Mailbag: Rangers championship window; Blues, Predators plans

Here is the March 1 edition of the mailbag, where we answer your questions asked on Twitter using #OvertheBoards. Tweet your questions to @drosennhl.

If the New York Rangers don't win it all this year a lot of people are saying their window is closed, which I just don't get. They're still one of the youngest teams in the league. I see the window as being wide open. Thoughts? -- @markp722
I'm not sure who these people are that you mention, because I haven't heard anyone say the Rangers window to win will close after this season. They're not paying attention if that's what they're saying. The Rangers more than likely will have to continue to do what they have done the past two seasons, which is stay relevant long enough to add at the deadline to improve. They did that with Andrew Copp, Frank Vatrano, Tyler Motte and Justin Braun last season, and obviously with Patrick Kane, Vladimir Tarasenko, Niko Mikkola and Motte again this season. Their NHL salary cap situation will change after this season too because forwards Filip Chytil and Alexis Lafreniere and defenseman K'Andre Miller are pending restricted free agents, meaning they're under team control but all will get raises. At this point it's hard to see the Rangers being able to re-sign Kane or Tarasenko, but you never know. However, the Rangers will get the benefit of the salary cap going up at least $1 million, plus they have dead cap money coming off with the penalties for previous buyouts (Dan Girardi, Tony DeAngelo and Kevin Shattenkirk) expiring. But their window will remain wide open and here's why:
It starts in goal and Igor Shesterkin isn't going anywhere. He's signed for two more seasons after this one and I will guarantee you that as long as he's healthy the Rangers will get him to re-sign. The core that they have developed will remain intact. Forwards Mika Zibanejad, Chris Kreider, Artemi Panarin, Vincent Trocheck and Barclay Goodrow, and defensemen Adam Fox and Jacob Trouba are all in the prime of their careers and signed long term, meaning at least three more seasons after this one. Forward Kaapo Kakko, who rivals Chytil in the debate for the Rangers player who has developed the most this season, has one year left on his contract. Miller, Chytil and Lafreniere have bright futures and the Rangers do not want to part with them. Defenseman Ryan Lindgren is signed through next season. Forward Jimmy Vesey and defenseman Ben Harpur are signed for two more years. Their prospect base isn't incredibly deep but it's top heavy and led by Brennan Othmann, the No. 16 pick in the 2021 NHL Draft who could be NHL-ready next season.
We'll see how the cap impacts everything for the Rangers and their roster next season and beyond, but their status as a contender should not change.

