Nhl Draft 2024 Rankings 2024-07-04 Nhl Draft 2024 Rankings - Last update images today Nhl Draft 2024 Rankings Panama Beat Bolivia To Reach Copa Quarterfinals To suggest the Metropolitan Division has been busy this summer might be a bit of an understatement. The Washington Capitals continued their aggressive offseason by trading for Jakob Chychrun, signing Brandon Duhaime and signing Matt Roy. The New Jersey Devils signed Brenden Dillon and Brett Pesce after trading for Jacob Markstrom. The Columbus Blue Jackets reunited Johnny Gaudreau with his former Calgary Flames teammate Sean Monahan. The New York Islanders signed Anthony Duclair in free agency, while Matvei Michkov signed his entry-level contract with the Philadelphia Flyers. The Pittsburgh Penguins and New York Rangers got in on the action on Monday. The Penguins traded forward Reilly Smith to the Rangers, in exchange for a 2025 conditional fifth-round pick and a second-round pick in 2027. The Penguins will retain 25% of Smith's salary, while the 2025 pick will be the worse one owned by the Rangers and Minnesota Wild. Which GM did better in the swap? Here are our grades for both teams. New York Rangers Grade: B For the Rangers, this was about making an addition to their roster, with the caveat they still have other financial considerations to make now and in the future. The Rangers' championship window is open, and they are about to reach that stage in which cap space becomes even more difficult to manage. Both Ryan Lindgren and Braden Schneider are restricted free agents this summer, which meant there was some, but not much, flexibility. Next offseason gets more difficult, when the Rangers have seven RFAs, including Kaapo Kakko, Alexis Lafreniere and K'Andre Miller. That's also the same offseason in which Igor Shesterkin will be an unrestricted free agent. It's what made going after Smith a bit of a responsible play. He has one year left on his contract before he hits the open market, and his salary cap hit fits within what the Rangers can achieve now. He also has extensive postseason experience from his time with the Golden Knights. For Smith's career, he has 26 goals and 79 assists in 106 playoff games. But he just had his lowest regular-season output -- 13 goals and 40 points in 76 -- since the 2014-15 season, when he replicated those exact numbers. The Rangers hope that Smith can boost the secondary scoring output in the postseason, but didn't have to pay up too much in order to do so. Pittsburgh Penguins Grade: B Trading for Kevin Hayes during the draft created questions about who could potentially be leaving the Penguins, and the answer became Smith. Hayes gives the Penguins another center, adding to Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, and Lars Eller. They have proven top-six wingers such as Michael Bunting, Rickard Rakell and Bryan Rust, and Drew O'Connor scored just seven fewer points than Smith at a fraction of the price ($925,000). So why hold onto a player with a $5 million cap hit in the last year of his deal when you could move him, free up some salary cap space and receive some draft capital in return? Retaining 25% of Smith's salary means they'll have an extra $1.25 million on their books in addition to what they already have with retaining part of Jeff Petry's salary. Overall, it leaves the Penguins with $2.812 million in dead cap hit on their books. CapFriendly projects the Penguins now have $6.924 million in salary cap space, which means there's still room for them to make some additions either in the coming days or at some point before training camp starts. It's possible that having those extra funds available could prove useful either in the preseason or ahead of the trade deadline, as the Penguins were just three points out of the final Eastern Conference wild-card spot last season. 0840efef854bb13decab1c5ffd5305ff Forbes 2024 Draft 2021 NHL Draft Lottery ?fit=1024%2C576&ssl=1 USATSI 18661510 Scaled 2024 Top Prospects DPH 2024 NHL DRAFT RANKINGS October 2023 782x1024 2024 NHL Draft Prospect Rankings 1024x576 Nhl 2023 Draft Lottery Odds Screenshot 2022 08 08 At 10 23 47 The Pro Hockey Group – Trusted Player Evaluations NHL Home Openers 2023 Bedard 1 FvpWNdVWcAEx93x Large Nhl Draft Getty 03232022 ?itok=yAdbxhMS Bedard 1040x572 D2njbkdntao91 2022 DKN Fantasy Football Rankings Cheatsheet GettyImages 1488466885 Scaled Featured Cheet Screen Shot 2023 05 08 At 9.28.32 PM 2023 Nfl Draft Order So Far V0 Uq7ugz12qey91 ?auto=webp&s=dc4cd1fb499309545d6556b96058b16ad355837b 2023 Forbes Draft Nhl Draft 062219 Getty Ftr 1qa5e1x93ytap1j4efntjwz0ni ?t= 2098164085&quality=100 Ca5c5e82 D4cc 4f04 Bc0b F145dc06535e 1920x1080 2r2h4lrlhd851 ?width=640&height=592&crop=smart&auto=webp&s=2abd6029d1c4a94b5a0fa02d05e95ab88aa27795 T100 2023FinalRankings 1200x837 Preliminary Rankings Header 800x799 DPH Fall 51 100 Rankings 833x1024 April Rankings Cover 1 Guu0v2g8pqg61 IMG 0345 Screenshot 2023 06 15 At 1.50.28 PM Guu0v2g8pqg61 K7PkeOc