Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet joined the NHL Network to discuss the New York Rangers. Friedman said that the Rangers are the team to watch in the NHL, and he believes that Rangers general manager Chris Drury has used the break between games this week to see what he can do in the trade market. It appears that New York plans to shop more players than just Chris Kreider and Jacob Trouba but isn’t likely to move Mika Zibanejad, who has a no-trade clause, or Alexis Lafrenière who just recently signed a long-term contract extension.
The Rangers started the season strong at 5-0-1 but have since lost 10 of their last 18 games and don’t appear to be among the league’s elite teams, at least not in their current form. New York takes on the Pittsburgh Penguins this evening and if Pittsburgh wins in regulation, they will leapfrog the Rangers in the standings (Rangers have three games in hand), something that seemed impossible just two weeks ago.
In other New York Rangers notes:
- Friedman confirmed yesterday that Rangers’ defenseman Trouba is unlikely to be traded this season, but it will likely be his last year in New York. The 30-year-old had his name thrown around the trade rumor mill for most of the summer but ultimately remained in New York, stating that family concerns would keep him in the Big Apple. How Drury will move Trouba remains to be seen, but given his lack of production, it seems unlikely that New York will be able to move Trouba’s entire $8MM cap hit. Larry Brooks of The New York Post is reporting that Trouba will not play tonight for the purposes of roster management so it remains to be seen if Trouba makes it the entire season in New York.
- Friedman also spoke about Kreider saying that several teams remain interested in the former 50-goal scorer, but those teams are curious as to why the 33-year-old is even available. The Vancouver Canucks reportedly have called the Rangers about Kreider (according to Donnie & Dhali’s Rick Dhaliwal, who spoke of this on Thursday’s show) but are likely on Kreider’s no-trade list. Kreider continues to put up solid goal-scoring numbers with 10 goals in 21 games, however, he has no assists to this point and his underlying numbers are some of the worst he’s put up in his NHL career.
So the team hits a rough patch, Drury starts throwing threats around regarding trading their top guys, and the team proceeds to really tank even further. Great move, Chris. Way to visualize success.
Trouba and Kreider aren’t producing. Kids like Cuylle are ready to move up the line chain (and Bedard to back him up). Others will be up next year, so get what you can for Kreider while teams are still interested.
This is their window – now. Trouba didn’t help in the playoffs last year. Kreider is sliding. I don’t think Drury is panicking, I think he’s actually being proactive and glad to see him feel out his options. And if the players take opposition to this approach, they need to realize it’s a business and ‘what have you done for me lately’ field.
This is already outdated news. Insiders are all reporting Trouba is not playing tonight and will likely either be traded or placed on waivers by 2PM ET.
This sounds like a fire sale of sorts by the New York Rangers. Kreider & Trouba are not the only players possibly on the move either. I heard through the various grapevines that Kaapo Kakko & Ryan Lindgren are potentially on the market too. Only time will tell who’s in & who’s out.
It looks like the Rangers are looking to clear cap space (particularly to sign Igor Shesterkin) & retool/overhaul their roster. The question is GM Chris Drury capable of doing a successful retooling as that’s going to be the major key here on if the Rangers stay a playoff contender in the coming years or do they fall into a full on rebuild mode. GMs only get one real shot at a retool because if the wrong moves are made during the process, it will set the team back into a full on rebuild.
It’s none of the above. Certainly not a fire sale and they’re not going to rebuild.
Lol you obviously didn’t read everything I said. I did mention a retool as well. But yeah, it’s definitely one of the options whether you want to accept that or not. It’s one thing to be open to ship out one or two players but when a GM is open to shipping out several players from their roster, that’s overhauling the team meaning Drury is attempting a roster retool which I already explained how that can work. It’s a fine line on making a retool a success or a failure.
Kreider and Trouba with $5 mill retained for Kotkaniemi, Sean Walker, a 2nd.
they want to score more JK, doesn’t bring much offense to the table
Well they just got a whole lot less from Anaheim. Haha. Guess I overvalued trouba
trotz get Zibanejad