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Yesterday Joe wrote a piece examining how the Rangers should handle the Kevin Shattenkirk situation.
Shattenkirk is the golden ring that many Stanley Cup contenders will be reaching for as deadline day approaches. But the asking price for Shattenkirk will not be cheap. Teams will also be making calls and sending carrier pigeons about defenders with smaller price tags before March 1st.
There are plenty of other rental defensemen that will likely be available. In fact, one of them has already been dealt.
In some ways the Michael Stone trade was the unofficial beginning of the annual trade deadline madness. Or did it already start with the Sergey Kalinin trade? Who knows, but it’s happening.
Michael Stone to CGY for 3rd round pick and a conditional 5th in 2018. ARI retains half of Stone's salary. Condition kicks in if re-signed.
— Bob McKenzie (@TSNBobMcKenzie) February 20, 2017
The Stone trade is just another piece of evidence that teams are willing to give up assets to add depth and address weaknesses. It’s also more evidence of teams overvaluing size, past performance and intangibles like the benefits of a change of scenery.
The Calgary Flames desperately needed another functional defenseman. After trading for Michael Stone they.. still have that exact same need.
— Dimitri Filipovic (@DimFilipovic) February 20, 2017
I thought it would be interesting to put together a table listing some of the potential rental defensemen this year. It is by no means perfect or comprehensive, but it does put some more names in the catalog to debate and discuss.
UFA Defensemen with a minimum of 20 GP
| PLAYER | TEAM | AGE | GP | G | A | P | Rel. CF% | CF% | TOI | SALARY | CAP HIT |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PLAYER | TEAM | AGE | GP | G | A | P | Rel. CF% | CF% | TOI | SALARY | CAP HIT |
| Korbinian Holzer | ANA | 29 | 23 | 1 | 5 | 6 | -13.73 | 39.41 | 13:56 | $700,000 | $700,000 |
| John-Michael Liles | BOS | 36 | 30 | 0 | 5 | 5 | -0.9 | 53.48 | 16:16 | $2,000,000 | $2,000,000 |
| Cody Franson | BUF | 29 | 53 | 3 | 13 | 16 | 5.46 | 50.67 | 18:49 | $2,650,000 | $3,325,000 |
| Dmitry Kulikov | BUF | 26 | 34 | 1 | 1 | 2 | -3.74 | 50.06 | 22:22 | $4,500,000 | $4,333,333 |
| Taylor Fedun | BUF | 28 | 25 | 0 | 7 | 7 | 9.22 | 53.85 | 13:38 | $600,000 | $600,000 |
| Deryk Engelland | CGY | 34 | 59 | 2 | 9 | 11 | -5.83 | 47.06 | 17:54 | $2,750,000 | $2,916,667 |
| Dennis Wideman | CGY | 33 | 52 | 3 | 13 | 16 | -0.59 | 50.7 | 20:37 | $6,000,000 | $5,250,000 |
| Michael Stone | CGY | 26 | 45 | 1 | 8 | 9 | -4.98 | 42.37 | 20:13 | $4,000,000 | $4,000,000 |
| Ron Hainsey | CAR | 35 | 55 | 4 | 10 | 14 | -2.18 | 50.13 | 22:17 | $2,500,000 | $2,833,333 |
| Matt Tennyson | CAR | 26 | 31 | 0 | 4 | 4 | -3.06 | 48.82 | 14:09 | $675,000 | $675,000 |
| Brian Campbell | CHI | 37 | 57 | 4 | 10 | 14 | -2.36 | 49.01 | 18:17 | $1,500,000 | $1,500,000 |
