In their most noteworthy move of the day, the New York Rangers acquired Reilly Smith from the Pittsburgh Penguins in hopes of filling their persistent hole at right wing. They sent a conditional 2025 fifth-round pick and a 2027 second-round pick to the Penguins, who will retain 25 percent of Smith’s $5 million cap hit for next season.
On the free-agent front, New York signed center Sam Carrick to a three-year deal with a $1 million average annual value. Carrick finished last season with the Edmonton Oilers after the Anaheim Ducks dealt him at the trade deadline.
“We’re always looking for ways to improve the team in different areas that we talk about, but we’re happy with the moves we were able to make today,” Rangers general manager Chris Drury said on an evening conference call.
The free-agent frenzy Monday started off with a similar feel for New York to trade deadline day in March, when the Rangers didn’t land big names and instead settled for depth players. As the minutes ticked away after the market opened at noon, Drury watched all the primary free agents come off the board. Steven Stamkos and Jonathan Marchessault signed with Nashville, and the Rangers didn’t add Tyler Bertuzzi (Chicago), Tyler Toffoli (San Jose), Jonathan Drouin (Colorado), Teuvo Taravainen (Chicago) or David Perron (Ottawa), either. Jake Guentzel and Patrick Kane signed deals with the Lightning and Red Wings, respectively, before the window opened.
So Drury, who said the Rangers considered different options, turned to the trade market and nabbed the 33-year-old Smith, who had 13 goals and 40 points in 76 games last season with Pittsburgh. His fit with the Penguins wasn’t seamless, as his numbers dipped from his 26-goal, 56-point season in 2022-23. He helped the Golden Knights win the Stanley Cup that year.
“He’s a player we’d been looking at and talking about for a while,” Drury said. “Brings a little versatility to our lineup, has a winning pedigree having won in Vegas. He’s a proven playoff performer and fits in nicely with our entire group. We were talking to a lot of different agents and had a lot of balls in the air throughout the day and just felt this was the best move we could make.”
At his best, Smith is a defensively sound forward who can handle difficult minutes and contribute offensively, though his scoring is streaky. He’s more proven and has higher upside than deadline addition Jack Roslovic, whom the Rangers had playing top-line right wing most of the playoffs. Roslovic will almost certainly walk in free agency, and Smith will be an immediate option to play in that spot alongside left wing Chris Kreider and right wing Mika Zibanejad. Drury said where Smith plays will be up to coach Peter Laviolette but mentioned Smith can play both wings.
Reilly Smith is in the final year of his $5M deal and his projected value comes in at… $4.9M. Nice.
Solid get for the Rangers to give the team some punch on the wings in the top nine. pic.twitter.com/CdsUW5Z9KJ— dom 📈 (@domluszczyszyn) July 1, 2024
The Rangers have two fifth-round picks in 2025: their own and Minnesota’s from the Ryan Reaves trade. Pittsburgh will get the worse of the two picks. Smith’s brother Brendan previously played with the Rangers.
Drury opened a hole at fourth-line center when he put Barclay Goodrow on waivers after the season, paving the way for San Jose to claim the veteran. Carrick figures to fill Goodrow’s role, and his $1 million AAV is much cheaper than Goodrow’s deal ($3.641 million AAV). The 32-year-old had 16 points in 77 games with the Ducks and Oilers and played 10 of Edmonton’s 25 playoff games, logging one assist.
“He brings a hard element to our group,” Drury said. “Our scouts had their eye on him for a while. … Natural center that brings some edge, some grit, certainly some toughness as well to our bottom six.”
Perhaps the biggest move of the day was the one the Rangers didn’t make: captain Jacob Trouba remains untraded and on the roster. The Rangers have explored trading the defenseman, who struggled in the playoffs and has an $8 million cap hit the next two seasons, and requested his 15-team no-trade list early to try and expedite the process. Trouba’s no-movement clause shifted to a 15-team no-trade clause Monday.
“Jacob knows what I think of him as a person and a player, and I’m going to keep any private conversation with him or his agent private,” Drury said. “We’re always looking to move the team forward and be the best team we possibly can be. I’m not going to go through player by player who’s going to be here, who’s not going to be here. We’re just trying to do the best we can in the offseason and put our best foot forward come training camp.”
If Drury doesn’t trade his captain, the Rangers will likely have to mend hurt feelings before next season begins.
The Rangers lost defenseman Erik Gustafsson (Detroit) and center Alex Wennberg (San Jose) in free agency Monday. Zac Jones could slot into Gustafsson’s spot, and Filip Chytil will likely start the season in Wennberg’s third-line center position. The team could still look to add a defenseman after Gustafsson’s departure, and it will need to if Drury moves Trouba.
New York has $8.09 million of cap space remaining, according to CapFriendly, but a good chunk of that, perhaps around $6 million, will go to restricted free agents Ryan Lindgren and Braden Schneider. Trading a roster player — be it Trouba, Kaapo Kakko or someone else — could give Drury more cap flexibility to bolster the lineup.
(Photo of Jacob Trouba: Sarah Stier / Getty Images)
