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Report: Rangers One Of Teams That Has Shown Interest In Conor Garland

During Saturday’s edition of 32 Thoughts on Hockey Night in Canada, Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet talked about the Vancouver Canucks, trade rumors, and some teams who could be interested in doing business with them.

During the segment Friedman said, “I think the Canucks have a number of their forwards that they’re discussing with other teams around the league. I don’t think (Elias) Pettersson’s part of this. I don’t think (Bo) Horvat is part of this, but I think some other players — and notable ones — are part of this, including potentially Conor Garland.”

He went on to mention that some of the teams interested in Vancouver’s forwards include the Rangers, Boston, Calgary, and potentially the New Jersey Devils as interested parties. Because he named Garland specifically, we are going to focus on him, also because he’d be a good fit for the team.

Garland is signed at $4.95 million, and has four years left on his contract after this season. He is in his first season with the Vancouver Canucks, and has posted a line of 10-14-24 in 38 games thus far. He’s also rocking a 64.79 goals for percentage, a 52.21 Corsi for percentage, and a 54.48 expected goals for percentage.

Last season was a bit of a breakout with the Arizona Coyotes after he tallied 39 points in 49 games after tallying the same amount of points but in 68 games the year before. Regardless of what it would cost to acquire him, Garland could join the Rangers’ roster this season and fit under the salary cap. It would take some creativity to create some space to fit him in for future seasons, but he’s a player worth doing so for.

Via Evolving-Hockey, here’s Garland’s player card for the current season, and how he’s looked over the last three seasons.

2021-22 Season

Last Three Seasons

Right wing depth is an area of concern for the Rangers’ and someone like Garland could immediately address that. It also helps that he’s been an impact player at 5v5, an area that’s been a struggle this season.

Garland’s currently been worth 10.6 Goals Above Replacement according to Evolving-Hockey, and 8.1 of that has been even strength offense, and 2.1 is even strength defense. During the 2020-21 season he was worth 7.9 GAR, had an EVO of 5.3, and a EVD of -0.1.

All in all, Garland would be an intriguing option for the Rangers, and someone who could help them this year and in the future. There are certainly other names the team should be inquiring about, but Garland checks a lot of boxes and has a cap number that can work with the team’s long term structure with a few tweaks.

Stats via Evolving-Hockey.com unless otherwise noted.

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