| Fedor Tyutin | COL | 33 | 48 | 1 | 9 | 10 | -1.97 | 45.84 | 18:54 | $2,000,000 | $2,000,000 |
| Cody Goloubef | COL | 27 | 26 | 0 | 3 | 3 | 2.99 | 49.07 | 17:36 | $800,000 | $750,000 |
| Johnny Oduya | DAL | 35 | 36 | 1 | 6 | 7 | -1.19 | 48.29 | 18:09 | $3,750,000 | $3,750,000 |
| Brendan Smith | DET | 28 | 32 | 2 | 3 | 5 | 2.91 | 49.38 | 18:39 | $3,250,000 | $2,750,000 |
| Kris Russell | EDM | 29 | 47 | 0 | 5 | 5 | -5.82 | 45.91 | 21:28 | $3,100,000 | $3,100,000 |
| Eric Gryba | EDM | 28 | 29 | 1 | 3 | 4 | 0.58 | 52.18 | 16:20 | $950,000 | $950,000 |
| Jakub Kindl | FLA | 30 | 28 | 0 | 4 | 4 | -5.22 | 46.6 | 14:57 | $3,000,000 | $2,400,000 |
| Nate Prosser | MIN | 30 | 27 | 0 | 4 | 4 | -0.93 | 45.19 | 13:16 | $650,000 | $625,000 |
| Andrei Markov | MTL | 38 | 40 | 4 | 21 | 25 | 1.81 | 53.3 | 21:30 | $4,250,000 | $5,750,000 |
| Yannick Weber | NSH | 28 | 57 | 1 | 7 | 8 | -5.34 | 47.69 | 12:02 | $575,000 | $575,000 |
| Kyle Quincey | NJD | 31 | 51 | 4 | 8 | 12 | -0.1 | 46.55 | 18:34 | $1,250,000 | $1,250,000 |
| Dennis Seidenberg | NYI | 35 | 51 | 4 | 14 | 18 | -0.99 | 47.39 | 19:33 | $1,000,000 | $1,000,000 |
| Mark Streit | PHI | 39 | 46 | 5 | 15 | 20 | 1.2 | 52.4 | 19:32 | $4,000,000 | $5,250,000 |
| Michael Del Zotto | PHI | 26 | 32 | 4 | 6 | 10 | -0.58 | 50.54 | 19:23 | $4,000,000 | $3,875,000 |
| Trevor Daley | PIT | 33 | 53 | 5 | 14 | 19 | -5.04 | 47.39 | 20:31 | $2,700,000 | $3,300,000 |
| Kevin Shattenkirk | STL | 28 | 60 | 11 | 31 | 42 | 2.98 | 52.93 | 19:54 | $5,200,000 | $4,250,000 |
| Roman Polak | TOR | 30 | 53 | 3 | 3 | 6 | -4.2 | 47.65 | 17:33 | $2,250,000 | $2,250,000 |
| Matt Hunwick | TOR | 31 | 48 | 1 | 12 | 13 | -4.71 | 47.2 | 17:48 | $1,200,000 | $1,200,000 |
| Philip Larsen | VAN | 27 | 20 | 1 | 5 | 6 | -2.06 | 47.74 | 16:58 | $1,025,000 | $1,025,000 |
| Karl Alzner | WSH | 28 | 58 | 3 | 8 | 11 | -6.59 | 46.84 | 19:59 | $2,800,000 | $2,800,000 |
| Paul Postma | WPG | 27 | 56 | 1 | 11 | 12 | -2.51 | 48.12 | 10:42 | $925,000 | $887,500 |
(note: player stats in the table above are accurate through 2/20)
Just because there are defensemen available doesn’t mean that the Rangers should be buyers. There is a case to be made that the Rangers need to exercise some caution at this year’s deadline given how bare their prospect cupboard is.
From Joe’s piece yesterday morning:
The Rangers can’t keep going all in (although at least in this case they’d be getting something of long-term value) especially with a barren field that is their farm system. Outside of top-prospect Igor Shestyorkin the Rangers top prospect is probably Ryan Graves. From there? Robin Kovacs (who is struggling in Hartford -- although he’s been forced into a bottom-six role). From there? Well, it’s not great.
Whether or not the Rangers make a play for Shattenkirk remains to be seen, but there’s no doubt that they’ll do something at the deadline. After all, they are the Rangers.