Back in mid-January, the New York Rangers announced that the team would be undergoing another “retool”, specifically avoiding the word “rebuild”. Although more change is yet to come, the team is more inclined to contend sooner rather than later, rather than tearing the organization down to the studs.
Positing several questions about the franchise moving forward, Peter Baugh and Vince Z. Mercogliano of The Athletic opined that the Rangers should be active on the trade market this summer, particularly moving out defensemen for offensive help. The subject of trade rumors throughout the 2025-26 season, right-handed blue liner Braden Schneider, is the obvious candidate.
In their article, the pair wrote, “Drury is believed to be seeking a scoring forward, according to two league sources, with the San Jose Sharks among the forward-rich, defense-needy teams to watch.” Leading up to the trade deadline, the Sharks were one of the teams connected to Schneider.
As the Rangers have stated to the public, they are seeking a retool rather than a rebuild; however, it remains unclear what that really entails. If they want NHL-caliber players in a trade with San Jose, they’ll likely need to include more than just Schneider.
Schneider is a classic defensive defenseman, typically scoring in the upper teens for points each season while averaging over 100 blocked shots and hits per year. His possession metrics are subpar at best, but that could be attributed to New York’s play style over the last few years.
The Sharks could use a big-body defenseman in their top four, but it’s unlikely that they would be willing to part with the necessary assets. New York would likely target William Eklund or Collin Graf to increase scoring output. Still, there’s no indication that San Jose is ready to make those kinds of changes to their forward corps, especially with so many unproven assets moving their way up the depth chart.
An intriguing trade partner may be more north of the border. The Vancouver Canucks are in immediate need of young defensive help, and have a goal-scoring winger who wants out of town. Winger Jake DeBrusk, 29, has surpassed the 20-goal plateau in over half of his seasons at the NHL level, and has indicated he’d be willing to waive his no-trade clause for a move.
Depending on how the Rangers value Schneider, they may be able to make a few tweaks to the trade to increase the value, but DeBrusk may be one of the better options available on the trade market.
Still, there is always the possibility that the word “retool” was always meant to make their fans more content, and the Rangers were comfortable acquiring prospects instead of NHL-ready players. If that’s the case, the Rangers could dangle Schneider to a few more teams than just San Jose or Vancouver.
Kyrou
Trevor Zegras for Will Cuylle.
And why would they Flyers do that?
@grapes. Serious question as I don’t watch a lot of NYR games. What’s Cuylles value? Is he a 2 or 3rd liner? I’d love the Leafs to get him and don’t know if something like a Robertson, Thrun, Maccelli package would do?
Wilf, are you aware that all teams involved must agree to the terms of any trade?
I’m thinking a few teams will be offering quite a bit for Coleman. He would fit in with the Rangers. If they’re not on his no trade list of course.
In other news, water is still wet
Blockbuster with Toronto seems like something that will shake up the nhl.
Matthews, Knies, Woll (3 American kids coming back to the US)
Igor, Cuyle, Schneider going to Toronto.
The risk is the Rangers need to resign Matthews and also how bad is his knee injury? Toronto sheds some payroll overall but I believe it’s almost a wash. Toronto gets younger and can rebuild. Rangers are in somewhat a rebuild/retool so with Matthews and Knies they add scoring up front and now need to depend on Woll in net with Garand backing up otherwise trade for a goalie. Rangers still need defense! This fixes the offense depth. So trading for two dmen or drafting a dman to go with Fox, Gavrikov, Borgen, Morrow, Robertson, and Fortescue is the real key.
Matthews, Knies, Miller
Mika, Lafreniere, Perrault
Trochek, Kartye, Chmelar
Laba, Sykora, Rempe
That’s 4 strong lines
Gavrikov Fox
Fortescue Borgen
Robertson Morrow
Weak defensively
I am not a fan of either team. I think NYR would have to add more to get both Matthews and Knies. The framework is good, but needs tweaks. Maybe add Robertson or Morrow, or a draft pick.
Matthews is going to Minny
LOL!
There’s no way the Rangers trade Shesty.
Maybe they could look into paranin?
Who is this paranin?
LOL
@Doghockey – The day-old bread man, maybe? He sometimes uses the alias “Enrico Pallazzo”, too.
Sounds like a good idea. Two loser franchises helping each other to continue their losing streaks.
I don’t see Canucks as a fit – as much as full wreck they are, the defence mess was more from coaching than upside. Yes DeBrusk can be had but they need offence. Also the burn from the last trade with Drury still stings…
Rangers will trade Schneider to get more picks or prospects. Nobody is gonna give up a solid scoring forward for him at this point. It’s more likely that Drury spends in FA on somebody he’s wanted for a while (Tuch, Ferraro) than makes a big splash deal outside of moving Trocheck, which will most definitely happen this offseason.
Drury screwed this up. He has 30 year olds vacationing on the team’s dime. Towards the end of the year we saw a bit of shine from Laffy, Perrault and Zibs. Fox and Igor are solid, and that’s about it. Anything else is open to trade. Miller regressed back to the player he was when the Rangers drafted him and Trocheck is MIA ever since Miller arrived. Clean house, starting with Drury.