June 12: Both teams have made the trade official. The Ducks receive Kreider and their own 2025 fourth-round pick (No. 104), which they sent to the Rangers in the Trouba deal, while the Rangers receive the Maple Leafs’ 2025 third-round pick (No. 89), which the Ducks had acquired in last season’s Ilya Lyubushkin trade.
June 11: While the deal is agreed to in principle, Anaheim is on Kreider’s no-trade list, according to Pierre LeBrun of TSN and The Athletic. The trade will remain in limbo until the Rangers gain clarity on whether he’s willing to waive his trade protection to facilitate the deal.
June 10: The Ducks and Rangers are in “advanced discussions” on a trade that would send winger Chris Kreider to Anaheim, Frank Seravalli of Daily Faceoff reports Tuesday. New York is slated to receive a prospect and a pick in return, according to Vince Z. Mercogliano of USA TODAY Sports. The Rangers are not retaining salary on Kreider, who is signed through 2026-27 at a $6.5MM cap hit, if the deal gets across the finish line. Center Carey Terrance will be the prospect heading to New York if the deal formalizes, which isn’t expected to happen until Wednesday morning at the earliest, Seravalli later added.
Kreider, 34, has spent the entirety of his 13-year NHL career in New York. They nabbed him 19th overall in the 2009 draft – a solid piece of work considering he’d be a unanimous top-10 choice in a redraft – and has hit the 20-goal mark in 10 of his 12 full seasons with the club.
The 6’3″, 230-lb lefty had been incredibly effective, especially in recent years, as the Rangers exited their accelerated retool during the late 2010s. While always a consistent scoring threat, he erupted for a career-high 52 snipes and 77 points in 81 games in the 2021-22 campaign, leading them in scoring as the Blueshirts had their first 50-win season in seven years and firmly restablished themselves as contenders atop the Eastern Conference.
Kreider hasn’t hit 50 again, nor did anyone expect him to. However, he’s still been incredibly effective as New York’s second-line left-winger behind Artemi Panarin, scoring 75 goals and 129 points in 161 regular-season games across the 2022-23 and 2023-24 seasons, the latter of which resulted in a Presidents’ Trophy for the Rangers. He’s also been downright dominant in the club’s last three playoff appearances, scoring 24 goals in 43 games in the 2022, 2023, and 2024 postseasons.
This season was an obviously disastrous campaign for the Rangers, who missed the playoffs entirely and saw a 29-point drop in the standings. That included Kreider, who had his most injury-plagued season since pre-pandemic. A back injury, a hand injury that may have resulted in offseason surgery, and what he later revealed to be a bout of vertigo limited him to 68 games. When healthy, his production cratered. While never a playmaker by any stretch, Kreider still had just eight assists in addition to his 22 goals, giving him 30 points on the year.
That worked out to 0.44 points per game, the worst rate of his career, excluding a 23-game trial in 2012-13. His 0.32 goals per game was far closer to his career median and just a few ticks south of his career average, though. Considering he shot at 14.5%, 0.6% worse than his 15.1% career average, there’s reasonable hope for him to get back to 30 goals again next season for Anaheim, especially if he gels well with a much younger group of centers in Orange County.
Rangers general manager Chris Drury, who had been shopping Kreider as far back as the Rangers’ early-season slide last November, wasn’t going to wait to see if the aging winger would rebound and be worth his cap hit next season. While tough to swallow for a lifelong Ranger, it’s an understandable viewpoint. With limited salary cap flexibility this summer to retool his roster and higher-paid players having no-movement clauses, Kreider, who only has a 15-team no-trade clause, was always the most likely candidate to be moved this offseason to free up considerable spending money.
It’s presumably not how Kreider, whose 326 career goals rank third in Rangers franchise history behind Rod Gilbert (406) and Jean Ratelle (336), wanted his time in New York to end. It’s also an eerily familiar move. Former captain Jacob Trouba was made available for trade at the same time as Kreider and could now welcome his ex-teammate to Anaheim after the Ducks took him on, also with no retained money, mid-season.
