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Marc Staal and 2021 Second-Rounder Traded to the Red Wings

The New York Rangers traded veteran Marc Staal and a 2021 second round pick to the Detroit Red Wings in exchange for future considerations. He was the second longest tenured member of the team, behind only Henrik Lundqvist.

The 33-year-old has one year remaining on his six-year, $34.2 million contract that carries a $5.7 million cap hit and a no-movement clause. His actual salary for the 2020-21 season was the lowest of his contract at $3.2 million.

With $5.7 million off the books, the Rangers have just under $20 million in cap space between their eight forwards, four defenders, and two goaltenders currently under contract.

2020 Report Card: Marc Staal

In 52 games, the lefty tallied 11 points and played the lowest average all situation ice time of his career at 17:39. Staal finished in the bottom-25 in the league in Goals Above Replacement this year, according to Evolving-Hockey.com, though he was not the only member of his team to rank so low.

While his defensive impact improved from last season, as shown below in the heat maps from HockeyViz.com, his offensive impact was particularly poor.

Without their second round pick in 2021, the Rangers have eight picks next year (six of their own, plus Buffalo’s third and Ottawa’s fourth).

Detroit, on the other hand, has six picks in the first three rounds of both the 2020 and 2021 drafts to help power their rebuild.

On the left side of the blue line, the Rangers currently have two left-handed defenders at the NHL level in Brendan Smith and Ryan Lindgren, plus K’Andre Miller, Libor Hajek, Matthew Robertson, Yegor Rykov, Tarmo Reunanen, and Brandon Crawley in the system.

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