The New York Rangers will reportedly lose forward Oscar Lindberg instead of goalie Antti Raanta to the Vegas Golden Knights’ expansion draft, as the New York Post’s Larry Brooks confirms.
With virtually every move in this process, “Who’s getting picked?” isn’t the only crucial detail. It’s also crucial to learn if Golden Knights GM George McPhee merely prefers Lindberg or if the Rangers needed to entice the executive to select Lindberg instead of Raanta.
Looking at the Rangers’ available players (all 30 teams’ lists here), Raanta headlines a list of desirable players such as Jesper Fast, Michael Grabner, and Brendan Smith. Such considerations would lead you to believe that the Rangers struck a deal with Vegas, but we’ll need to wait and see if that actually happened.
Quick look at Lindberg
Lindberg will turn 26 in October.
Casting aside one regular season game in 2014-15, he essentially just ended his second campaign with the Rangers, generating 20 points in 65 games during the 2016-17 season. This year was a slight step back in terms of production and ice time, a downgrade that likely has as much to do with the forward depth the Rangers collected as anything else.
Opportunities weren’t always there for Lindberg, yet if he can crack the Vegas starting lineup, he could very well get what he was wishing for with New York.