Despite winning the President's Trophy in 2023-24 as the National Hockey League's premier regular-season team, the New York Rangers were again unable to bring a Stanley Cup to the Big Apple after losing to the eventual champion Florida Panthers in the East Final. It's now been over 30 years since Mark Messier led the Blueshirts to a thrilling Game 7 win over the Vancouver Canucks back in 1994, and the work continues to rectify that next season.
And general manager Chris Drury hopes that Reilly Smith is part of the solution after he brought the Stanley Cup champion over from the Pittsburgh Penguins this summer.
“Very excited to get Reilly,” Drury said recently of the team's newest forward, per NHL.com's David Satriano. “He's a player we've been looking at and talking about for a while. He brings a lot of versatility to our lineup. He has a winning pedigree having won in Vegas. A proven playoff performer and he just fits in nicely with our entire group. We're talking to a lot of agents and [had] a lot of balls in the air throughout the day and just felt this was the best move we could make.”
The executive added: “We looked a lot of different options, especially at forward. We just felt the most comfortable with this deal. We've been looking at and talking about Reilly Smith for a long time. This just fit for us now and it sets us up well in the future to have flexibility come next summer.”
Smith was acquired from the Penguins in exchange for a fifth-round draft pick in 2025 and another second-rounder in 2027. And he could immediately get a prime opportunity with two of the league's better veterans.
Reilly Smith could start season on Rangers top line
The Rangers have had a bit of a revolving door when it comes to the third member of the top line. Mika Zibanejad and Chris Kreider are staples on the first unit, and Smith could get an early look along with the two star forwards in 2024-25.
The 33-year-old scored 13 goals and 40 points with the Penguins last season, his first after spending six years with the Vegas Golden Knights — the place where he won a championship in 2023.
Although it was an up-and-down year for Smith in Pennsylvania, he could thrive along with two top linemates in Zibanejad and Kreider. And with the second line virtually set in stone after a phenomenal campaign from the trio of Artemi Panarin, Vincent Trocheck and Alexis Lafreniere, it'll likely either be the top-line or a bottom-six role for the veteran.
“Smith probably will be given the first chance [on the top line],” wrote Satriano this week, “but if it doesn't work out the Rangers could look outside the organization after experimenting with numerous in-house candidates the past few seasons.”
It will certainly be interesting to see how Smith fares in his first campaign in New York, and whether the team can remain at the top of league standings after bringing back most of last year's President's Trophy-winning roster.
It won't take long at all for Smith to suit up against his former team, as the Rangers and Penguins are set to do battle in both squad's first tilt of the regular-season at PPG Paints Arena on October 9.
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