After enduring their most disappointing campaign in over a decade, the New York Rangers are aiming to regroup and reestablish themselves as Stanley Cup contenders next season. They’ve already taken a key step by hiring Mike Sullivan—a two-time Stanley Cup-winning coach and the bench boss at this year’s 4 Nations Faceoff. With a new head coach in place, team president and general manager Chris Drury can now shift his attention to shaping the roster and making decisions on who should stay and who should move on after the frustrating 2024–25 season.
In terms of roster flexibility, Drury doesn’t have much wiggle room when it comes to the Rangers’ bigger contracts. Core players like Artemi Panarin, Adam Fox, J.T. Miller, and Igor Shesterkin are all expected to remain. Mika Zibanejad has a full no-movement clause that he’s unlikely to waive, and Vincent Trocheck, Alexis Lafrenière, and Will Borgen all carry too much term or recent investment to be realistically moved. That leaves Drury with limited options—but limited options don’t mean no action. With change clearly needed, here are three realistic candidates from last season’s roster that Drury should consider parting with this summer (and no, Chris Kreider isn’t one of them).
Carson Soucy
The trade for Carson Soucy last season never quite added up. Surrendering a third-round pick for a defenseman who offers limited offensive upside—especially for a team that clearly wasn’t built for a deep playoff run—felt like questionable asset management by Chris Drury. While Soucy wasn’t awful during his time with the Rangers, he also didn’t make a significant impact.
Ultimately, the biggest reason to consider moving Soucy now is financial. With Will Cuylle and K’Andre Miller both needing new contracts (and yes, Rangers fans, Miller absolutely deserves to be re-signed), the team is facing a cap crunch. Trading Soucy and his \$3.25 million cap hit could provide Drury with valuable flexibility to retain key young talent. Of course, this would create a gap on the blue line, but that could potentially be filled by bringing back Zac Jones and signing a more affordable veteran free agent—someone like Mike Reilly, for example.
Matt Rempe
I know it might sound controversial, but based on the Rangers’ current bottom-six situation, Matt Rempe appears to be the odd man out. The depth chart for next season is already crowded. In my view, Mika Zibanejad, Will Cuylle, Sam Carrick, and Adam Edstrom should be guaranteed spots on opening night, while Brett Berard and Brennan Othmann deserve priority consideration for the remaining two roles.
That leaves Rempe, Juuso Pärssinen, Jonny Brodzinski, and Arthur Kaliyev likely battling from the press box. Of that group, Rempe ranks as the least compelling option. He hasn’t proven he can handle more than 8:30 of ice time per night and has a tendency to take undisciplined penalties. Brodzinski and Pärssinen are already under contract, and I’d rather re-sign Kaliyev, who still has more upside in my opinion.
If Drury can make the cap work and stash Rempe in the AHL, that’s fine—but he shouldn’t be on the NHL roster to begin next season.
Jonny Brodzinski
The final move needed to secure regular playing time for Brennan Othmann and Brett Berard next season is parting ways with Jonny Brodzinski. While Brodzinski’s \$787,500 cap hit is affordable and he’s not a liability, his upside is very limited. He’ll be 32 by the time the season begins, and the Rangers need to shift focus to developing their younger talent.
Brodzinski doesn’t bring much in terms of physicality, often fades into the background during games, and wins less than half of his faceoffs. His 12-goal season last year was likely an outlier—he doubled his previous career high while shooting at 16.4%, well above his career average of 8.4%.
As with Rempe, keeping Brodzinski in the AHL as a depth option is perfectly fine. However, he shouldn’t be on the NHL roster to open the 2025-26 season.