It takes real care to own a Garden. You have to make sure everything is watered, fend off animals that want to eat what you have planted, and make sure you maintain it to keep the quality up. Every year, maybe more than once a year you get to plant new flora and Fawna to add some beauty, flash and character to your little creation. You stand back and the end and admire your handywork, hoping it lasts and is maximized to its utmost, which is a thing of beauty when that potential is realized.

Now you’re probably asking, “what the hell does Nick know about gardening?” The answer to that question dear reader is not a single thing. But I love a metaphor and the aforementioned Garden being tended to is, if you haven’t figured it out already, Madison Square Garden. This July 1st, which marks the yearly beginning of the NHL and NBA free agency window, is the referenced opportunity to plant new flowers in our beloved Mecca…and the gardeners, well you probably know who they are.

Today was the day Chris Drury and Leon Rose had to show us all the results of their labor, albeit from two dramatically different positions. Rose is just about the master of the universe in this town, with Knicks fans itching to build a statue of him even if they disagree with firing Tom Thibodeau, as he looks to put the finishing touches on what he hopes to be championship team. Drury meanwhile came to work today looking to continue the transition from a closing contention window to a future one, if the fans and James Dolan give him the chance to do it that is. This day would prove insightful in many ways for both teams, which we’ll touch on in a bit, but I found it fascinating to watch as both were quite busy attacking the day from differing perspectives. Let’s kick things off the Knicks.

The Knicks

We’ll start with easier part of the Knicks equation to discuss, which is the adding of talent to this roster that came oh so close to an Eastern Conference Title. The main goal of this free agency and really offseason as a whole was to find solid depth players that could elevate the team in its quest to end the franchise lengthy title drought. I’m certainly happy to say that the early returns are positive on that front as Leon Rose added two talented veterans to the rotation that the next coach (whoever that may be) can utilize.

Let’s start with the first signing of the free agent class, veteran guard Jordan Clarkson who was unexpectedly placed on waivers by the Jazz Monday night. As soon as the 33-year-old was a free man, he seemingly opened up conversations with the Knicks expressing his desire to sign with them for the “veterans minimum.” I won’t bore you or hurt my own head with the machinations of the NBA salary cap, but essentially the Knicks had two “exceptions” to the salary cap for veteran players to sign for the average minimum salary in the league (in this case $2,296,274), allowing teams up against the cap to still add quality players.

So, what are the Knicks getting this low-cost veteran signing, in short, they’re getting an offensive spark plug off the bench. Clarkson has been in the league since 2014 appearing for the Lakers, Cavaliers, and Jazz, all of whom he was able to score at a somewhat prolific clip for. He’s a confident scorer, the type that as scouts say, has never met a shot he doesn’t like. You may get nervous at the sound of that, but when you’re looking for a jolt in a big game, why not turn to the guy who is fearless. Clarkson isn’t the best defender, but he’ll compete in his minutes and empty the tank when he plays. He won 6th man of the year in 2021, and while its a few years ago, its further evidence that he has the chops to be impactful in a limited role. Last season he averaged 16 points per game, while shooting 36% from three, so he essentially is here to fill the Cam Payne role, albeit in a more explosive style. Clarkson should be a good get for this team, and he’s joined by a player who is far more imposing at first sight.

Meet Guerschon “The Dancing Bear” Yabusele (I swear to God that is his nickname). The 29-year-old Frenchman comes in at 6’8″, 265 lbs, on what has been a somewhat bizarre journey of an NBA career. Yabusele was the 16th overall pick in the 2016 draft by the Celtics but to say things went poorly for him in Boston would be an understatement. They in fact went so poorly that by 2019 he was out of the league and proceeded to play in China, France and Spain. He got back on the NBA’s radar at the 2024 summer Olympics in Paris after a string of impressive performances, which got him “All Second Team” honors at the games.

This solid re-introduction led to him signing with 76ers, whom he got to play big minutes for last year. In 70 games last season, the big man averaged eleven points per game, while shooting 38% from three, an impressive number for a player of his size. He’s far from a traditional big as he’ll help to spread the floor, taking lots of jumpers especially from beyond the arc. He could be very productive if used right, as bit of a matchup specific player who can get the Knicks some quick points and some boards, as he has averaged six rebounds per game in his career. It says something in my opinion that the sought-after big man spurned the Nuggets to come to the Knicks on a 2-year deal for twelve million dollars, as anyone fit to play with Nikola Jokic can play for my squad.

