Rumor: New Rangers leadership prepared to offer sheet one of the top free agents this summer.

It seems the New York Rangers' new leadership group will be wasting very little time in making a significant mark on their organization, and perhaps on the National Hockey League as a whole across the board.

As many of our readers will already know, on Friday it was widely reported that former New York Rangers John Davidson would be returning to oversee the daily operations of the Rangers organization as a whole. The former National Hockey League player turned broadcaster had most recently occupied the role of president within the Columbus Blue Jackets organization and only stepped down in that role in order to take his current position with the Rangers. Given his long standing history with both the Rangers organization and the city of New York no one was really surprised to see the move happen, and Davidson openly admitted that the Rangers were the only team that could have lured him away from the Blue Jackets.

It was an extremely popular announcement as Davidson is a beloved member of the Rangers family and remains well respected both within the organization and among the fan base as a result. It does not sound like Davidson intends to simply sit on his hands either, although it has been made clear that Rangers general manager Jeff Gorton will continue to run the show. A recent report from Rangers reporter Rick Carpinello of The Athletic has revealed that the Rangers intend to use their current abundance of cap space this summer to greatly accelerate their current rebuild, one way or another. 

Of course we have all already heard the rumors that would see Columbus Blue Jackets star forward Artemi Panarin become the next member of the New York Rangers over the summer, but now the Florida Panthers have suddenly emerged as serious contenders as well. Carpinello believes that even should the Rangers fail to land Panarin the newly formed power structure of Davidson and Gorton will pull the trigger on a rarely used move in the NHL, an offer sheet.

From Carpinello:

Gorton’s plan to accelerate the rebuild with cap space in pocket could even be aided by Davidson because one of the main targets is Blue Jackets unrestricted free agent Artemi Panarin, who was obtained from Chicago under the Davidson-Kekalainen regime. Panarin is expected to be heavily pursued by the Panthers, with the Florida no-state-tax advantage, but his desired landing spot is a big city like New York. Perhaps Davidson can sway Panarin. And if not Panarin, the Davidson-Gorton team will likely pursue an offer sheet to a restricted free agent such as Tampa Bay’s Brayden Point.