GRAB 'N' GO
Blueshirts address need for speed with low-risk penalty-kill specialist
The Rangers’ necessary summer makeover is in its embryo stage … or at least it had better be if the Blueshirts intend to compete for anything meaningful next season.
Even as general manager Jeff Gorton’s vehicle seems stuck in the right lane of the NHL Offseason Expressway, the Blueshirts did some reasonable patching at a reasonable price in addressing a pair of significant weaknesses with the signing of speed merchant and penaltykilling specialist Michael Grabner upon Friday’s opening of the free-agent market.
No, the former Islander who will turn 29 just before the season opens is not Carl Hagelin. The Penguins own the original. But Grabner, who spent last season with Toronto after five seasons on the other side of the Battle of New York, has elements of his game the Rangers were sorely short in 2015-16.
The Blueshirts’ lack of speed was most telling in the defensive zone, where they far too often were a half-step late to the puck battle and ceded control an inordinate amount of time. Grabner, who signed a two-year deal at an annual cap hit of $1.65 million per year, has the skating ability to be disruptive without the puck.
Perhaps more critically, the Rangers were in desperate need of a penalty killer as accomplished as Grabner after crashing to 26th in the NHL in that department at 78.2 percent after finishing in the top six in each of Alain Vigneault’s first two seasons behind the bench.
Grabner logged the secondmost PK minutes in the league and per-game last year — 248:29 for 3:06 per game, trailing only Detroit’sDe Luke Glendening’sGl 254:25254 and 3:08 perpe — for a Torontoro team that finishedfin dead last in the overall standingssta but rankedran 13th on the PK at 81.6 percent.
On Friday, the Blueshirts hired Jeff Beukeboom to replace Ulf Samuelsson as an assistant on Vigneault’s staff, but Brian Leetch’s former partner said he does not yet know whether he will inherit Samuelsson’s responsibility to run the PK unit. Beukeboom said he expects his duties to be defined later this summer.
Grabner’s duty is clear. A year ago, the Austrian was on for just 22 power-play goals against, one every 11:18. Rangers first-tandem partners Jesper Fast and Dominic Moore (on his way to other pastures as a free agent) were each on for 24 PPGAs in just over 171 minutes, or one goal per 7:08. Derek Stepan was on for a PPGA every 6:50 and Rick Nash one every 9:02.
Grabner, who recorded 18 points (9-9) last year, can create chances off his speed, but similar to the book on Hagelin while he was a Ranger, Grabner is not one of the world’s great finishers.
The Rangers also signed diminutive winger Nathan Gerbe, another fleet skater who can kill penalties, to a one-year, no-risk deal worth $600,000. The 5-foot-5 winger, who will turn 29 late this month, spent the past three years with Carolina after playing his first three years with Buffalo. He missed nearly two months with a lower-body injury and recorded seven points (3-4) in 47 games. Interestingly enough, Grabner once was suspended for two games in October 2013 for an illegal hit to the head of … Gerbe. Gerbe (if he makes the roster out of camp) and Grabner would likely make up two-thirds of a remade fourth line, with both Moore and Viktor Stalberg (who signed with Carolina for one year at $1.5 million) departing. Tanner Glass is an incumbent, but his hold on a spot is tenuous.
The Rangers, who also signed organization depth defensemen Adam Clendening and Michael Paliotta to one-year, two-way deals, have about $12.1 million in cap space remaining. Approximately $10 million of that would be reserved for re-signing restricted free agents Chris Kreider, J.T. Miller, Kevin Hayes and Dylan McIlrath.
There is much work to be done. The heavy lifting has yet to begin. But the Rangers did take care of some relatively important business Friday and did so at a very reasonable price.
So there’s that. larry.brooks@nypost.com