While it’s unclear right now if the Knicks are done, it feels like there is still room for one more player on this roster. Afterall, they do have another veteran’s minimum exception to use should they choose to. Rumors have them linked to veteran guard Russell Westbrook, whose career continues to go up and down here near its end. He is coming off of a solid season with the Nuggets, that was also filled with some low light bone head moments on the floor. Adding him would go along way though as it would lighten the ball handling burden on Brunson.

One thing is for sure, this team is heck of a lot deeper than it was a few weeks ago, as these moves along with extending Ariel Hukporti give the Knicks 11-12 players to utilize when you include Tyler Kolek and Pacome Dadiet in the mix, assuming they are ready to play solid bench minutes. Now the million-dollar question is, who gets to deploy all this newfound depth? Right now, based on the rumor mill, the top choice for the job is veteran NBA head coach Mike Brown. Brown has been a head coach in the league since 2005, with two stops in Cleveland, one of which featured him coaching the Lebron Cavs to the Finals, as well as time with the Lakers, and the Sacramento Kings who he won his second coach of the year award with in 2023. The 55-year-old Columbus Ohio native has been around the game for a long-time and boasts quite the track record, reminiscent of the man he seems poised to replace as the Knicks coach.

So, what would the difference be, you ask? While Brown is gym rat and wants his team to practice hard, he should bring more mindset to save the players health where he can utilize a deeper rotation of players game in and game out so he best understands how to deploy his team. With all due respect to Thibs, not finding out which lineups could work in the regular season really shortchanged this roster in the playoffs. Brown also has an eye for offense, though he won’t let the defense lag behind, so hopefully we see a good balance in this regard. From a tactical standpoint he is likely to be a lateral move from Thibs, but the Knicks seem to want to counter act that with a second hire they will make in the process.

That second hire is Pelicans assistant James Borrego, who has been in the league since 2003 in various roles, including head coach of the Hornets from 2018 to 2022. He is a well-respected assistant who many around the league feel deserves another chance to be a head coach, but the Knicks seem to be reticent to hand the keys to this Ferrari to someone with a limited head man experience. So, the plan is reportedly to marry Borrego’s x’s and o’s ability to Brown’s leadership and away we go. I can’t say I fully love the idea of making these two work together (feels like something the Jets would do), but if both men feel they can inherit each other and coexist, then why not do it I guess. Besides it’s not like Leon Rose won’t make them inherit an additional assistant of his captains choosing…

All eyes will be on the coaching search and any other potential additions this front office makes now. Will it all be enough and work out? We unfortunately won’t have the answer to that question until next spring, when the real work begins. Regardless, the mindset for the Knicks should be championship or bust in 2025-26…now over to the Rangers where the mindset is rather different.

The Rangers

If you haven’t been reading my blogs about my beloved Blueshirts, I have never been more down on this franchise than I have been over the last few months. The 24-25 season was a complete failure, one that torched the culture of a team that once prided itself on winning and going for it each and every year. The negativity of the season gave way to a negative start to the offseason as the front office made the necessary but difficult move of trading veteran star Chris Kreider. Moving on from Kreider was yet another signal of the offseason of change the Rangers would undergo as new coach Mike Sullivan and his staff joined GM Chris Drury in the turnaround. With the Rangers not having a first round pick in last week’s draft, the focus was on two things, re-upping with various pending free agents while weeding out the roster, while also looking to address holes with additions from the free agent pool.

The biggest hole to address on this roster is on defense, particularly on the left side, and from early on the Rangers targeted the number one free agent at the position. As usual the Rangers got their man, signing star left-handed defenseman Vladislav Gavrikov to a 7-year deal at seven million dollars per season. The 29-year old lefty comes in at 6’3″ 220 lbs, as size continues to be a theme of Chris Drury’s overhaul of the team. While it’s one thing to be big, it’s another to be effective, and that’s exactly what Gavrikov is.

