moments.
Tyler Motte might low key end up being the best acquisition Chris Drury made at this year’s trade deadline. Kevin Rooney’s injury seems to be more significant than anyone thought as he likely won’t be an option for another couple of weeks to a month. Even with a healthy Kevin Rooney, Tyler Motte is an upgrade to that Rangers fourth line. He can play center, he can play the wing, he kills penalties, blocks shots, plays with fire and is spoken very highly about, both in regards to his character and his play. Rangers fans should be real excited about what Motte will bring to this Rangers bottom six
Andrew Copp ended up being the big name get for the Rangers and given every circumstance, ended up being the right move. There was lots of talk about Phil Kessel’s and Rickard Rakell’s, pipe dreams like Alex DeBrincat but at the end of the day, they got a middle six guy who can get you points, play just about anywhere in your lineup and fits the mold that this team has become. On top of all that, what’s becoming a bit of a trend for the Rangers, new acquisition Andrew Copp also goes way back with Jacob Trouba.
All in all, when you look at what the Rangers gave up and what they got in return in the week leading up to the deadline, they are not only a better team going into a playoff run, but they didn’t sacrifice the future in the process of going all in and that was exactly what they should’ve done. You have to think all of the new additions will be in the lineup tonight and one thing is for certain and that’s this is going to be one fun team to watch night in and night out for the rest of regular season and hopefully for a deep playoff run.
Now for tonight’s game, the Rangers are taking on the Devils who are 4-6 in their last ten and very much out of the playoff picture. Tonight should be an opportunity for this Rangers team to have themselves a bit of a stat night with the help of their new reinforcements. There isn’t a much better way to set the tone for the final stretch of the regular season than by netting a huge blow out type of win against your rival team and that should be the Rangers goal going into the Prudential Center tonight.
The Rangers are coming off a huge weekend of back to back wins and are coming out of the trade deadline as one of the many winners. The momentum should be at an all time as should the vibe in the locker room. By no means can they take the Devils lightly but they should be able to have one of their more dominating performances of the season. The Rangers are 2-0 against the Devils on the season as they will play them on the road for the first time.
As for the Rangers lineup tonight, we can expect the following as it appeared in today’s morning skate:
Kreider - Zibanejad - Lafreniere
Panarin - Strome - Vatrano
Copp - Chytil - Hunt
Motte - Goodrow - Reaves
Lindgren - Fox
Miller - Trouba
Nemeth - Braun
Look for Shesterkin to get back in net after Georgiev’s stellar outing against the Hurricanes on Sunday Night. In addition to all the new faces in the lineup definitely keep an eye on Filip Chytil who will start to see some new linemates that could very well spark his performance that has been ever increasing as of late to begin with. You have to hope that even though it was only an empty net goal that Frank Vatrano will start heating up after getting his first goal as a Ranger against the Hurricanes as things begin to come together for this Rangers team.
Chris Feldman
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