The New York Rangers, despite not being in a playoff spot as of this writing, decided to make a big trade last week with the Vancouver Canucks. They brought back J.T. Miller alongside Erik Brannstrom and Jackson Dorrington for Filip Chytil, Victor Mancini and a first-round pick in the 2025 NHL Draft. This move signals that the Rangers are still trying to push for the playoffs this season and for the next few seasons to come as Miller still has five more years left on his current deal worth $8 million average annual value (AAV).
Right now, the Rangers’ top three centers are Miller, Vincent Trocheck and Mika Zibanejad. While this may look good on paper, there are going to be concerns going forward considering all three of these players are 31 years old and have plenty of years left on their contracts. The main player to watch as this season goes along and into the offseason is Zibanejad, who right now would be the team’s third-line center based on production this season. How will the addition of Miller impact his role on the team and does he still have a long-term future with the Rangers?
Zibanejad Playing First Line Right Wing For Now
After the trade was made, the big question was where was Miller going to slot into the lineup. Would he take over Chytil’s role at third-line center to start or would he be put into a top-six role? Well, the answer was he became the first-line center with Artemi Panarin and Zibanejad on his wings. It was interesting to see this move at first, but it became clear this was because head coach Peter Laviolette didn’t want to reduce Zibanejad’s ice time, which is what would have happened if he had played a third-line role.
This line, at least for the first two games they have been together, has been very good. Miller had two goals in his first game back and followed it up with two assists the following game. Panarin had four points in the two games, including a three-point night against the Vegas Golden Knights. Zibanejad would follow suit with four points in the two games, three of them coming against Vegas as well. This line has looked dominant and with the way Miller has been playing, he forces the other two players to get on the forecheck with him and as a result, it has been great so far. It will be interesting to see if they continue to work and play well together or if will they have to be broken up to try and spread out the offense.
Rangers Have 3 Aging Centermen for the Foreseeable Future
One of the big concerns Rangers fans had after making the trade was that all three of the team’s highest-paid centers are 31 years old and both Miller and Zibanejad will be 32 by the time the regular season is over. As mentioned earlier, Miller makes $8 million for the next five seasons, which is now added to Zibanejad, who makes $8.5 million for the next five seasons and Trocheck who makes $5.625 million for the next four seasons. They now have a center core that is aging and expensive with no true center prospects in their farm system. With all of this money tied up into these three players, the team has no choice but to try and win a Stanley Cup while they are still producing at a high level.
Related: Grading Rangers & Canucks Blockbuster J.T. Miller Trade
If all three of these players do stick around for the foreseeable future, the question is, are they a good enough group to help get this team over the edge? Most of the recent Stanley Cup champions have had great center cores. The Florida Panthers had Aleksander Barkov, Sam Bennett and Anton Lundell, while the Golden Knights had Jack Eichel, Chandler Stephenson and William Karlsson. On paper, the Rangers have three very good centers, but with Zibanejad struggling for the majority of these past two seasons, can he really be considered one of the top centers in the league anymore?
Could the Rangers Move Zibanejad in the Offseason?
While it isn’t the smartest idea to have so much money locked up in these three players, one of them could be moved to create some cap space and bring in some younger impact players. Miller wouldn’t be moved and with it looking more likely by the day that Trocheck could be named the next captain of the team, the obvious answer would be moving the struggling Zibanejad to another team looking for a center. While some might argue that no team would want a struggling $8.5 million, 31, soon-to-be 32-year-old player, the Rangers just traded for an $8 million center and yes, he hasn’t struggled as badly as Zibanejad has, but he isn’t a player without flaws. Also with the news coming out about the salary cap jump in the next three years, teams are going to have more money and are going to want to spend it.
The only thing that would hold up a potential deal is Zibanejad himself. He has a full no-move clause in his contract up until the final year of the deal. So he has the power to decide if he wants to go and where he would want to go. He has shown no signs of wanting to leave New York, but the Rangers could find ways to persuade him to go. They could drop his ice time by taking him off the power play or just dropping him down in the lineup. If general manager Chris Drury wants to move on from Zibanejad, he is going to have to have a conversation with him in the offseason because he isn’t the same player that he was a few seasons ago and he is no longer the top-line center on this team. The Rangers can’t afford to have his money sitting on the third line and while he is playing on the wing right now, that doesn’t seem like a long-term fit for him.
The Rangers have 30 more games to play and each one of those games is going to feel like a playoff game because of the position they put themselves in this season. While the addition of Miller should be a boost, it might not be enough to get them into the playoffs. If they don’t end up making it, the focus is going to shift to Zibanejad and his future with the team because right now, it seems that the most likely outcome is that he won’t be in New York for much longer.
