Trade One, Keep One: Jonny Brodzinski vs. Sam Carrick
With the retool underway, the Rangers have tough decisions to make up and down the lineup—meaning Jonny Brodzinski and Sam Carrick may both be expendable.
With Carson Soucy being shipped off to Long Island, the New York Rangers retool is officially underway.
The Letter 2.0 made it clear that Chris Drury and the organization as a whole are not happy with where things currently stand, and rightly so. The goal according to the letter is for the team to get faster, more skilled, and more tenacious. What does that mean exactly? That’s a question we're going to be looking to answer across the next few months.
But the fact of the matter is, the team needs to establish themselves as exactly that: a team.
Top to bottom, they need a cohesive group of guys who are buying into the same system, playing an effective style of hockey that renders them competitive in the modern day NHL. As currently constructed they are too old, too slow, and are made up of too many question marks or pieces to the puzzle trying to be jammed into the wrong spot. They have a vision for the type of team they want to be, but lack the personnel.
One of the big problems this team faced heading into this season, and has faced for a number of years in Rangers history, is having too many depth players playing significant roles. I wrote about this heading into the season and, as it quickly went to show, you can’t expect your team to be successful when half of your forward roster consists of fourth line players.
With the retool fully in motion, among the many decisions Drury has to make is which role player to move forward with and which ones to cut loose.
Players like Taylor Raddysh, Conor Sheary, and Jusso Parssinen will surely be on their way out of here before the start of next season, if not by the trade deadline. When we’re talking about these depth, fourth-line caliber forwards, the main consideration Drury needs to address is which fourth line center he wants to move forward with.
Aforementioned names aside, you have Jonny Brodzinski, who is a pending UFA this summer; or Sam Carrick, who still has another year on his contract. As this team navigates the early stages of a retool, there simply is not a need for both of these players on your roster.
