Rangers Ship Derek Stepan & Antti Raanta to Arizona In Pre-Draft Blockbuster

First things first – I will forever love Derek Stepan for this as one of the greatest live sports moments I’ve ever been a part of:

But with a no-trade clause about to kick in after a sub-par season, the Rangers had to make a decision as to whether or not Step was a part of this team’s future plans. As a core member for the last few playoff runs that have all fallen short, it’s not a surprise that Jeff Gorton decided to package his remaining 4 years/$6.5M with backup netminder Antti Raanta (I guess we can thank Vegas for leaving him alone) for the #7 overall pick in tonight’s draft & Anthony D’Angelo. D’Angelo, the 19th overall pick in 2014, projects to be EXACTLY what the Blueshirts need & is signed for the next two seasons at a mere $863k cap hit. A right-shot blueliner with tremendous offensive ability who could grow into a PP QB. The 21 year-old from NJ racked up 14 points in 39 games with the lowly Yotes – 8 of those points were with a man-advantage. Gotta think he’ll round out the defensive corps heading into this season.

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With Lindberg & Stepan gone, this leaves just Zibanejad (who still needs a contract) & Hayes as the only two returning regulars up the middle from last year. But now they have assets. A pair of first-round picks (7 & 21) could be flipped to fill the void along with over $20M to spend (more if Klein retires). Maybe they’re in on Duchene or MacKinnon now. Maybe they get Carolina’s attention for Justin Faulk. Gorton has put this squad in a good position to throw their hat in the ring on virtually anybody now. What pans out remains to be seen, but it had already projected to be an active summer. Now it’s gonna be WILD.