It goes without saying that the New York Rangers are in a period of transition, having missed the Stanley Cup Playoffs for each of the last two seasons coupled with the trade of Artemi Panarin to the Los Angeles Kings and, later, the trade of Vincent Trocheck to the Utah Mammoth.
The Rangers did acquire Pavel Dorofeyev from the Vegas Golden Knights, and subsequently locked him up to a multi-year contract extension. Right now, whether or not New York has done enough to put themselves back into the postseason conversation for next spring remains to be seen.
However, a prominent NHL Insider that is already very familiar to Rangers fans from his playing career has linked the club to the League’s biggest name, who is playing on a short and extremely team-friendly contract that expires in 2028.
Former New York Rangers Forward Mike Rupp Names The Big Apple As A Landing Spot For Connor McDavid
Since being selected with the first overall pick in the 2015 NHL Draft, Edmonton Oilers forward Connor McDavid quickly became known as the top player in the League. But over a decade into his career, despite winning nearly every accolade that a prominent forward can take home, he’s yet to lift the Stanley Cup.
Of course, McDavid and the Oilers went to the Stanley Cup Final in consecutive seasons, but fell short both times to the Florida Panthers; in 2024, the Panthers beat the Oilers after they took down the Rangers in the Eastern Conference Final.
McDavid agreed to a short, two-year extension last fall that keeps him in Edmonton through 2028, essentially a signal that they have until then to win the Stanley Cup, or he could jump ship.
According to former Rangers forward and current NHL Insider Mike Rupp, the Rangers are a team to look out for that could aggressively court McDavid if he reaches free agency in 2028.
âI think weâre in a spot here where I think (GM) Chris Drury and management was looking towards this past summer,â Rupp said. âI think they were trying to position themselves in a way to go big, whatever that meant, the big, big-name players that were out there that we saw get absorbed by their current teams in a lot of situations.â
âI also think that they have always had an eye on Connor McDavid and that situation and monitoring that. So I think thereâs probably a plan to do something big. It just hasnât come to fruition up to this point.â
Could Connor McDavid Become The Latest Oilers Star To Join The Rangers?
The Rangers have featured multiple former members of the Oilers on their roster throughout the years, most notably Wayne Gretzky and Mark Messier.
If McDavid ultimately chooses to depart Edmonton, it will mean that the Oilers did not win the Stanley Cup in either of the two remaining seasons that he’s under contract.
While McDavid likes to keep a low profile in his personal life, the lure of playing in an Original 6 market like New York could be hard to pass up, especially with the kind of deal they could potentially offer him.
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