This is not the first time this topic has been written about, but the New York Rangers’ rebuilding efforts are well underway. The front office turned Derek Stepan, Rick Nash, Ryan McDonagh and Michael Grabner into five first round picks and a fistful of prospects. This left the team with a blend of both veterans from those playoff teams and those more geared towards the future.
With such a weird mix, the roster this year was caught in a weird in-between state. Although the team is technically rebuilding it still features holdovers from the playoff runs earlier in the decade like Kevin Hayes, Mats Zuccarello, Chris Kreider and of course Henrik Lundqvist.