Нью-Йорк Рейнжерс бүрэлдэхүүндээ томоохон өөрчлөлтүүд хийлээ

Is your head still spinning?

The New York Rangers got off to a slower start than many NHL teams when free agency opened at noon on Wednesday, but they finished with a flurry.

Between their first trade of the day for backup goalie Joonas Korpisalo and their final piece of business (at least for now) of flipping defenseman Will Borgen to the Boston Bruins for two draft picks, they completed seven transactions in less than five hours. The biggest ones came in the final hour or so.

In total, seven new players were added — forwards Oliver Bjorkstrand, Cole Beaudoin and Joe Veleno, defensemen Sean Durzi, Marcus Pettersson and Marc Del Gaizo, and Korpisalo — plus three draft picks. Out went three players and two picks, most notably veteran center Vincent Trocheck, who landed with the Utah Mammoth following months of trade speculation. This came days after picking nine new prospects in the 2026 NHL Draft, including No. 5 selection Alberts Šmits, and making their splashiest trade of the offseason to date by acquiring Pavel Dorofeyev and signing the 25-year-old goal-scorer to a seven-year, $77 million extension.

So, what do we make of it all? We’ll take time in the coming days and weeks to process the most consequential offseason of team president and general manager Chris Drury’s five-year tenure, but there are two ways you could look at it.

1. The Rangers are in a better place today than they were last week, in terms of NHL competitiveness and depth of young talent.
2. The problems that required such extreme offseason surgery were largely self-inflicted, with plenty of scalpel work still to be done.

My initial feeling is that both are at least partially true.

I won’t argue that the forward group is better with Dorofeyev and likely Bjorkstrand in the top six than it was with Trocheck and star winger Artemi Panarin, who was traded in February for a return that didn’t match his elite production. The Rangers already lacked firepower and have even less now, but they’re definitely trending in a younger direction — and I have a hunch they’ll look for other ways to add up front before the summer is through.

Meanwhile, the D corps is decidedly improved. Matthew Robertson and Braden Schneider finished as the second pair last season, but they’ll be bumped down to the third and replaced by an intriguing duo of Pettersson and Durzi. (The likelihood of Schneider sticking around has increased, following New York’s decision to move on from Borgen, who’s five years older and fell behind Schneider in terms of usage last season.)

Both acquisitions have a lot to prove, with the 30-year-old Pettersson coming off arguably the worst season of his nine-year career (his 43.76 percent expected goals-for rate and 2.86 xGA/60 were both career worsts, according to Evolving Hockey) and the 27-year-old Durzi being disrupted by injuries the last two seasons. But they possess complementary skill sets — the lefty Pettersson as the sturdy, 6-foot-5 defender, while the righty Durzi is more of an agile puck-mover — and they will raise the floor of the defense, if healthy.

Petterson also enjoyed the best years of his career during his seven seasons in Pittsburgh with current Rangers coach Mike Sullivan, which was a clear selling point for the blueliner.

Their additions should allow New York to take its time with Šmits. He’s expected to sign his entry-level contract this summer, and was considered the draft’s most NHL-ready defenseman, but easing him in with AHL Hartford is probably a good idea, since previous prospects flopped after being fast-tracked to the NHL. The Wolf Pack will have perhaps their most promising roster ever, with Šmits, Beaudoin, Liam Greentree and others set to turn pro. I understand that may not be saying much, given Hartford’s checkered history, but improved depth in the pipeline is one of the more important takeaways from the last few days.

Šmits is the new crown jewel, but Beaudoin will be the X-factor. Drury held onto Trocheck at the trade deadline because he valued players over picks, and he was able to secure two in Beaudoin and Durzi (plus a 2027 third-rounder) from an up-and-coming Mammoth team that was anxious to add a veteran presence. Utah tried to trade for Trocheck in March and persisted this summer, with the center warming to the idea of playing for a young contender.

Beaudoin is a Drury kind of player who’s known for his freakish workouts and tenacity on the ice. In his 2024 draft year, when Utah selected the 6-foot-2, 212-pounder with the 24th pick, The Athletic’s Scott Wheeler wrote, “He might be the fittest, strongest player in the (class).” He immediately becomes the best center prospect in an organizational pool that’s extremely light on them, but his development will dictate how this trade is ultimately judged.

Initial responses to my inquiries around the league suggest the 20-year-old Ottawa native is likely a bottom-sixer, which would be a fine outcome. But Beaudoin ripped off 88 points (33 goals and 55 assists) in 54 games as the captain of OHL Barrie last season, then another 29 (10 goals and 19 assists) in 15 playoff games. If he maintains that offense as he moves up levels and eventually blossoms into a top-six staple, this trade becomes a home run.

Even if that happens, though, the need for top-end skill and speed remains a priority. In bolstering the roster, Drury has turned the Rangers into viable challengers for a playoff spot. But they won’t be viewed as legitimate Stanley Cup contenders until they uncover more play drivers who can rise to the top of the lineup and match up with the NHL’s most dynamic weapons. Maybe the recent upgrades will help lure more stars in the coming years, but recent history tells us that’s a dangerous game to play. The best and most sustainable way to build the roster is from within, and that will require drafting and developing well for the next few years.

It will be tougher to do that with three fewer first-round picks, which is what Drury gave up to bring in Dorofeyev and Pettersson. One of those picks was No. 26, and the other two are top-10 protected, but that won’t be the case if those protections are triggered and they roll into the following seasons. Drury’s aggressive approach suggests he’s more concerned with now than then, but we’ve seen how years of trading away draft capital can diminish a prospect pool and, over time, an NHL lineup.

The good news is that he used those assets to acquire players with youth, multiyear commitments or a combination of both. He also avoided bloated contracts in a free-agent class that didn’t merit any. That’s progress.

How much credit do you get for learning from past mistakes and beginning to clean up your own mess? I think it’s fair to grant some, while acknowledging that the job still requires quite a bit of elbow grease.