Per RG Media, the Rangers defense targets appear to be narrowing to Ivan Provorov and Vlad Gavrikov, if they go the free agency route. If this is the case, then it looks like all the cap space saved with trading Chris Kreider and probably trading K’Andre Miller will go to at least one more mediocre and overpaid defenseman, to go with Carson Soucy and Will Borgen, of course.
Provorov, projected by Evolving-Hockey to get 5 years at $6.64 million, is not that good. He has never been that good, and his inflated contract would cripple the Rangers. Gavrikov is at least better, with better microstats addressing the Rangers needs, but his contract ask is likely to be in the Jakob Chychrun (7 years, $7 million) range. Though for what it’s worth, Evolving-Hockey has Gavrikov at 4 years and $5.6 million. Much more palatable.
If Gavrikov and Provorov are the only two Rangers defense targets via free agency, then it’s probably best if the Rangers skip free agency completely. Only Gavrikov makes sense and only at EH’s projected contract. If he gets Chychrun money, then it’s Jacob Trouba all over again. Remember Gavrikov was mediocre-borderline-good until he got to LA last season.
If the Rangers do trade Miller and sign Provorov, which I believe to be the more likely of the two, then the Rangers are looking at Soucy-Fox, Provorov-Borgen, and Vaakanainen-Schneider as their defense next season. That is not an improvement on either the sextet that finished last season, nor is it an improvement on the sextet that started last season.
If these are the Rangers defense targets with the Kreider and Miller money, then we are in for a long, long stretch with Chris Drury as GM.
