NHL Hot Seat Radar 2023: New York Rangers

The New York Rangers blew an opportunity to go far in the Stanley Cup playoffs last season, and their coach paid for it. Who are the newest faces on the hot seat?

The NHL’s off-season continues, and so does THN.com’s series on the pressures felt by the league’s players, coaches, GMs and team owners. Today, the New York Rangers are on the clock.

Moving alphabetically through the NHL’s teams, we’ll identify one player, coach, GM or team owner as someone on the hot seat, facing heavy pressure to post positive results in 2023-24 or be shifted to their team’s doghouse. A second person will be placed on the warm seat as someone who isn’t facing a firing or trade imminently but who could be traded or moved on from in the next year. A third individual will be put on the cold seat, labelling them as very likely to remain on their current team for the foreseeable future.

On occasion, we’ll have four or five players per team. Today is one of those occasions.

With three and four NHL seasons under their belts, respectively, Lafreniere and Kakko are no longer newbies to hockey’s top league. The 22-year-old Kakko and 21-year-old Lafreniere both had decent seasons in Manhattan last year, with the former posting 18 goals and 40 points and the latter generating 16 goals and 39 points. But decentness is not what’s expected of these young players drafted at the top of the heap – Lafreniere was taken first overall in 2020, and Kakko went second overall in 2019.

Although they’re both modestly paid at the moment, Kakko will be an RFA next summer, and Lafreniere needs a new contract right away. It’s more than likely Lafreniere’s new contract will be short, and he’ll get a better shot at big money a year or two from now. In both their cases, this coming season will be huge for them, one way or another.

The Rangers are a capped-out team, with much of their $3.05 million of cap space likely to go to Lafreniere. But make no mistake – if Kakko and Lafreniere underachieve, GM Chris Drury isn’t averse to listening to trades for them. The Rangers could deal them for more immediate help from experienced players. And that might actually be beneficial for the two of them. A fresh start has rejuvenated numerous players, and Kakko and Lafreniere might have better scenarios with more playing time on an up-and-coming team. 

The pressure is on both of them, and there will be consequences of some sort for them by or before the end of this season.

The Rangers have one of the NHL’s top goalies in Igor Shesterkin, but Drury changed backups this summer, replacing Jaroslav Halak with Quick. 

Quick won his second Stanley Cup with Vegas last season but didn’t play in any playoff games. At age 37, he hasn’t had great individual stats since 2017-18, either. Life will be easier for him this season with the Blueshirts’ excellent defense corps, and there can be no excuses if he doesn’t deliver 25 to 30 games of high quality.

Quick’s cap hit is only $825,000, making him easy to dispose of – either via waiving him and sending him to the minors or by dealing him and getting another experienced goalie in return. And although PuckPedia notes Quick has a 10-team no-trade clause, he is in a position many veteran netminders get in: they’re no longer in their prime, but they still want to compete. Quick will get that chance with the Rangers, but Drury is in no mood to accept mediocrity in such a vital position. If Quick fails early on, he’s going to be playing in another city or, perhaps, retiring outright.

If you’re of the mindset that good hockey teams must be built from the back end out, you have to love the Rangers employing stars in goalie Shesterkin and blueliner Fox. 

Even though their numbers did not improve from their 2021-22 seasons, Fox and Shesterkin are not why the team lost to the New Jersey Devils in the first round of the playoffs last spring. Shesterkin was tremendous, with a 1.96 goals-against average and a .931 save percentage against the Devils, while Fox had eight assists in seven games. They did their part, but other Rangers failed the team.

Shesterkin and Fox will be central to the Rangers’ game plan in 2023-24. Fox is in the second season of a seven-year contract that carries a $9.5-million cap hit. He averaged the most ice time of any Rangers skater in 2022-23, logging an average of 24:22 per game, and he posted 60 assists and 72 points in 82 games. 

Meanwhile, Shesterkin is in the penultimate campaign of a four-year deal worth about $5.67 million annually. Shesterkin is going to get an enormous raise when he becomes a UFA in the summer of 2025, and now, in the last two years of his deal, he can drive his asking price even higher if he leads the team to a deep playoff run.

In any case, neither Shesterkin nor Fox is in any danger of being traded. They feel like Rangers for life. If the Cup comes back to Broadway, it will be because Fox and Shesterkin took it there.