Chris Drury must avoid encountering Pavel Buchnevich with K’Andre Miller and Alexis Lafreniere – Hockey Writer – New York Rangers

The New York Rangers’ offseason has officially begun, starting with major actions. Chris Kreider, the team’s longest lifelong player, was traded to the Anaheim Ducks in a deal that allowed the Rangers to earn $6.5 million in much-needed salary areas to make other moves in the offseason to improve the team next season. There may be other players traded in the next few weeks, with the two most names being K’andre Miller and Alexis Lafreniere. Although both players are in the descent season, they can still bring back some good assets in any potential deal.

The problem with the traded two participants is that General Manager (GM) Chris Drury needs to develop a plan to replace these players as they are an important part of the roster. He made this mistake once before, back to the start of GM, when he traded Pavel Buchnevich to the St. Louis Blues and was not ready to take a place in the roster right away. If Drury does intend to move Miller or Lafreniere, he needs to make sure he knows the players are coming in to replace them because if he doesn’t, the team will get worse and then get better.

Review of Buchnivic’s deal

First, we will go back to everything that started the offseason in 2021. The Rangers stood out in a collectively shortened season and missed the playoffs. Before the season ended, both GM Jeff Gorton and Hockey Operations president John Davidson let go, and Drury took over both roles. Entering the offseason, there are rumors that the Wanderers are very interested in getting Jack Eichel from the Buffalo Sabres, and maybe they will be the team because they have a serious conversation with the Sabres. They need to create cap space and space on the roster to reach a deal, and one of the players who started rumoring his name was Buchnivic. He was the best season of his career at the time, with 20 goals and 48 points in 54 games. He was a restricted free agent (RFA) that summer, and both sides seemed to disagree with a new deal. Eventually, a deal was reached, which still had an impact on today’s team.

Buchnevich was traded to the Blues in exchange for Sammy Blais and a 2022 second-round draft pick. Blais played a fourth-tier role in the Rangers and played 54 games in two seasons with the team without scoring. He was turned back to the blues in the industry that brought Vladimir Tarasenko to New York in 2023. For Buchnivic, he left New York, didn’t look back and has become an elite player for the Blues, scoring at least 20 goals in each of his first four seasons with the team. For the Wanderers, they haven’t found a permanent replacement on the right wing, and there’s already a spinning player who has played the game in that place, but none of them are as persistent as Buchnevich, as they do with Kreider and Mika Zibanejad. Drury’s first big deal proved to be his worst and he’s still paying the price, which is why he needs to learn from his mistakes.

Deal Miller will leave the left side of defense barren

After Kreider’s trade, the next name that seems most likely to move is Miller. He is the RFA this summer and it seems Drury is hesitating to pay for the long term. Short-term deals are also risky, as Miller seems to be hoping to cash out when he becomes an unrestricted free agent for two seasons, and they may get nothing. With that in mind, besides the fact that Drury needs to improve this defensive core, it seems now is the time for both sides to go their own way apart, and the deal is the best way to achieve that, so the Rangers can at least bring some value to the player rather than losing him in two years.

Related: Anaheim Ducks Get Chris Creed from New York Rangers

The problem Drury had to overcome was finding a replacement for Miller in the top four. Although Miller isn’t great and hasn’t shown much progress over the years, he still plays a big role in the team. If they put him into practice without letting the defenders come back, the two players under the roster and contract are left-handed guards, Carson Soucy and Urho Vaakaninen. If the Rangers take the playoffs seriously next season, none of those players should have seen the first four minutes.

There aren’t many options for free agents, but one of the names they link is Vladislav Gavrikov. He has always been a solid top four player for the Los Angeles Kings and is a name in the defensive free agent market. His problem will be his contract, as he may get too many contracts in too long. If the rangers get him, they will regret the trade for several seasons, but if they don’t, they may lose their luck and the defense will look much weaker if Miller goes.

Selling very low on lafreniere may be a mistake

Lafreniere is another player with constant trade rumors. While he is not an RFA like Buchnevich, he is a young winger and has no real chance to show what he can do, just like before Buchnevich was traded. Yes, Lafreniere has played with Artemi Panarin for most of the past two seasons, but he has never been seen as the “guy” of New York as he expected, and he can’t even stand out this season while struggling. Never had a long time to show what he could show, and now Kreider is no longer on the depth chart, he can go back to the natural side of the left wing and easily take Kreider in the top power play unit. His overall first time was chosen, for a reason, and it’s time to give him a chance to shine rather than swap him into a dollar penny.

Now trading him will mean Drury will sell lows in his down season. He also signed a seven-year extension in October, so the team may like his long-term lockdown, but for Drury, he needs to realize that he can’t continue to relocate these untrained young players as he will need players like Lafreniere to come here and lead the new players in the new ranks of players. Now starts to start the failure. Trading him in the offseason is probably the equivalent of Buchnivic’s deal because you won’t get fair value in the deal, and there will be a loophole in the roster and they don’t have players to play this role in the top six. If Drury is smart, he will leave Lafreniere this season to understand the services he has to offer under his new head coach, and maybe this time, he finally has a chance to be seen as a top player for Rangers.

Drury still has many decisions to make this offseason. Moving Kreider is just the first step in planning for this team next season. He needs to be smart about the rest of the moves he has made, because another deal like Buchnivic could reset the franchise to a few years, a deal he still hasn’t recovered from. If he does plan to move Miller and Lavranil, he’s better sure who will take their place, because next season may be as bad as this one if he doesn’t.