Last summer the New York Rangers faced the difficult task of replacing Antti Raanta in free agency after he was shipped to Arizona as part of the Derek Stepan deal. Gorton filled that hole by signing Ondrej Pavelec. At the time, the logic behind the Pavelec signing was that the former starting goaltender might help reduce Henrik Lundqvist’s workload. As we all know, that is not how things worked out last season.
Now, Pavelec is an unrestricted free agent and Lundqvist is another year older. So, on paper, it looks like there’s room for another goaltender in New York or Hartford.