What do you think the St. Louis Blues will do with the assets gained, or do they actually draft with their picks? -- @wthail26
I don't get the sense that the Blues have interest in a rebuild. What they have done so far in advance of the deadline screams retool to me and that means using the assets gained to improve the roster immediately, as in to be a contender again next season.
The Blues have traded forwards Tarasenko, Ryan O'Reilly, Ivan Barbashev and Noel Acciari, and defenseman Niko Mikkola. All are pending unrestricted free agents. Of the five moved, the only one I think the Blues would have wanted to re-sign instead of trade is O'Reilly, but the trade with the Toronto Maple Leafs on Feb. 17 was too good to pass up. They got Toronto's first-round pick in the 2023 NHL Draft and its second-round pick in 2024 along with a third-round pick in 2023 that previously belonged to the Ottawa Senators, along with forwards Mikhail Abramov and Adam Gaudette for O'Reilly and Acciari.
For the five players they have traded, the Blues have gotten two 2023 first-round picks, a 2024 second-round pick, and two 2023 third-round picks (the conditional fourth-round pick they got from the Rangers becomes a third-round pick if New York makes the playoffs, which it will do). They also got forward Zach Dean, who was selected by the Vegas Golden Knights in the first round (No. 30) of the 2021 NHL Draft. Abramov was a fourth-round pick in 2019.
They won't trade all of those assets to improve the roster ASAP, but I don't think the Blues are planning to pick three times in the first round of the 2023 draft as they are currently in line to do. I expect one or two of those to be traded in the offseason for a player who can make an instant impact.
Big few days changing the landscape for the Nashville Predators. Think they're done or more to come by Friday? -- @Boyd_1212
Not done. The Predators traded defenseman Mattias Ekholm to the Edmonton Oilers on Tuesday. They also gave up a sixth-round pick in the 2024 NHL Draft and got back defenseman Tyson Barrie, forward Reid Schaefer, a first-round pick in the 2023 draft and a fourth-round pick in 2024. Trading Ekholm signals the Predators intentions to get younger. Ekholm is turning 33 on May 24. He has three years remaining on a four-year, $25 million contract ($6.25 million cap charge) he signed with Nashville on Oct. 13, 2021. Barrie is 31 but signed only through next season with a $4.5 million cap charge. And I wouldn't be shocked if he's traded again before the deadline on Friday. If he's not, he'll fit in in Nashville, help on the power play, and fill Ekholm's spot on the back end. But the Predators clearly want to set up incoming general manager Barry Trotz with draft capital and a healthy prospect base. They were able to get five draft picks, including a 2025 first-round pick, from the Tampa Bay Lightning for forward Tanner Jeannot. They got another first-round pick plus a third for Ekholm, who should be an instant impact player for the Oilers. The Predators have nine picks in the first four rounds of the 2023 NHL Draft, including two in the first. They have five first-round picks between 2023-2025. But that doesn't mean they'll use all those picks because like the Blues, the Predators are not looking for a rebuild. They want to contend next season and those assets can help them do that.
Every time Connor McDavid goes a couple of pointless games and David Pastrnak scores a few and closes the gap, how does Connor respond? He goes on a heater. Do you think he follows the stats and the discussions that he may get caught for the Rocket Richard and then just shuts everyone up? -- @sparky3061
OK, I absolutely love this question because it is humanizing. Do I think McDavid, the Edmonton Oilers center, follows the stats? Yes, I do. He likely won't admit that he does regularly and maybe he doesn't, but he's human and uber competitive so I think he knows exactly how many goals (52), assists (66) and points (118) he has this season. Do I think he's pushed when he sees other players behind him catching up, as Pastrnak, the Boston Bruins right wing, was not long ago? Yes, I do. Again, it's because of his competitiveness. That's the common denominator among all successful pro athletes. They hate losing and they want to be the best, or at least the best they can possibly be. McDavid is the best. However, it's not the Rocket Richard Trophy or the fact that he feels the heat of the competition for that award that drives him. I think that's where people get misconceptions. A player like McDavid is not driven by individual awards; he's driven by team success. But he knows the better he does, the more he scores, the better it is for the Oilers. So they are aligned, just not in the way you asked the question. This isn't about shutting everyone up; it's about winning. The fact that he has scored two goals in four straight games is great for him, but he's not celebrating that or his 52 goals in 62 games this season because the Oilers went 4-3-4 in February. Those stats mean way more to McDavid than his own.

Which perennial bottom-dwelling team do you think has improved the most this season? -- @TrishTheMiddle
That's easy. It's the New Jersey Devils. They have made the playoffs once since going to the Stanley Cup Final in 2012, but the Devils are going back this season, likely as a top three team in the Metropolitan Division, and they believe, rightly so, that they can make a run at the Stanley Cup. Forward Jack Hughes has become a star. Forward Nico Hischier should be in the Selke Trophy conversation. Defenseman Dougie Hamilton should be in the Norris Trophy conversation. Vitek Vanecek has delivered as a No. 1 goalie. They just added Timo Meier, an elite power forward, from the San Jose Sharks. The Devils might be able to play a harder style in the playoffs just by simply having Meier. He's strong on the walls, in corners, and in front of the net. He's what they needed and they got him. The Devils are just beginning their run as Stanley Cup contenders. The window should be open for a long time.
Beyond New Jersey, it has to be the Buffalo Sabres. They haven't made the playoffs since 2011, but they are one point behind the Pittsburgh Penguins for the second wild card into the Stanley Cup Playoffs from the Eastern Conference with one game in hand, and one four points behind New York Islanders for the first wild card with five, yes five, games in hand. It's taken time, and a few different rebuilds/retools, but the Sabres seem to finally have a core in place led by forwards Tage Thompson, Alex Tuch, Dylan Cozens and Jeff Skinner, and defensemen Rasmus Dahlin and Owen Power. They're building around that core well too. They need a No. 1 goalie who isn't 41 years old like Craig Anderson, but that is a position they can address in the offseason if they feel it to be necessary. The Sabres are built to keep growing and improving, which is something we could not say for more than a decade.