Mailbag: Rangers' Deadline options without Chytil; Nylander's worth

Here is the Jan. 31 edition of the weekly NHL.com mailbag, where we answer your questions asked on X, formerly Twitter. Send your questions to @drosennhl and @NHLdotcom, and tag it with #OvertheBoards.

Does Filip Chytil being out for the season put Elias Lindholmon the Rangers' radar? He is a rental, but the salary is similar to Chytil. I wonder what the package would look like. -- @Michael35953222

Lindholm, the Calgary Flames center, should be on the New York Rangers' radar. It was made official that Chytil will not return this season after the center had a setback Friday in his recovery from an upper-body injury. As awful as it is that Chytil is going through what he's going through, the Rangers likely have already moved onto Plan B, which is determining the potential trade options to fill their need at center in advance of the 2024 NHL Trade Deadline on March 8.

The need is a center to make their third line a viable scoring line. It's been a scoring void since Chytil went down Nov. 2, just 10 games into the season. Keeping Chytil on long-term injured reserve allows the Rangers to use his $4.4375 million average annual value to acquire the center they need. They should have a shade over $5.2 million in space under the NHL salary cap. They could fit in Lindholm, who has a $4.85 million AAV and is in the last season of his contract. If New York can entice Calgary to retain a small portion of Lindholm's AAV, that would open the door to acquire two forwards before the deadline. But if we're focusing on Lindholm, it can be done, and it could take the Rangers' first-round pick to make it happen. Lindholm covers a lot of needs for them in that he's a center who can create offense (32 points), win face-offs (55.5 percent), play on the penalty kill (2:23 per game) and power play (3:18 per game), drive possession and move up the lineup if necessary. If they can't have Chytil, Lindholm is a strong Plan B at a price worth paying if you want to be a Stanley Cup contender.

Does Shawn Roarke still think William Nylander, an aging, 40-goal, one-dimensional dude is "underpaid" making two times what Jack Hughes and others make. When Nylander was (somewhat) hot your co-host went contrarian and declared $11.5 million was actually "underpaying" him. Now reality set in and Nylander naturally regressed to his mean. Does your co-host still hold the contrarian opinion on the absurd contract? -- @RightSideHockey

Thank you for listening to the "NHL @TheRink" podcast co-hosted by Shawn P. Roarke and yours truly. You're referring to the episode we recorded Jan. 10, when we discussed the eight-year, $92 million contract Nylander signed with the Toronto Maple Leafs two days prior. And you're right, Shawn said in that episode, about 34 minutes in, that he feels Nylander is underpaid and that the Maple Leafs got a deal giving him $11.5 million per for the next eight seasons. He called it a hometown discount. Nylander has seven points (two goals, five assists) in 10 games since signing his contract.

Shawn answered your question.

"@RightSideHockey, you are on the wrong side of this one, I'm afraid. I stand by my statement on 'NHL @TheRink' podcast because it wasn't a kneejerk opinion. It was a reflection of where the market was at, where Nylander was at and where the Maple Leafs are in their process. Each of those things reflect contract value and term. The Maple Leafs, who believe themselves to be a contender for the Stanley Cup, are not going to let a top-20 player walk for free at the end of his contract, so once they made the decision to sign him, it was time to bite the bullet and swallow the pain.

"Yes, the number is high, but it would have been higher on the open market this offseason. Nylander is a 27-year-old forward in the prime of his career who has been an upward trajectory for the past three seasons and was on pace to easily score more than 100 points this season. Even with his dry spell, he is on pace for 106. What is a 100-point player in his prime worth to a contending team with a growing salary cap? I'd say $11.5 million sounds just about right."

Of the teams already in playoff position, which ones might stumble in the last portion of the season and may miss the playoffs? Conversely, of those teams not in playoff position right now which ones might get hot and make a serious run? -- @MrEd315

The Philadelphia Flyers and Los Angeles Kings are already stumbling.

