2026 Rangers Season Previews: Taylor Raddysh

This article is part of an ongoing series of Rangers Season Previews, taking a close look at what we can, and should, expect from each member of the 2026-27 New York Rangers. To read other articles in this series, go here.

When I wrote the 2025 Rangers Season Preview for Taylor Raddysh, I said that he was signed with a particular role in mind. And he filled that role. He was a staple in the bottom six and killed penalties. In a vacuum, there was nothing wrong with adding Raddysh to the team on a two-year, $3 million contract. With the way the salary cap increased from last year to this one, there's even less wrong with it—again, in a vacuum.

But we don't operate in a vacuum. The New York Rangers added Raddysh with a certain understanding about what the 2025-26 team was going to be. Suffice it to say that understanding was not that they would be one of the worst teams in the NHL when the season came to a close. A player like Raddysh makes much less sense on a team like that than he does as a solid, affordable depth piece on a team that is looking towards the poseseason. Indeed, the only reason that Raddysh is still a Ranger after last season's trade deadline is tragedy, namely the passing of his father from pancreatic cancer roughly around that time.

Does Raddysh, who will hit unrestricted free agency next summer, have a place on this New York Rangers team?

Previous Performance

Raddysh came in right about where I expected him to in 2025-26. I predicted a 10-15-25 line from him, and he came in with 9-10-19. He was defensively sound, and a good penalty killer. He had a hot, fleeting moment where he potted a hat trick against the San Jose Sharks in a game that we'd otherwise like to forget ever happened.

As I said in his 2006 Rangers Report Card:

I though he'd be fine. And, he was fine. Defensively responsible, but not much in the way of offense.

As Chip might way, Raddysh was perfectly cromulent. But, as we'll get to, the issue with having Taylor Raddysh on this team isn't really Raddysh himself, but the panoply of even more affordable, home-grown bottom-six options.

Expectations

Raddysh is a low risk, low variation player. You pretty much know what you're going to get out of plugging him into your lineup. But, as mentioned, the issue isn't the performance you're getting from him, but instead the player or players that his presence on the roster is crowding out.

The Rangers have a knack for developing good-to-great bottom six options. As of now they have the following players vying for a role and/or positioning in the bottom half of the forward groupings on this team:

• Jaroslav Chmelar
• Will Cuylle
• Tye Kartye
• Noah Laba
• Taylor Raddysh
• Matt Rempe
• Adam Sykora
• Joe Veleno

Beyond that, you can throw into that mix:

• Cole Beaudoin
• Liam Greentree
• Juuso Parssinen

But, I think it's most likely that those guys start the year (or spend all of it) in Hartford. Or, in the case of Parssinen, on the moon, for all we care.

From the prior list, Veleno and Laba are your centers. But that still leaves six wingers for four spots on the wings of the bottom two lines. This is where waiver eligibility enters the conversation. As Jake wrote of Adam Sykora, he can be sent down to the AHL with having to pass through waivers. The same is true for Chmelar. The rest either need to be rostered or will need to clear waivers to be assigned to the Wolf Pack.

The only big question in there, to me, is Matt Rempe. He can't be sent down without waivers and I think there's an above average chance that someone would claim him off the wire. After all, you can't teach size, and the NHL loves them some size. But all of this is a conversation for another day and another 2026 Season Preview piece (which is forthcoming). For Raddysh, he'll be on the roster, and probably on the third line with Noah Laba and Will Cuylle.

The next question is, is that where he'll finish the season?

Predictions

60 GP | 7 G | 10 A | 17 PTS
Traded at the 2027 trade deadline

I do not expect Taylor Raddysh to still be with the Rangers at the end of the 2026-27 NHL season. There's really no reason for him to be, unless something truly wild happens and the Rangers are in the President's Trophy conversation and the argument is you don't want to mess with the good juju of team in that position. Suffice it to say, however, I don't expect that to be a problem (a good problem, to be sure) that the Rangers will have to grapple with.

Raddysh is expendable because he's affordable (he'll be on an expiring contract paying him $1.5 million AAV this year), a veteran in a bottom six grinder/defensive specialist role, and he's all the more expendable with all the other, younger, and (arguably) better home-grown options the Rangers have. Again, the only reason he's still on the team and wasn't shipped out in the sell-off at the last trade deadline is because of the tragic death of his father. Even though I believe the Rangers will be an improved team this year, I just think he'll offer too much in a trade return to justify keeping on the team.

Conclusion

I wrote in Raddysh's preview piece last year that his signing elicited a collective "huh?" from the Rangers fan base. Even then, he seemed to be a tad redundant. But he was more of a sure thing than some of the other options the Rangers had, and was someone who could be expected to step into the penalty killing unit immediately, which I'm sure explained his appeal to Chris Drury and company.

Now, if he were still on the team when the final buzzer sounds on the final game of this upcoming season, that would elicit another, "huh?" I don't expect that to happen. From here on out, we'll remember Taylor Raddysh for his utility in playing Puckdoku, and that's about it.