I live in NY, we cant have a pistol grip on the saiga or any muzzle device or its considered an assault weapon which is a felony.  I have a standard rifle pattern saiga, no modifacations.  The trigger group on still back towards the stock.....   are there any mods i should add that wouldnt include muzzle break or pistol grip?  This isnt my choice obviously but while im in NY these are the rules...  trigger, way to mount an optic?  Maybe change out the fore grip?   I dont really know how to mod an AK.

If you can't have a PG I probably wouldn't bother with cosmetic upgrades.
Changing to an aftermarket gas plug like the Tac 47 Auto Plug or the MD Arms V-Plug will help you function better with lower power shells as well as full loads.

What caliber is your saiga? Rifle or Shotgun?

If it is a rifle, you could get a KNS precision adjustable gas piston to smooth out the recoil impulse of the rifle, it is an easy modification that will give you the best performance enhancement without a muzzle device.

As far as the trigger goes, there is no way to upgrade the trigger without modification of a replacement; I suppose you could buy an ALG AKT and modify the trigger itself by cutting off the trigger bow to fit.

Concerning optics, you have several options, side rail mount, dust cover rail, rear sight base rail, gas tube rail.

If you decide to go for the side rail, check out RS Regulate, they make the best on the market and give you a plethora of mounting solutions for various optics.

As for a dust cover rail, Texas Weapon Systems makes a hinged aluminum top cover that mounts to the rear sight block.

Various companies make a rear sight optics mount, such as Strike Industries, TDI, and Midwest Industries.

The Ultimak railed gas tube is probably your best bet for a mount in that location, although there are railed upper handguards on the market.

If you wanted to change out the handguard, the Magpul forend would be an easy replacement as you don't have the regular handguard retainer:

I might switch out the forend so I could run a handstop. Pretty sure vertical foregrips are illegal there too because they're retards. Get something M-Lok and you can mount all sorts of stuff on there that's legal...