New York Rangers Free Agency: Day 1

It’s not every day that one sees a player whose team was knocked out of the playoffs signing with their former enemy, but Trocheck has traded in his red Hurricanes jersey for a blue one. Surprisingly, Trocheck seemed to understand the New York Rangers might need him before the deal even got done as he told SNY.

But to win the hearts of the loyal Ranger fans, ‘Vinny Tro’ will have to do a lot more than act like he wants to be there. The 29-year-old center will have to fit in well with second-line playmaker Artemi ‘the Breadman’ Panarin and try and reclaim the form he had during his best season. During the 2017-18 NHL season, Trocheck scored 75 points while playing all 82 games, including 31 goals but since his production has tapered off. Part of the reason, the Rangers signed him was that he scored roughly as much as Copp or Strome did (over 50 points) but the Rangers want to see Trocheck excel in all facets; checking, defense and offense.

Chris, I need Backup…Two Please

The Rangers starting goalie last season was Igor Shesterkin and the Rangers cruised into the playoffs despite getting bad play from their backup. However, now Drury has decided to bring in two veteran goalies to back up their prized netminder. Those goalies are Jaroslav Halak and Louis Domingue. The 37-year-old Halak comes to Madison Square Garden on a one-year deal worth 1.5 million while Domingue reportedly comes in on a two-way deal that will see him primarily play in Hartford.

Already the funny moment Domingue had when he said he ate “spicy pork” before playing the Rangers in a playoff game is following the Quebec native to New York City.

However, Domingue’s signing to a two-year deal raises an eyebrow because he has played in three regular-season games in the past two seasons. He is far from being a reliable NHL goaltender and despite holding his own in the first round of the playoffs after being brought in as the third-string goalie, it’s not clear that Domingue is somebody the New York Rangers can rely upon next year. However, in the event that Shesterkin is injured and Halak is not playing well, the Rangers have some insurance for the 2022-23 season.

Nemeth’s Time on the New York Rangers Wraps up Early

The last shoe to drop on a day of Free Agent Frenzy involved the Rangers making a move that their fanbase had hoped for. During the summer of 2021, free agent defenseman Patrik Nemeth signed a three-year contract with the Blueshirts, coming over from the Colorado Avalanche. But moving from city to city had happened often for the big Swede, who was traded at the 2021 trade deadline to the Avs from the Detroit Red Wings.

However, during his time at Madison Square Garden, Nemeth never really stepped up and became an uber-responsible stay-at-home defenseman. One factor in his shortcomings is that Nemeth was infected with COVID on Dec. 18, making him miss two games before the Christmas break.

He then played intermittently for the next two weeks before Gerard Gallant tried to mislead the press and say he was ‘banged up’ when the new year began. To his credit, Nemeth missed 19 games and played the rest of the year after returning on Jan. 10.

However, his extreme slowness generally hurt his game and made him a liability against fast teams. This was particularly evident in the first round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs when Nemeth was removed from the lineup after game 3’s loss and scratched for the rest of the Rangers’ playoff run. Luckily, New York had several good defensemen step up unexpectedly like Braden Schneider (who was Nemeth’s partner), which helped render Nemeth less important.

Nemeth Traded

So, the news that Nemeth had been traded for one prospect from Arizona named Ty Emberson, along with two draft picks is not really a surprise. However, considering Emberson was a -25 during the 2021-22 American Hockey League (AHL) season with Tuscon and fifth on the team among defensemen in points, Chris Drury did not pull enough out of Arizona considering he sent them an experienced defenseman, a 2nd round pick in 2025, and a conditional pick. The conditional permits Arizona to take the Rangers third in 2024 or their own second in 2026– which is hard to understand since the Coyotes have that, already.

What is clear is that the Rangers dealt Nemeth to clear $2.5 million off the books. This gave the Rangers freedom to fill out their forward group with additional free agents like Ryan Carpenter on a one-year deal.

Who, at six feet, 200lbs figures to be a solid addition to the Rangers’ bottom six. This all shows that the NHL is a business and while the fans liked new additions to the team like Copp and Frank Vatrano, general managers are not as close to the players as coaches are.

As the saying goes, “You can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make them drink.” And in this case, this means that if Copp and Vatrano did not want to sign with the Rangers at a discount, the Rangers could not force them to accept that deal.

While they got an interesting two-way center in Trocheck who was a key member of a Carolina Hurricanes team that won the Metropolitan division in 2022 and should help the team try to reach its goals next season.

Featured Image Credits to Embed from Getty Images