The russian blue liner has spent six seasons with the Blue Jackets and Kings, who Columbus traded him to at the trade deadline in 2023. While he did plenty of good work in Ohio, he really blossomed out west, playing alongside future Hall of Famer Drew Doughty, helping the Kings to make the playoffs each year he was with the team. Despite being a solid skater who can support the rush and is able to pass the puck well from his own end, Gavrikov is a stay-at-home defender in the most complimentary sense of the word. He has just 135 points in 435 NHL games but is an impressive +24 for his life in the league. While plus minus can be a tricky stat without context, the body of work speaks for itself and his game should only help to accentuate the best traits of Adam Fox’s talent, as Gavrikov is the partner he has needed for some time.

Gavrikov wasn’t alone as far as free agents went for the Rangers, as they also signed veteran forward Justin Dowling, who figures to be little more than a rotational forward from Hartford, and the imposing human you see above, winger Taylor Raddysh. The 27-year old inked 2-year deal on Broadway, worth $1.5 million per season, to join a bottom six that figures to bring lots of energy to the game night in and night out. The Ontario native comes in at 6’3″ 200 lbs, and has played four NHL seasons for the Blackhawks and Capitals. He has one outlier season in 2022-23 for Chicago, where he lit the lamp a career best 20 times, seven of which came on the powerplay thanks to his big frame. He carved out a nice role in the Caps bottom six last year and should only help to boost the Rangers bottom of the lineup in 25-26.

There was of course one other contract matter to settle, and that was young forward Will Cuylle, who was hitting restricted free agency on Tuesday. The youngster is coming off of a breakout season, where his raw physical tools and hard work caught up to his talent, resulting in 20 goals and 45 points, though it feels like his is only scratching the surface. Big number 50 looks to be a cornerstone player going forward and the Rangers needed to move quickly to lock him up before another club could offer sheet him and either steal him away or put the Blueshirts in a bind. Frankly waiting until 5 PM on the day free agency opened was a little too long of a wait for me, but the deal got done as Cuylle signed a 2-year, 3.9-million-dollar extension with the Rangers to bridge him to his next deal. He joins Adam Edstrom and Matt Rempe in the newly extended category as Drury and Sullivan are seemingly, and rightfully I might add, looking to empower their young players. This may seem like a lot of work to do in one day, but in fact Drury was far from done.

Yes, the time had finally come as the Rangers pulled the trigger on yet another trade to send away a regular player and fan favorite. This time it is defenseman K’Andre Miller who heads to Carolina in the trade package you see above. The trade wound up being a sign and trade, as Miller inked an 8-year extension in Raleigh, worth 7.5 million per season, which led to the big return package. Let’s dive into that return, before we talk further about Miller’s exit.

The Rangers were reportedly looking to acquire a first for Miller all along, as they attempt to restock the prospect cupboard in this transition period. They elected to keep their first-round pick in next year’s draft rather than this years, so they will now have two firsts in 2026, a valuable commodity to maneuver with. The second rounder sure helps in that department too, but the prospect was an unexpected bonus in all this. 22-year old Scott Morrow was a second-round pick in the 2021 draft, who according to scouts is known for his strong skating ability and offensive skill from the blueline! He starred at UMASS in college and has played 14 NHL games for the Canes where he showed flashes of skill, as well putting together a strong campaign in the AHL last year for the Canes affiliate team, the Chicago Wolves, scoring 39 points (13 goals & 26 assists) in 52 games. The Rangers are very well stocked on the right side of their defense so it’s unclear how Morrow figures into the long-term plans right now, but it seems the front office got a good one here.

Now let’s talk about what is departing, and that is a player many fans and people around the league had high hopes for, and clearly many (including the Canes) still do. K’Andre Miller was picked in the first round to be a cornerstone of the Rangers blueline for years to come, there were such massive expectations given his raw tools they were hard to keep track of. He arrived in the pandemic shortened 2020-21 season, and made a good impression, one he would only improve upon in the 2021-22 campaign, playing a key role in the Rangers run to the Conference Final. He hit his peak in this uniform in the 22-23 season, specifically in the first half as he showed all the makings of star on the blue line, who could run the game at both ends of the rink, with his best moment coming in the clip above, beating the buzzer against the Stars on a Friday night.