It’s not yet clear where Kreider could fit into the Ducks’ left-wing depth chart, which includes Cutter Gauthier, former Rangers teammate Frank Vatrano, and now Trevor Zegras after the natural center was shifted away from the middle of the ice. Zegras is entering the final year of his contract and has been the subject of trade rumors for a few years now, while Vatrano is kicking off a three-year extension but has some experience playing the right side. If he shuffles over, that would make more room for Kreider to split top-six LW duties with the 21-year-old Gauthier, who’s coming off a 20-goal, 44-point rookie season.
The Rangers are at least slated to land a center prospect with moderate upside in Terrance. Anaheim selected the 20-year-old in the second round of the 2023 draft. He was the No. 10 prospect in their system, as opined by Scott Wheeler of The Athletic, amid a strong season for OHL Erie, where he was promoted to captain and finished the year with a 20-19–39 scoring line in 45 games. His season ended in February after a hit into the boards sent him to the hospital, although he was discharged within 24 hours. He is under contract – Anaheim signed him to his entry-level deal in April. Otherwise, they would have lost his signing rights on June 1.
Image courtesy of Danny Wild-Imagn Images.
Larry Brooks of the New York Post was first to report Kreider had waived his modified no-trade clause. Frank Seravalli of Daily Faceoff was first to report the details of the draft pick swap.
LOLDucks
Guess the Ducks are out on Marner then? Or are they cooking here?
like the Blackhawks they have a ton of cap space and are supposedly trying to trade Zegras still
They should be cooking. Now is a good time to add some game changers to their lineup as I think they’ve had enough time to evaluate their core. I think if they can add Kreider and Marner, and add a solid D-man to their top 4, they’d be good enough to make it to the playoffs.
Cooking meth
The Ducks are basically Staten Island to the Rangers.
I think it’s a year early for them, but if Marner legitimately wants to play there, they have to consider it. Odds are slim that another player with Marner’s potential impact will be available next year for just cash.
Why would Anaheim do that, Are the Ducks suddenly a not for profit organization?
Kreider for Trouba
Will be odd seeing Kreider in anything but a red, white and blue jersey. I like the move for the Ducks.
Verbeek needs to start hanging up if he sees Drury’s caller ID. First the Trouba trade, now this.
The mandate from ownership is showing here. If I were a ducks fan, with Krieder, Coach Q & possibly Marner, I would be stoked. Maybe ownership has a deal with Disney for a new movie haha
His goatee makes him look sad all the time.
Seth Jarvis is the same!
I’m so old I remember when Kreider was dangled at seemingly every trade deadline. Looks like they waited too long.
What a dirty way to trade a Rangers for life.
He’s done the negotiations, knowing that Anaheim was on his NTL;
Drury is a tyrant.
If I were Anaheim, I would be furious
Have to think Anaheim knew about it, no?Maybe they just hoped he would waive it eventually?!?!
Why does Verbeek keep bailing out the Rangers?
@admiral. Because it’s cheaper than free agents (lesser term). Another problem was every offer was turned down last year. So Verbeek is striking early. He promised a RHD last year missed out and got trouba when he was available. 4th round picks aren’t a big deal. When you have 38 million in cap space it really doesn’t matter about the extra million. Krieder is making 6.5 when he probably worth 5.5. At this point who cares when they been acquiring players to hit the cap floor for the last three years
Appreciate the response, and, while I see where you’re coming from, I just don’t think that either Kreider or Trouba make the Ducks better. I don’t see an issue in acquiring these players to get to the cap floor, but Verbeek shouldn’t be giving up assets to do so – he should be getting adders from NYR to take them on based on the precedent around the league.
@admiral. A crappy prospect and a 4th rounder. Terrance scored 20 goals in his 4th OHL season. I would imagine kreider could get a 1st rounder his last year if he still scores 25 goals a year. Probably paying someone 6.5/4. In free agency. That’s not giving up assets it’s flipping.