The Kings have a chance to go into the NHL All-Star break feeling somewhat better if they can defeat the Nashville Predators at Bridgestone Arena on Wednesday (7:30 p.m. ET; MAX, TNT, BSW, TVAS), but they've looked broken for too long. They are 2-8-6 since Dec. 28. They come out of the break playing the red-hot Edmonton Oilers on Feb. 10 before going on a four-game east coast road trip. There is inner fighting, players calling out each other and a coach saying it's fair to question his job security. It could get worse.

The St. Louis Blues have won five of their past six games to play their way into the Stanley Cup Playoff race, but it's too small of a sample size to believe it's sustainable. They must maintain it through February to buy them as a contender. They were a .500 team before they got hot. They could easily return to being a .500 team coming out of the break.

The Flyers have lost five in a row, and it makes you feel like the honeymoon is over. It lasted a while, but they were punching above their weight class for half the season. They play hard but now they don't have their No. 1 goalie, Carter Hart, who is on a leave of absence. Are they running out of gas playing their hard, grinding style? They don't win with finesse. They don't skill their way to wins. They have skill, but they win hard and that's hard to do for 82 games. They could be a seller regardless of where they are in the standings. They're building for a brighter future and won't be smitten by immediate success. Falling out of the race in the next month could actually help the Flyers sell to their fans the idea of being sellers this season.

Keep an eye on the New York Islanders and, if they can ever get healthy, the New Jersey Devils to take Philadelphia's spot. The Detroit Red Wings could be vulnerable, or at least more vulnerable, than the Maple Leafs at this point. The Red Wings, though, have been playing well of late and seem to be on an upward trend. The Islanders are 1-2-1 under new coach Patrick Roy, but you can see them already playing tighter defensively. If they can marry that with an up-tempo, push-the-pace offense, you'll see them flourish.

The wild-card spots appear up for grabs in the Western Conference. If the Kings continue to plummet and the Blues return to being a .500 team, the next two up are the Nashville Predators and Seattle Kraken. The Predators have goalie Juuse Saros, who is good enough to carry them into a hot streak. They also have cap space and draft capital, which is exactly what you need to make a splash in the trade market. They should do that. The Kraken are streaky, and with a four-game road trip coming out of the break and seven of their last nine games of the season on the road, it calls into question their ability to make a run up the standings. The timing for extended road trips isn't great.

Will Jarmo Kekalainen and Pascal Vincent finish the season in Columbus? -- @DarrylJawnson

Yes. If there's questions about Kekalainen, the general manager, there is no reason for the Columbus Blue Jackets to allow him to make a coaching change. It would be a package deal and it's better to handle that after the season, when there is time to do a proper evaluation and, if necessary, a proper search for a new general manager, who then would be allowed to run a search for the new coach.

So, the bigger question is will Kekalainen and, by extension, Vincent, be with the Blue Jackets when their offseason business gets under way?

It depends how ownership views what the team is now and what it could be based on the strong group of young talent brought to Columbus through the NHL Draft, including forwards Adam Fantilli, Kent Johnson and Cole Sillinger, and defensemen David Jiricek and Denton Mateychuk, among others. The Blue Jackets are 29th in the NHL in points percentage (.426) since the start of the 2020-21 season, and the hiring and subsequent firing of Mike Babcock days before training camp opened this season is enough to question Kekalainen's job security. The talent pool and chances of a bright future is enough to put him on solid footing.

It's hard to know now, but Kekalainen and Vincent should make it through this season. If Kekalainen stays it doesn't mean Vincent will. Vincent wasn't the Blue Jackets' first choice to be their coach. That was Babcock. They had to turn to Vincent when the Babcock hiring became a firing for off-ice reasons. Kekalainen could conduct another search and it would make sense simply based on the results of this season, but if he's let go, that has to be it for Vincent too, because a new GM will want the freedom to choose a new coach.