But that stretch gave way to a somewhat ugly end to his season as Miller had an incident with Kings d-man Drew Doughty, which he was suspended for, and he never really got back on track that year. Those ups and downs carried over to the 23-24 season where he failed to ever play with real consistency for a team that wound up winning the Presidents Trophy. The highs were high, and the lows were low, and the struggles were really magnified in the 24-25 campaign, where he like many others on the roster had a rough go. He also took time away from the game, for a mental reset, something I wish him all the best with going forward, as the mental rigors of playing these games is often lost on us fans along the way. There is no question that Miller has all the tools in the world to play in this league for a long time, and he likely will do just that, but I believe the Rangers were right to move on from him. He frustrated me to no end last season, but that doesn’t change the fact that I wish him all the best going forward, it just wasn’t working out here, like it didn’t for many other New York athletes burdened by great expectations.

An interesting footnote in all this is that Miller’s departure essentially puts a bow on the Rangers “letter era” rebuild (2017-2019), as six of the first-round picks made during that window of time are off the team now. This includes the likes of Filip Chytil and Kaapo Kakko, who like Miller were expected to be centerpieces of a run to the first Cup since 1994. Fast forward all these years later and its yet another failed rebuild that came close, but didn’t get the cigar losing in round three twice. The changes in the wake of this letdown are necessary, but that doesn’t mean knowing this window didn’t pan out stings less.

So, what is the path forward for the Rangers? The roster isn’t fully turned over by any stretch, and it still has holes to fill, especially on defense where adding Gavrikov and subtracting the ill-fitting Miller can only do so much. They could go in for restricted free agent Bowen Byram, as they now have the assets and cap space to acquire the current Sabres blue liner, but at the moment they aren’t in those sweepstakes. Should they stay out of them, and I honestly expect them to do just that, the roster you see now is likely to be the group they go to battle with in the fall.

See in my mind, today was not only a success for the organization because of the work Drury did, but also because of the moves he didn’t make. Sure, he spent big money, but only on a player who could legitimately impact the fortunes of his club and justify they hefty price tag bestowed upon him. He made sure this offseason to retain valuable young assets at a reasonable price, while cultivating others to brighten the Rangers future. And above all, he made sure to avoid the ugly contract…so far (I type with my fingers crossed). The Rangers do not need more middling veterans to clog up their lineup, as this season ahead is as good a time as any to empower their young players. Braden Schneider (who isn’t exactly young), Gabe Perreault, Brett Berard, Adam Edstrom, Brennan Othman, Matt Rempe and Matt Robertson should all see increased responsibilities and roles as the season goes on, assuming they earn them, to help their growth.

Find out what you have so you can make a more informed decision on what you need next summer, without negatively impacting your cap space along the way. This was an approach Sullivan took when he got the job in Pittsburgh and he found several key bottom six contributors from his AHL squad (that he coached) could help the big club win championships, so why not try it here. There is no other player readily available that could make a big difference right now as is, so what do you have to lose? At least these fresh faces and attitudes would probably help turn the negative culture around from last season!

Whether or not this day and its transactions will actually mean something in the long run is impossible to know right now, but it was certainly interesting to take a look at, and they have me excited for the seasons to come for both teams. Who could blame me with how the Yankees are playing right now? Or Mike given how the Mets are playing? Good news though folks, one of them has to win some games this weekend since…they’re playing each other! Have a great Fourth of July, I know I will, as I’ll be on sabbatical at the Jersey Shore with Ms. Broadway Breakdown. Don’t wake me up on the beach…unless the Knicks hire a coach!

On twitter you can find Mike @Mike_Sheerin, Tyler @TMon_19 and Sean @SeanMartinNFL. Subscribe to the site by hitting the follow button in the bottom right corner and entering your email address. Check out our Instagram feed @thebroadwaybreakdownsports for special gameday and promotional content. Our podcasts are available on Spotify. Visit the Rangers Ed Shop by clicking the link on our homepage. Check out our mailbag page to join the conversation here on the site and on our partners show, The Rangers Ed Podcast! We’ll be back with more soon.