NTC? Drury laughs at NTCs.
Hopefully he says no thanks.
Why would he waive his NTC? Serious question.
Money
Clearly the Rangers are putting this out there to put public pressure on Kreider.
Giving him the “do you want to asked about us not wanting you to be here all season?” move.
This trade is fine if the Rangers are rebuilding, but I was under the impression that they want to win the Cup next season. So how is this kid with zero NHL experience supposed to help with that? Is he a Crosby clone?
Lousy way to say goodbye to the Rangers’ #3 all-time goal scorer, #1 power play goal scorer, and #1 goal scorer in the playoffs. One off year and he’s done in NY. Hardly the only guy this season to have a down year.
They don’t care about the prospect – probably just in there for contract balance. They want the capspace that Kreider currently consumes to make a splash in FA or in other trades. The cap increase is offset by the increases to Shesterkin & Laf and they still need to decide on K’Andre
Kreider-
22 goals
$6.5mil
TNT-
44 goals
$7.19mil
More than double the assists.
TNT??
ikr
Tage Noplayoffs Thompson
Tage Thompson. If you watched any Sabres games you would know.
40+ goal scorer making half as much as Matthews.
He is still young enough to change that.
Yea let’s be the Leafs. 1 playoff series win with this core! What’s the end goal? Be like the Leafs or win a Stanley Cup?
Who’s more successful?
A team that makes the playoffs for 10 straight seasons and wins 1 playoff series
Or
A team that misses the playoffs 9 out of 10 seasons but wins the Stanley Cup that 1 playoff season?
The former. Who the hell wants to curse their team for most of a decade just for a single championship?
Don’t fret. He will make a lot more on his next contract, giving you plenty of opportunities to whine about that.
If the Ducks acquire Kreider: he, Strome, and Killorn all become UFAs after 2026-27. Which means maybe they all play 2025-26 and then get traded during 2026-27. This could be GMPV’s thinking.
Good catch.
@jminn. He’s definitely doing it strategically. He rents a player and gets the same down the road or more. Probably makes sense to do it. Since they will need younger guys in the pipeline,when they get in a cap crunch. Plus all the top FA’S choose elsewhere. It’s really his only choice.
Mika and Miller to follow. Boy I loved if Rangers could get Zegras a native NY kid back in a deal. I know he’s weak defensively and a bit soft but throw him on the pp and third line and see what you get? See if they can also get Shane Pinto another native NY kid to center the third line and now it’s getting interesting.
@billysbballz. Your getting another new york native Terrance. He scored 20 goals in his 4th ohl season. The trade is cap relief nothing more nothing less.
@Billy, you’re starting to sound like a Toronto fan with all the hometown boy stuff. Every Maple Leafs fan thinks anyone who has spent more than 2 minutes in Ontario wants to play for the Leafs and wear their jammy’s to sleep like Tavares.
Suprising in a way considering how much Sullivan wanted Kreider on the 4 nations team.
Kreider will probably have a very good year this year. He will at least be able to help the Ducks young players on how to play strong 3 zone defense and still maintaining offence
Ducks just got a little stronger! Another big-time vet to help coach the kids. That Little Ball of Hate just keeps on rolling. Coach Q must be ecstatic! Now go get Marner, Toews, Kane.
All these Rangers fans going to laugh next year when Ducks make the playoffs & NY watches Pittsburgh pick on top-10 with Rangers pick?
I’m sure the Rangers will use that cap space wisely
With all the cap space the Ducks have, to be able to snag a 20+ goal scorer for nothing more than a pick 15 places higher in the mid-rounds is pretty good.
My prediction…Ducks take a chance on Toews and sign Kane…Q and his boys reunited. Maybe a 2 year deal for 2mil a year for each? Possibly less since 0ver Age 35 incentives could be added.
Damn good deal for the Rangers. Again, thank you Ducks. Taking all that cap just opened up some interesting possibilities.