BUFFALO, N.Y. — Testing at the NHL Draft Combine doesn’t begin until Saturday, but team representatives, agents and prospects all gathered here this week, leading to plenty of league chatter. Especially with the decentralized draft — teams now operate from their own facilities — it’s a prime time for face-to-face meetings.

In addition to holding the No. 5 pick in the first round on June 26, New York Rangers president and general manager Chris Drury will face major decisions in free agency and on the trade market as he retools a roster that finished last in the Eastern Conference this season.

Here are some Rangers-related news, notes and thoughts from conversations I had with league sources in Buffalo this week.

Looking at Larkin?

Thursday’s trade request from Detroit Red Wings captain Dylan Larkin is obviously a seismic shift in the NHL offseason landscape. My sense is, at this point, the Rangers aren’t on his initial list of desired teams. That doesn’t mean Drury can’t try talking to Detroit and making a compelling offer to see if the 29-year-old center would eventually be receptive to a move.

Even if Larkin winds up interested in New York, hurdles would remain. For one, the Rangers might have a tough time matching other teams’ offers, especially if they don’t want to subtract too much from a roster that lacked the depth needed to withstand the injuries it suffered last season.

A potential Larkin trade will also have ramifications for the Rangers even if they don’t get involved in the talks. Vincent Trocheck is no longer the top center on the trade market, raising questions about how much Larkin’s availability could shift a potential return for New York.

Nonetheless, Trocheck will draw plenty of interest. Perhaps even the Red Wings look at Trocheck if they move Larkin and don’t get a top-six center back in return. If that happens, New York would likely need to receive a quality young player (potentially Nate Danielson or Marco Kasper), a pick, or a combination of the two in return — as well as potentially a player like J.T. Compher, who could slot in at center behind Mika Zibanejad and J.T. Miller.

Colleague Vincent Z. Mercogliano reported after the trade deadline that Drury was looking for “an NHL-ready forward with top-six potential as the centerpiece” of a Trocheck deal.

Potential in-state help

The Sabres have a few intriguing players the Rangers should keep an eye on. With Alex Tuch inching toward hitting the free-agent market on July 1 and the Rangers presumably seeking wing scoring, he makes obvious sense as one option. But Buffalo’s tightness against the salary cap — even if they don’t re-sign Tuch — could lead to other players shaking free.

Bowen Byram is extension-eligible this summer and could emerge as a trade candidate. As a young defenseman with puck-moving abilities, he checks a lot of the Rangers’ boxes, and New York would presumably have interest should the Sabres look to move him. Byram, who turns 25 this month, had a career-high 42 points in 82 games this season.

Since a Byram extension wouldn’t take effect until summer 2027, when the cap is even higher, the Sabres could still pay him without disrupting their fragile 2026-27 payroll. But Byram’s interests and sense of his market value will play a part, too. His agent, Darren Ferris, often advises his players to take advantage of free agency, as colleague Pierre LeBrun recently wrote.

If Buffalo and Byram can’t reach an extension, general manager Jarmo Kekäläinen will have to decide whether to risk losing him for nothing in summer 2027, when he’s set to hit unrestricted free agency. If the Sabres want to avoid that, the Rangers could make a play this summer.

Mercogliano and I also mentioned defenseman Michael Kesselring, a restricted free agent who didn’t get consistent playing time this season, in a story this week about buy-low trade candidates. He played all 82 games with Utah in 2024-25 before going to Buffalo in the JJ Peterka deal. He battled through multiple injuries this past season and was also a healthy scratch most of the playoffs.

Other UFA wings to watch

If the Rangers want to add some speed on the wing, pending unrestricted free agents Bobby McMann and Beck Malenstyn could be worth keeping an eye on. Both will have ample teams interested if they make it to market.

McMann had a career-high 29 goals with Toronto and Seattle last year, including 10 in 18 games with the Kraken after arriving at the trade deadline. Malenstyn, who was on Buffalo’s team that made the second round, is fast and set a Sabres franchise record in hits this season. He’d be more of a bottom-six option, whereas McMann could potentially slide into a top-six role.

The Rangers have plenty of cap space (approximately $26.5 million, per PuckPedia), so fitting in depth contracts won’t be an issue. AFP Analytics projects Malenstyn’s contract to come in at three years, $2.64 million average annual value. The site projects McMann to get four years, $5.3 million AAV.

Brodzinski, Schneider updates

The expectation is that Jonny Brodzinski will sign elsewhere after six seasons with the Rangers. The 32-year-old was a depth forward for the organization, shifting between the No. 13 forward role and a bottom-six (and occasionally higher in the lineup) option. He also captained the team’s AHL affiliate, the Hartford Wolf Pack, before joining the Rangers on a full-time basis during their 2023-24 Presidents’ Trophy-winning season.

In total, Brodzinski played 207 games with the Rangers, including a career-high 57 in 2023-24. He had a career-high 12 goals in 51 games the next season, followed by 16 points in 55 games in 2025-26. New York’s young players credited him as a positive dressing room presence, even if he was in and out of coach Mike Sullivan’s lineup.

Negotiations with restricted free agent Braden Schneider, meanwhile, have not yet begun. The Rangers face a decision on whether they view him as someone they want to keep long-term. Schneider averaged a career-high 20:27 of ice time this season — a drastic increase from 17:52 in 2024-25 — but struggled at points with the heavier workload. He emerged as a potential trade possibility after Drury announced to fans that the team was embarking on a roster retool.

Etc.

1. In the 2026 NHL Draft, the big question facing the Rangers will be how many defensemen go in the top four. If it’s two, that means one of the top forward prospects — likely center Caleb Malhotra, who’s been connected to the No. 3 pick held by Vancouver, which recently hired his father Manny as its head coach — will fall to No. 5. If only one defenseman is taken in the top five, the Rangers will likely be choosing between the remaining three of Chase Reid, Keaton Verhoeff, Carson Carels and Alberts Šmits.

2. The Rangers haven’t yet hired an AHL coach, but that is likely to change in the near future. Editor’s note: The Rangers announced they hired Jay Leach shortly after this story was published.

3. During their combine interviews with the Rangers, draft prospects faced an interesting test. The players were handed a piece of paper with numbers 1-100 randomly sorted. They then had to check off as many numbers in order as they could in 30 seconds.

From what the prospects told The Athletic, it’s a tougher task than it sounds.

“I don’t think I had a good score,” said Malhotra, who thinks he got to either three or four.

“I couldn’t find five,” Reid added. “I found six, seven, eight, nine, and then I couldn’t find five.”

Strange questions and tests are nothing new to the combine. Verhoeff didn’t mind the Rangers’.

“It was a cool experience to do (it) with them,” he said. “Different things like that are pretty fun and exciting.”